Favourite marking knives

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

We cannot go into Christmas without something to read ... and more so, to tempt you to post a picture or two. This one is easy .. the marking knives/tools that you use and find indispensible .. not the prettiest necessarily, but the most useful, and why.

Here are the ones that live on the wall behind my bench ...

From left to right:

1. A wide Damascas kiridashi. This is a single bevel, but wide enough to flip and strike on both sides. It is a medium heavy blade that will take some pressure. I must admit that I bought it because the steel is so gorgeous, but it works as well as it looks.

2. Skinny kiridaski, with a double bevel, used for sliding against deep and/or narrow walls, such as when transferring 2" deep dovetails.

3. Shopmade heavy duty kiridashi, for use when high downforce is needed, used to strike deeper lines.

4. Glen Drake kerf starter - this is fantastic for scoring the tail lines before sawing. It ensures that the saw blade will follow a line perfectly (when sawing dovetails, all hinges on this line being perfectly square). The "blade" is steel the thickness of the saw plate, and ends in a fine scraper hook.

5. Swann-Morton scalpel. This little brass knife was resurrected a while ago when I finally managed to find blades (now I have a lifetimes worth!). It belonged to my grandfather, who passed away 50 years ago. I acquired a new version recently, when purchasing the blades, and the inscription is different. This is the type of blade made popular by Paul Sellers. Indeed, it is a nice knife to use, but one must remember to angle the tiny bevel so it registers in the vertical.

6, 7 and 8. Three "Cohen" knives (OK, the first is a scratch awl) made by Chris Vesper, but designed by yours truly. Years ago I was making this design for limited sale but mostly as gifts. Chris was looking for a detail knife and asked to use the design. He does a better job than I. I have no financial part in this, so can recommend them to anyone wanting something special. They are really comfortable in the hand, held like a pencil. There are two models, one a standard width (same as a saw blade), which is good for most dovetail transfering or detail marking, and the other is super thin, which is the only knife blade that will get into single kerf "London" dovetails. The scratch awl is the tool to use when marking a measured line. A "dot" is more accurate to align than a slight knife line, which is unlikely to be perpendicular to the rule.

9. Chris Vesper heavy duty knife - this is a double bevel knife that can also be used as a (skew) chisel for cleaning out dovetail sockets. It snuggles into the palm. Very powerful.

10. Lee Valley "Woodworker's Knife". I modified the blade from a hook to straight edge, and honed wide bevels on each side to make it work on both hands. The straight blade enables more than just the tip to enter the wood. The thick blade doubles for riving blanks for draw bore pegs. This is the knife I take to demonstrations.

I hope some of this is helpful. Interested in what you use, and why.

Best wishes for the festive season from Perth, Australia ...

Derek

 

[Corneel]

Usually I grab one of these. Not because they are ideal or whatever, just because I have them lying around.

 

[AndyT]

I should have mentioned this in the other thread, but it fits well here. It's made by Ben Orford. I saw him at the Westonbirt Treefest a few years ago, when he sold everything he had with him. Fortunately Bristol Design stock some of his work, so you can pick one up and handle it. The blade is just right - stiff, hard and good at staying sharp. But I think there's as much skill in the hand made handle, which suits my hands perfectly. It's nice to make tools for yourself but sometimes it's better to buy something from someone really skilful!

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

You're not trying hard enough, Kees :lol:

Best wishes for the Festive Season

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[D_W]

I use mostly a pfeil chip carving knife that's double bevel, and sometimes a pocketknife with a sheepsfoot blade that I've ground single bevel. The chip knife has a straight blade that looks like a wharncliffe pocket knife blade that the edge is parallel to the length (some of them are hooked forward, this one is not).

On the rare instance that I do small dovetails, a friend bought me a thin blue spruce knife long ago and I'll use that, but I don't prefer it for much else because it feels a little dainty.

 

[yetloh]

I have a Japanese laminated knife bought long ago and a Blue Spruce knife bought reasonably from the wife of a deceased woodworker. The Blue Spruce is beautiful but I don't use either of them. Many years ago I got used too using a Swann Morton scalpel and now anything else seems clumsy. Does anyone else, like me resharpen their Swann Morton scalpel blades? Call me Scrooge if you like, but I don't believe in the throwaway society and they can be made at least as good as new in the time it takes to locate, unwrap and fit a new one.

Jim

 

[D_W]

I don't sharpen those particular blades, but anything I have that's disposable, if it can be resharpened, I resharpen it and only go to a new one once resharpening has caused geometry problems.

We live in a world where a lot of disposable stuff can be resharpened, and at the same time, a lot of fairly expensive knives (not marking knives, just knives) and such things that are supposed to be resharpenable have a shoulder or some other impediment in design that keeps them from being easily sharpened.

 

[D_W]

I don't sharpen those particular blades, but anything I have that's disposable, if it can be resharpened, I resharpen it and only go to a new one once resharpening has caused geometry problems.

We live in a world where a lot of disposable stuff can be resharpened, and at the same time, a lot of fairly expensive knives (not marking knives, just knives) and such things that are supposed to be resharpenable have a shoulder or some other impediment in design that keeps them from being easily sharpened.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

We cannot go into Christmas without something to read ... and more so, to tempt you to post a picture or two. This one is easy .. the marking knives/tools that you use and find indispensible .. not the prettiest necessarily, but the most useful, and why. Derek

This little collection of all the top quality marking (and other knives) in my toolbox will make you sick with jealousy Derek. As you can to see, two thirds of them are custom made, and the third, at the bottom, is an old style non-retractable blade Stanley jobbie from about the late 1970s. Can't really recall when I last put a new blade in it because I sharpen as needed. The blades usually last two or four years between replacement, and get used for hacking at all sorts of odds and ends.

