Cutting Gauge Recommendation

[ED65]

A card scraper, especially one of the thicker ones, would yield quite a few cutting gauge cutters (and other things) quite cheaply. Can be cut and shaped with a hacksaw and files, holds a reasonable edge (not quite in the league of HSS), easily resharpened. Sawsteel would too, though backsaw steel is probably too thin, but you could make about a couple of milleniums worth of cutting gauge knives out of an old ripsaw!

I think anyone complaining of softer steels won't like our suggestions. The typical hardness of a card scraper or saw plate is somewhere in the high 30s to low 40s. Of course there's nothing stopping anyone from improving on this at home, no fancy equipment needed, but as-is that's much too soft for some.

 

[ED65]

Never dared!

Go on then, give it a go! Wearing recommends it, can't be too bad

 

[AndyT]

Maybe there's a trade off between hardness of steel and amount of use. As a hobby woodworker I think I can manage with something pretty ordinary and have been happy with the various old cutting gauges that I own.
Maybe if I was working a 40 hour week using the tool every day I would want something made to a more demanding standard.

 

[ED65]

Maybe there's a trade off between hardness of steel and amount of use.

No question: look at the typical modern kitchen knife. Knife snobs are quick to criticise cheap, stamped stainless knives but they obviously do the job well enough for a great many people.

 

[Peter Sefton]

Cabinet scrapers or old saw blade are good for scratch stock blades but to soft for cutting gauge blades in my experience.

A good quality metal cutting jig saw blade is one of the easiest things to reshape as it's so close the the correct size. You just need to ensure you have the right cutting gear and grinder in your workshop otherwise you will spend more time and money making one than just buying one ready made.

Cheers Peter

 

[Cheshirechappie]

A card scraper, especially one of the thicker ones, would yield quite a few cutting gauge cutters (and other things) quite cheaply. Can be cut and shaped with a hacksaw and files, holds a reasonable edge (not quite in the league of HSS), easily resharpened. Sawsteel would too, though backsaw steel is probably too thin, but you could make about a couple of milleniums worth of cutting gauge knives out of an old ripsaw!

I think anyone complaining of softer steels won't like our suggestions. The typical hardness of a card scraper or saw plate is somewhere in the high 30s to low 40s. Of course there's nothing stopping anyone from improving on this at home, no fancy equipment needed, but as-is that's much too soft for some.

Well - it's a trade-off, isn't it. If you only want to sharpen it once a lifetime, find a nice piece of M42 high-speed steel. On the other hand, somebody once posted about a marking gauge he'd found in an Ebay assortment with a panel pin for a point. It worked. Sharpening a cutting gauge knife is hardly a major exercise, after all - especially if you can do the bulk of the work with a needle file.

If anybody wants an easy source of thin HSS 'sheet', all-hard hand hacksaw blades are available from any decent engineer's suppliers. Eclipse brand are good. Do make sure you order the all-hard ones, not the bi-metal ones normally supplied for DIY and rougher trade use.

 

[Bedrock]

A O centre drill, when the small tip has inevitably broken off, makes a good HSS pin or cutting point which seems to last OK. It is small enough to respond to grinding/diamond slips to create your preferred shape, and appeals to my meanness, particularly when a brand new one has just broken off and stuck fast in the work piece I was drilling.

 

[David C]

Looking back a bit, I understand that the metal worker who used to use a reciprocating hacksaw now tends to use a bandsaw.

david

 

[D_W]

Anyone willing to harden and temper could probably use old saw steel, quench it in oil and then temper it to dark straw and have good results (on a cutting gauge blade).

One thing that's struck me is how few woodworkers will learn to harden and temper something quickly, or keep a hacksaw and a small bit of oil hardening or water hardening stock around. O1 is nice to work with, and not that expensive, and sooner or later you'll run into a tool that will need some of it, anyway.