Though some woodworkers would disagree, this form is ideal for marking joints for hand-cutting. The flat side rides the shape of the piece you want to mimic. The knife marks its location with zero offset. But no one ever showed me how to use a marking knife. And sometimes it would follow the grain instead of the path I had set for it. Then one day, I realized what I was doing wrong.  My tip: When routing out for inlay in darker woods, I’ll mark the area with the marking knife and then use my artists’ white charcoal pencil to highlight the "keep" side of the line. That way I can sneak up to the cut line with the router quite easily. I use that same white charcoal pencil to highlight my marked line in darker woods as you suggested with the lead pencil above. DIY Woodworking Marking Knife. One popular kit is by Narex, which retails for about $18 and comes with a thin or thick blade. Another alternative, the one I got, is by Mikov. The Mikov marking knife kits were nicely packaged in these small containers. Inside, you’ll also get two small brass rods. for attaching your won handles. These are available Marking Knife For Woodworking Research as straight knives or with finger indents.  Overall, these Mikov marking knife kits turned out great. With a little bit of work, you can have unique woodworking marking knifes that are high quality and razor sharp. If you’re not into DIY (really??) and just want something you can use right away, the handled Mikov marking knife cost just $ That’s just $3 more than the unhandled kit, but you lose the fun of making your own marking knife. I need a marking knife so it's time to build www.- is my begining in woodturning so be forgiving.. If you have any advices or if i do something wrong let. Basically make the spear-shaped angle more shallow. Overall, my hands concluded that the Blue Spruce knife was the right tool for my style of work. I use Colt brad point bits, mostly. I even use it for a skew iut from time marking knife for woodworking out time. Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop.

I think you just pushed me over the edge. If you try carving a circle with a gouge and then with a chisel you can feel how much smoother it is with a curved edge.

I use Colt brad point bits, mostly. Nothing, in my view is more accurate and smooth cutting as these bits. I got the single-edge version of this a while back but the gentle curve from one side down the bevel contrasting with the flat straight-edge on the back of the knife gave this optical illusion of the knife tip being bent over whenever I used it and it drove me nuts so I swapped it out for that stanley knife Paul Sellers uses and which my dad used to use a lifetime ago so that was a nice symmetry.

Same steel as their excellent plane irons. I use them very often with a small drill brace with a hex shaft and they make holes in fir without tearout. I made a mistake in the previous post. I thought I would have deleted the word. I just bought an old screwdriver at a garage sale for 50 cents and shaped the point on a grinder, works fine, I use it for just about everything, an old busted up chisel would work too — just shape the tip how you want it.

Fine-tools in Germany carry an extended range of both. I use my in lieu of a router plane on tenon cheeks and dovetailed dados as well. The single- and doublebevelled version cutting knives of the same type are all I use now for cutting and whitling duties.

Fairly inexpensive. Then I worry that my saw will dive into the knife line and screw things up. Easy to see, easy to fix and with a thick enough sharp lead, you can extend it deep within a narrow pin. Always up for suggestions or help! Only suggestion I can think of is going with a very light pressure. As light as you can. Then with the next pass go slightly heavier. The initial shallow cut helps guide the blade.

Also I have found softwoods more challenging than hardwoods because of the hard and soft aspects of the growth rings. Thanks Michael, I think that should help. Congrats on finding your knife. I searched for quite a while before I found one that I liked. I tried a couple of expensive ones as well. I am searching for good drill bits as well. Keep us posted if you find them. Thanks for the tip, Richard. They are not laminated but they are made of good, old Sheffield steel.

Their unlaminated carbon steel blades are good too, easily sharpened to an impressively sharp edge. I ordered the same knife recently and am pondering whether to make a leather sheath for it. How would you guys store this thing, both to protect yourself and the brittle tip? About the drill bit…The center bit might fit the bill, although AFAIK they can only be used with a brace because of the square shaft, so not suitable for eggbeaters.

The others all have uses in the shop. Since I use it for everything from cutting clippings from news papers to whittling pegs, it is always in my pocket.

I had one that was broken, so I turned a handle for it on a small lathe I have, then ground it back with a grinder. Nice steel that sharpens great. I did a crude single edge fairly pointed right down to the hole in the middle of the flag. I even use it for a skew chisel from time to time. Soon as anyone sees it, they go home and make one. Try it. Your email address will not be published.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. And finding a good marking knife.

The drill bit hunt is still on, but I have finally got on top of the iron dagger. The lower blade angle allows you to exert pressure in the right place. Thin knives allow you to sneak into tight spaces between the tails to mark out the pins.

This benefit comes at a high price, however. Thin knives are more difficult to sharpen because the cutting bevels are considerably smaller. The thin blade is reinforced by two brass ferrules, which make it rigid. The middling blade angle makes it suited for both dovetail or bench work.

And the tool is well-balanced, comfortable and a joy to wield. I even like the acorn on the end of the handle. Its only drawback is that its thin blade makes it the most difficult to sharpen.

The large blade angle makes it well suited for bench work; marking tenons, dados and anything else across the grain was a breeze for this tool. The ease of sharpening ranks somewhere in the middle. It and the Veritas were the easiest to sharpen because the blades of both are thick and wide with large bevels. Unlike the other tools in this test, both Hock knives required significant setup.

All the backs had to be lapped flat and polished, and the bevels had to be ground and honed. Luckily, this particular blade was heat treated well so there was little warping. This makes it ideal for sneaking into tight places, though not as well as the thinnest tool, the Blue Spruce.

Like its larger cousin, this tool needed significant setup. Annoyingly, the tip of the tool was a bit warped, which resulted in a lot of lapping. Once I got the tool working, however, it performed well. Specifically, I wish the thick back end of the knife were thinner, which would make it more comfortable for marking dovetails.

The middling blade angle allowed it to cut well in upright or down-low positions, and the thick blade made it an easy tool to sharpen though it was impossible to navigate the knife into tight tail joints.

If the handle were thinner, this would be a good knife for marking out joints. Overall, the shape of the handle is comfortable and its flats keep it from rolling off your bench. I sanded it off, took the wood to grit and applied a better finish. Also, the bead on the handle was vulnerable to damage; ours became chipped after two months of use. The blade angle makes it well suited for dovetailing, though its thickness prevented it from sneaking into the narrowest dovetails.

It is the least expensive knife and performs admirably. Overall, my hands concluded that the Blue Spruce knife was the right tool for my style of work. When not cutting dovetails, I tended to favor the Chester and the modified Veritas knife.

Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality. By Christopher Schwarz.

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