![\"Titemark](\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/IMG_4290_edited-2.jpg\")
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Is there a gauge that works well both across and along the grain? Yes, but there are compromises and it depends on the wood. What we are looking for here is an all-around gauge<\/strong>.<\/p>\n For this, I suggest the Titemark<\/a> gauge or one of the gauges made by Jeff Hamilton of Hamilton Woodworks<\/a>. The Titemark has a round blade, while the Hamiltons use a fingernail-shaped blade. I have used the Titemark in my shop for many years. I do not own a Hamilton gauge (on my wish list), however, I have used them \u2013 they are excellent \u2013 and I use a Hamilton blade retrofitted into a Cullen gauge<\/a>, as shown above.<\/p>\n In any case, it is the properties of the blades that are the focus of this discussion. Here are close up views:<\/p>\n Let’s consider<\/strong> how these blades perform in a fine, diffuse-porous wood like cherry and a coarse, ring-porous wood like oak. Mahogany and walnut would be somewhere in between on the spectrum.<\/p>\n Across the grain<\/strong><\/p>\n Both cutters work well<\/strong> across the grain in cherry and oak. The fingernail cutter more readily bites deeper. By the way, I prefer to push or pull, not roll, the Tite-Mark gauge, and then use a slight roll only near the end to meet a layout line. Neither easily bites a line as deep as the Japanese V-point gauge, nor are they as easy to bring up to a layout line.<\/p>\n Along the grain<\/strong><\/p>\n The round and fingernail blades work fairly well<\/strong> marking along the grain in cherry. In oak, however, the line is difficult to see and can be especially obscure on a quartersawn surface.<\/p>\n In all woods, the marked lines with both blades are thin<\/strong>; the fingernail blade is the better of the two. You can improve visibility by running a fine pencil point in the groove, though the pencil can sometimes jump out of the groove, especially in oak. Therefore, I generally prefer a conical or half conical point for medium to large scale marking along the grain. They make a bigger groove that is easier to see and easier to fill with a pencil line.<\/p>\n Still, it can be tough to smoothly mark a long visible line along the grain in oak even with a slim conical point. I find that the most practical solution is to mark directly with a fine pencil or lead point<\/strong>. In a later post, we’ll discuss options for that.<\/p>\n For detail work<\/strong>, including along the grain, such as marking out for hinges, the rounded cutters are just fine. I especially like the Tite-Mark’s micro-adjustment feature<\/strong> for this work.<\/p>\n For situations where you want the bevel<\/strong> facing away from the fence to keep it in the waste, such as when gauging width to rip a panel, a reverse bevel cutter (bevel facing away from the fence) is available for the Tite-Mark (see photo above). The Hamilton blade can be installed with the bevel facing either way.<\/p>\n The Tite-Mark gauge affords an excellent sense of control with your fingers right up against the trumpet-shaped back of the fence. The small Hamilton gauge gives a similar sense.<\/p>\n It should be noted that Woodjoy<\/a> makes a compact gauge with a V-point, and Lie-Nielsen<\/a> makes a panel gauge with a V-point. I do not have hands-on experience with these but each has its cutter at the end of the stem, which is good<\/a>, and of course, both companies make great tools.<\/p>\n In summary,<\/strong> I suggest the Tite-Mark or Hamilton gauges as good all-around gauges with the reservation that one gauge is not ideal for everything.<\/p>\n Next:<\/strong> conical markers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Is there a gauge that works well both across and along the grain? Yes, but there are compromises and it depends on the wood. What we are looking for here is an all-around gauge. For this, I suggest the Titemark gauge or one of the gauges made by Jeff Hamilton of Hamilton Woodworks. The Titemark […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[36],"class_list":["post-4588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tools-and-shop","tag-marking-cutting-and-mortise-gauges"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4588"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4603,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions\/4603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Titemark](\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/IMG_4297_edited-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Hamilton](\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/IMG_4290_edited-3.jpg\")
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