The top two, both of which I made some time in the late 70s or early 80s are, as you can see, masterpieces of craftsmanship, being essentially, a bit of hacksaw blade, a lump of wood with a slit in it, and some string soaked in PVA before carefully lashing the handle in a neat coil. The top one does for everything pretty much running along the blade of a square. The 'bird beak' looking pinnacle of craftsmanship in the middle is used exclusively for transferring the rake of dovetails to the pinboard in drawer making , and pretty much any other dovetailing.

There, eat your heart out, ha, ha. Slainte.

 

[David C]

I am another resharpener.

Used to do a fair bit of veneer work and sharpened Stanley and Swann-Morton blades.

Fancy knives where the beautiful handles make regrinding almost impossible don't make sense to me.

My most used knife is now a flat double bevel special from Philly.

best wishes,
David Charlesworth

 

[JimB]

Sgian Dubh, if that's the model stanley knife I think it is they don't make blades for it any more. I have to grind a bit off the newer ones to make them fit.

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Hi Richard

Those are TERRIBLE looking knives You obviously attack your wood like a fevourished devish. I imagine a patch over one eye - so accuracy is unlikely anyway, and the wide lines scored with this .. ahem ... tools offer you some latitude. :lol:

and David

Yes, it is difficult to position a marking knife in an Eclipse gauge. Let this be a lesson to you, young man. :lol:

Best wishes to you both for the Festive Season

Derek

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

...
Fancy knives where the beautiful handles make regrinding almost impossible don't make sense to me.

My most used knife is now a flat double bevel special from Philly.

best wishes,
David Charlesworth

Hi David

I built this jig for hollow grinding the Vesper knife, and I use something similar for the small dovetail knives.

Once hollow ground, it is very easy to freehand sharpen, and to maintain the edges. It requires a stop jig for the knife for the Tormek (gentle grinding) ...

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Harbo]

Here's a knife and square I made sometime ago

And these too

I grind and sharpen them by hand using a rest

Rod

 

[David C]

Your nice jig is facilitated by the flats on the Vesper handle.

In general I still think handles are redundant.

David

 

[Trafalgar]

Sgian Dubh, if that's the model stanley knife I think it is they don't make blades for it any more. I have to grind a bit off the newer ones to make them fit.

Jim, Stanley still makes these. They're called the Classic 199 and are the only model of which I am aware that will take Stanley's thickest blade. The ones that require you use a flimsy blade are basically a joke.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Stanley-Fixe ... /100198806

http://www.stanleytools.com/hand-tools/ ... ade/11-931

 

[Paddy Roxburgh]

We cannot go into Christmas without something to read ... and more so, to tempt you to post a picture or two. This one is easy .. the marking knives/tools that you use and find indispensible .. not the prettiest necessarily, but the most useful, and why. Derek

This little collection of all the top quality marking (and other knives) in my toolbox will make you sick with jealousy Derek. As you can to see, two thirds of them are custom made, and the third, at the bottom, is an old style non-retractable blade Stanley jobbie from about the late 1970s. Can't really recall when I last put a new blade in it because I sharpen as needed. The blades usually last two or four years between replacement, and get used for hacking at all sorts of odds and ends.

The top two, both of which I made some time in the late 70s or early 80s are, as you can see, masterpieces of craftsmanship, being essentially, a bit of hacksaw blade, a lump of wood with a slit in it, and some string soaked in PVA before carefully lashing the handle in a neat coil. The top one does for everything pretty much running along the blade of a square. The 'bird beak' looking pinnacle of craftsmanship in the middle is used exclusively for transferring the rake of dovetails to the pinboard in drawer making , and pretty much any other dovetailing.

There, eat your heart out, ha, ha. Slainte.

Weird, I would have put money on you having a Sgian dubh. Next you'll be telling me despite signing off your posts with slainte you're actually tea total.
Paddy

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Weird, I would have put money on you having a Sgian dubh. Next you'll be telling me despite signing off your posts with slainte you're actually tea total. Paddy

Oh, I have a sgian dubh - goes in the sock at the appropriate time. Tea total! Not me mate ... not a chance, and I've never been known to drink beyond excess. Slainte.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

... if that's the model stanley knife I think it is they don't make blades for it any more.

Jim, I haven't yet found that problem, but to be honest, I haven't had to search for replacement blades for several years now, the stock I have being seemingly inexhaustible (!), half a dozen or so in an old pack in my toolbox somewhere. And it looks like supplies are still available, certainly in the US anyway, as identified by Charles. Slainte.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Hi Richard

Those are TERRIBLE looking knives You obviously attack your wood like a fevourished devish. I imagine a patch over one eye - so accuracy is unlikely anyway, and the wide lines scored with this .. ahem ... tools offer you some latitude. :lol:

I knew you'd be jealous of the superior qualities evident in my collection of the finest knives available in the world. I'm thinking of setting up a production line and selling them at something like £40 or £50 each (~US$70 - 75). You know what they say - build it, and people will come, or something like that. Shall I put you down for a couple of pre-release samples for you to evaluate, write about, photograph in detail, and publish on the tool review section of your website? It'd be bound to boost enquiries and sales for me. Slainte.