Marking knives for joinery

[Derek Cohen]

These are some the knives I have collected over the years and use for laying out joinery. Obviously not all at the same time
 

Three popular knives - these ones get a lot of use. From the top down ... Swann-Morton fixed blade, Stanley swivel blade, and a Swann-Morton craft knife which was my grandfather's. This one is about 60 years old (except for the screw). They all use disposable blades (which are easy to resharpen, which I do) ...



These ones are a little more up market. All made by Chris Vesper. The top two are heavy duty knives, one in Tasmanian Blackwood and the other in 10000 year-old Black Red Gum. The lower two are dovetail knives, designed (by myself) for marking dovetails. The lower one has an extra thin blade for the slimmest dovetails. These knives are the ones I tend to use when dovetailing ...



The last three here are Japanese kiridashi. The top is one I handled. The middle one is the one I prefer and use mostly. The lower one is used for reaching into small areas. The advantage of the unhandled kiridashi is that they can more easily register on the backs of the blades ...



Regards from Perth

Derek

[C. in Indy]

Nice lot of stuff, there!

I keep thinking I should get more into marking blades.  I confessed to Mike Brady last time we met, the first really nice thru-dovetails I did were with the "use a saw kerf as your mark" [Roy Underhill?] method.  So I stayed with that.   

 He was saying something about single-bevel blades tending to overcut when marking dovetails (cutting into the guide wood, so to speak), so I believe he's into double-bevel marking blades.

Chris

[Scoony]

The one I use the most is one I made and features deer antler handle. Not pretty, but it works. I do need to clean up the blade a little.

   

I have others, but this is the one that gets used most.

[Stwood_]

No pics, but I have one I bought at a woodshow, and one that was a kit.
Bob? sold kits. He sold the ferrel and sharpened blade and a wood handle was optional.
I made my own handle.

[MauleSkinner]

I’ve got a couple of purpose-made marking knives, but I’ve taken to using one of these two blades...as Derek noted with one of his, this was my grandfather’s.

[bandit571]

Working with this thin Pine, doesn't need a fancy knife...

   
Just a sharp one

[Nick Obermire]

I've started to use an x-acto knife like the one pictured above. It seems to work just as good as a fancier one I also have. I have a scalpel with cheap disposable blades that also comes in handy.