Mortise Guage

Posted a pic on the Monday Night Show'N'Tell thread, but thought it best to give updates here.

Bought this Mortise Gauge in Bodalla for $15 on the weekend

Attachment 391810Attachment 391809

Was covered with some kind of lacquer that just made it look yuck, but i could see that there was some nice brass under there.

IanW mentioned that it might be either Rosewood or Ebony under there. Part way through the resto, (want to just get rid of the lacquer and make it usable while keeping the age/lifetime of use marks intact (Except for the face of the fence which had become quite wonky over years of use, that needed to be made properly flat again, even the brass plates.


Attachment 391806Attachment 391807

You can see both the cleaned timber on the shaft, and also the badly worn face of the fence.

Here it is so far (yes, I put the fence of back to front so as to see better the progress)

Attachment 391808

One thing I reckon needs doing is that the locking screw is actually too short to actually lock. It is steel. I suspect that the original was a knurled knob on the end , and probably brass.

Also, the gap between the movable pin and the empty hole is far too big so there must have been some other little bit in there. Will have to do some research.

Question I have in case anyone knows form the pics is 'is it rosewood?' It's dark, chocolate/red, and the sawdust when sanding is really the color of chocolate too.

Looks like Rosewood to me. I have a number of antique pieces of rosewood furniture that strongly resemble that timber.

Thanks Mark. Working on the missing bits now. Needs a short length of brass to hold the fixed pin by the look of similar ones on Google Images (wow, that sure is helpful stuff, I can't believe that such things as hundreds of photos of mortise gauges are in one collection there :) )

Got a friend who is helping me make a new brass thumbscrew too. I've got some 1/4 inch brass rod and he's got some 1/4 plate. between the two we should be able to 'wing it' :)

I reckon there must be a small 1/2 inch brass pressure plate inside the fence under that thumbscrew. At least there appears to be a recess for it??

Here's a fascinating blog with heaps of great info on gauges, marking and mortise.

Confirms my thought that there was a plate missing in the guts of the fence (he calls it a shoe, makes sense)

The Valley Woodworker: Marking gauges

Hi Bendigo Bob,

That gap above the movable pin should have another piece of brass strip with a fixed pin attached by a brass screw. Then by moving the adjustable pin you can set the width of both the mortise and tenon. Also your right about the locking screw it should be brass with either a knurled end or more likely a 'bladed' knob to match the adjustment screw..

Nice piece though and cheap at $15. I tried to find one 6 years back when I made a cot, using all mortise and tenon joints, for our first grandchild and couldn't even buy a new one in our area of NSW, so I had to make one out of mountain ash which was the only decent hardwood I had on hand. Actually I used some excess from the stock for the cot.

bob w

Sorry, just found the earlier replies, so all I've done is repeat what has already been said. :C:C:C

No worries bob, thanks.

Today I made a brass 'shoe' to go in between the screw and the shaft. works well now, thanks to a woodie mate who had a bit of brass spare. I think after all i will leave the screw alone, according to the web site i referred to it looks like it is original after all (English ones used this, American ones used a brass thumb screw)

I'm getting on to that other brass piece to hold the fixed cutter/spur tomorrow.