Homemade marking guages.

Now that I have a mini bench to work on.  More projects arise.  I decided I would like some marking gauges, and being too cheap to part with over 20 kongbucks for one.  I saw Stumpy Nubs video on homemade marking gauges.  Again my monkey see monkey do kicked in.  I was out tool shopping and splurged on an 7 kongbuck  piece of mahogany.  I had some red oak, and a hardwood dowel leftover in the garage from other past projects.

Mahogany at its finest.
fine chocolate shavings for the truffles.

A little glue to get some thicker pieces and some Ryoba saw action to get the 12 inch beams.  The pieces were ready for the mortises which I need the practice on if you saw mini bench you know I need the practice.

ready to cut mortise
glued the bodies to make them thicker

Well practice practice practice makes you better.  I’ll need much more before I can claim good let alone perfect.    A few brad nails for the scoring pins and onward to wax and make them feel good in the hand and add a bit more protection than the leftover Danish Oil from my hand’s oil.

just about to wax
ready set wax on…

Onward to more projects in wood.  I’m curious why the oak beam turned out so white while the oak block has the red tint.  cut from the same piece of wood.   Beautiful contrast either way.