Here is another marking gauge I said I was going to make considering that I wasn't all too pleased with the last one I had made.

This one is much more nice looking and is even longer. The total length of the thing is about 8 and a half inches and it features a more decorative fence (the stop part that sides on the stem with the thumb screw).

This is mostly a direct copy of something I've seen on the internet https://www.jimbodetools.com/produc.....gauge-78568r-2 here. Mine is a decent facsimile, despite the thumbscrew not being the same. I prefer the oval flat thumb screws over the round knurled nuts.

The whole entire unit is composed of 8 parts. The stem of the marking gauge is made of a tube that I forged from a section of 1 inch wide sheet steel. The rear finial takes on the appearance of a Minié ball. It was made from a section of rather large nail shank that I turned in the drill press and cut with files as well as roughed up the round part with an angle grinder and fine mill bastard file.

The front part is another nail, but it is the head and was turned to the dimension of the inside of the tube using a file before shaped to the stems (tube) outer diameter. It was then drilled and tapped after the flats of the stem were filed onto it for the key to ride against it. A small tightening screw was made out of a duplex nail and threaded to clamp the scribe in place.

This entire project was done cold, which means almost all of the work was done with the hacksaw, files, chisels, drills and a tap and die set. The only heat I used was to anneal the sheet metal for the tube so it was nice and soft prior to forming it.

The max working length this is able to reach is about 6 inches. When it is closed all the way, the key stops the scribe from hitting the fence and coincidentally leaves a 1/16th" gap. This is much more precise compared to the older one I made.