I was encouraged by the discussion below about how they make no sense to see if I was completely insane in remembering how much smoother they are to use.
I am not. At least not insane for that purpose. The effort to mark a surface with a rotating wheel (one that is precise - the 97 and 98 stanleys do not have deep marking wheels, they're a bit blunt - on purpose I would imagine, but they rotate precisely and do not move much) is tiny compared to dragging a fixed wheel through hardwood.
Not having a single bevel fixed wheel gauge, I would imagine that for functional marking, if a rotating wheel of such a type could be made, it would also work more easily than the fixed wheel (which I've felt was a pain in the poo for a long time - combining a wheel that grabs with a sticky brass reference surface). It's sort of a beginners thing, and I really liked that type of gauge at first - you figure that you need a deep mark and it needs to be thin or there will be no accuracy. The center of the 97 or 98s line is probably not perceivably inaccurate as a matter of using a gauge...
...which leads to the question - does anyone actually make the type? It would be easy to make something much more sloppy than stanley's version, but not so easy to duplicate what stanley made for a reasonable price.
It's also the case that when you want to darken the line you've marked, the 97 and 98 leave a shallow somewhat rounded groove that is neatly and easily marked by a pencil, even if the pencil isn't freshly sharp. improving the visibility of a mark on a thin knifed line isn't so great. For someone working by hand, this is a common operation. Quick marking, quick drag of the pencil or even a ballpoint pen and move on.
I am not. At least not insane for that purpose. The effort to mark a surface with a rotating wheel (one that is precise - the 97 and 98 stanleys do not have deep marking wheels, they're a bit blunt - on purpose I would imagine, but they rotate precisely and do not move much) is tiny compared to dragging a fixed wheel through hardwood.
Not having a single bevel fixed wheel gauge, I would imagine that for functional marking, if a rotating wheel of such a type could be made, it would also work more easily than the fixed wheel (which I've felt was a pain in the poo for a long time - combining a wheel that grabs with a sticky brass reference surface). It's sort of a beginners thing, and I really liked that type of gauge at first - you figure that you need a deep mark and it needs to be thin or there will be no accuracy. The center of the 97 or 98s line is probably not perceivably inaccurate as a matter of using a gauge...
...which leads to the question - does anyone actually make the type? It would be easy to make something much more sloppy than stanley's version, but not so easy to duplicate what stanley made for a reasonable price.
It's also the case that when you want to darken the line you've marked, the 97 and 98 leave a shallow somewhat rounded groove that is neatly and easily marked by a pencil, even if the pencil isn't freshly sharp. improving the visibility of a mark on a thin knifed line isn't so great. For someone working by hand, this is a common operation. Quick marking, quick drag of the pencil or even a ballpoint pen and move on.
