Wooden marking gauges are NOT what you think.

Can an old tool teach us a few new tricks?

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Marking & Measuring individual plans

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Build your own Bench!

The Minimum Timber Bench plans are 34 pages of full-color, step-by-step instructions in standard and metric measurements. The plans include a full stock list and cut list. Every image is modeled in 3D and each step includes tips and tricks to make your build easier. This bench is designed for beginning woodworkers and power-tool woodworkers who want to get into hand tools. You can build it completely by hand or with a few common machine tools.

The Minimum Timber Bench Course is 8 chapters of detailed build instructions. Follow along as I do each step of the build using basic machine tools (and a few hand tools). I'll take you from stock selection all the way through to flattening and using the bench. The course is 80 minutes long, fully searchable, and includes the complete plans for FREE!.

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Wood Work for Humans Tool List (affiliate):
*Cutting*
(Winner of the affordable dovetail-saw shootout.)
(Needs tune-up to work well.)
(Works out of the box)
(My favorite affordable new chisels.)
(I use these to make the DIY specialty planes, but I also like them for general work.)

*Sharpening*

*Marking and Measuring*
(For marking and the built-in awl).
(Excellent, inexpensive marking knife.)

*Drilling*

*Work-Holding*

Follow me on Instagram: @rexkrueger

0:00 Intro
2:22 Conversion
5:27 New Life
7:38 The Cutter & The Sharpening
10:43 Outro

[MassiveReactive]

Who knew I'd be glued to a 14-minute video about a wooden marking gauge. Tool Stories would be a very worthy series for your channel Rex!

[Thatmikejames]

Anyone who has ever restored old tools, furniture, or houses has employed the same deductive process (with varying degrees of success, of course), and I think most of us would enjoy seeing more videos such as this one.

[yotamgosh]

I'd love a "tools stories" series! Toolmaking is lots of fun!

I'd love it even more if you kept on coming at us with life lessons to learn from the tools we use!

[khogg]

Rex was even able to determine the name of the carpenter who owned this 100 year old tool. Now that is forensic skill!😀

[alysoffoxdale]

I am so here for more tool stories!!! <3

That's what I love most about your channel: No matter what you're doing, there are all kinds of stories and history that you share about it. The first Furniture Forensics video is what brought me to you, and despite the value of the tool comparisons and techniques you teach, it's all the stories and histories on top of the woodworking that keep me here. Not gonna lie, I've literally cued up some of your videos for bedtime stories! _Tell me the one about the gateleg table again, Unca Rex!_

[rickwren]

Yes, I would love to see more tool stories. My grandfather was an on-again, off-again lumberjack in Idaho. As a result he ended up with timber to mill and work in his barn. Many of his, and his father's tools are still around and I have been known to spend time with them sussing out how they did the work and used them. Imagining the work and the workers I descend from.

[IronheartStudios]

Rex, as a reproducer of historic objects, I spend a lot of time following the tool marks of the originals, and I am loving this forensics video. It really shows how much you can learn about someone by studying the objects they leave behind. I would be super thrilled to see this become a regular channel contribution. Keep up the good work!

[BrianRust]

Yes, I would love to see more tools stories! Keep up the great work man!

[timothymallon]

YES YES YES! Please do more tool stories! This is fantastic! I love finding the story in my own tools. I go on to imagine what my tools did, on a day to day basis!

[HippoXXL]

Hi Rex! I always loved the furniture forensics, and this is great, too. Looking at what the old craftsmen did is kinda reviving the mindset of past centuries. Most people (those who wanna discuss alloys) are unable to imagine, how it is if you can't go to the next store and get what ever you want, or even that it is not normal to throw things away, just because they are dull or worn out. Once fixing things was normal, and I love to look at those old tools, which tell exactly that story.

Greetings from Germany,
Marcus

[KlayJones]

Yes to the tool series! I love how you called us out and paid tribute to woodworkers of the past and how they get work done. 🤘

[upperwoodworks]

Thank you Rex. 100 % interested and you’re entirely correct. It’s easy to get into the weeds about whether what you’re spending money on is the best but at the end of the day it’s the project that matters. Thank you for the reminder.

[rick]

Yes, more tool stories!
I have an antique tool box full of my grandfather's and great grandfather's tools.
I have learned a lot about maintaining and using them, but more I'd always better.

[robnichols]

I love this tool story. I am facinated by history. In the past I have concentrated on military history. Since taking up woodwork as a hobby, I've become more and more interested in the history of woodwork. It is facinating just how long certain tools have been around, and how old many techniques are. I also studied geology, so am used to reading the history of an object from small clues in an item's morphology. And by studying the history of woodworking I'm learning how people built things, instead of how they killed each other. That's so much more rewarding. So please more of this!

[minervadev]

Tool stories would be an incredible series. It really plays to your unique strengths as a youtuber and woodworking historian! Please do it !

[MortimerSugarloaf]

Dude, what a killer idea for a video. Like furniture forensics, but for tools. I love it. The best part of owning vintage hand tools is the mystery and wonder of who their previous steward was, what they did, and how cool it is that you get to add to the history of the tool. This series will tap into that experience, and it's something no other channel would dare try.

As I watched, I held and inspected the gauges I've made for myself, enjoying the marks I've put into them. I realized that maybe a hundred years from now, someone might look over my tools and appreciate the same things you pointed out on Timberframer Joey's gauge. It made me proud to be a maker. Thanks for this great video and that nice moment, man.

[viracocha]

Great video. I am brand new to woodworking, about 3 months, I learned quickly that I wanted to work with hand tools pretty much exclusively.
YouTube has been both extremely helpful and unbelievable detrimental. I tend to over think and so many YT woodworkers made that much worse and complicated.
I recently decided to step back a little, simplify everything and go at this from a different angle and that simplification has improved my skills and made me happier in the shop.
I would definitely tune into a tool talk series.

[Abagofchip]

This was great, and I'm all for more of these tool stories. I have tons of old tools, including a couple old marking gauges, and this gave me a new perspective. I'm traveling for work at the moment, but as soon as I get home, I'm pulling out some of my old favorites and just hanging out with them.

[dandesnoyers]

Yes please! More tool stories! Seeing how tools are used throughout time and understanding how they wear is really interesting.

[FirstMM]

Love the way your passion for these tools and their stories shines through - I would absolutely look forward to a series like this!
You definitely knocked it out of the park with this one!