A Better Bevel/Angle Gauge

A simple little project.

I bought the world's worst bevel gauge - it worked ok but boy was it ugly - a cheap and nasty handle with a colour that was like mustard and baby poo somehow had a really unattractive plastic baby.

So I grabbed some scrap wood and set out to make something nicer. A quick note - there are no measurements as everything was either eyeballed or matched to the dimensions of the original bevel gauge.

Here's the offending item - it's only use at this point was to act as a rough template for the new handle

Just two bits of miscellaneous Aussie hardwood cut to match the rough dimensions of the old handle. I extracted the "blade" and the locking screw/wing nut to use later on.

So I drilled a hole for the fastening hardware in both bits of timber that will make up the new handle. I then used a saw to make a series of kerf cuts and chiseled out the waste

To make the handle a bit nicer I made a series of shallow kerf cuts at 45 degrees on both sides and chiseled out the waste again. I will inset thin strips of contrasting Wood (Victorian ash) into these voids

This shows the inlaid pieces of Vic ash - I cut them slightly oversized and used a flush cut saw to trim to final size after they were glued in

I glued a thin strip of scrap (same thickness as the "blade" of the gauge) with one end at a 45 degree angle. This creates a stop that catches the 45 degree end of the blade and keeps it in line with the handle. Both wooden strips that make up the handle are then glued together at the end where the stop sits

A quick drench of boiled linseed oil after sanding really pulled out the beautiful grain and colours of the wood

Now doesn't that look a bit more like an authentic old-times woodworkers tool rather than cheap plasticky junk?