Day 52, A Pair Of Bevel Gauges
Today's installment of My Garage Gems is a pair of rather modest tools which I think are nonetheless pretty interesting: a pair of bevel gauges, also known as sliding T bevels. You can use them to copy beveled angles from one piece of work to another. Here are three examples: the two above I got for free from an estate sale just for asking for them, and the third is a $3.00 modern version that I bought from Harbor Freight brand new.
Can you guess which ones I like best?
Yeah. First of all, let's just point out how positively beautiful the older ones are. I did little to clean them up, other than wipe down the gorgeous wood and apply some paste wax, and polish the brass bits a bit with some Brasso. The steel is a bit rough: I have thought of using either some Evaporust or electrolysis to tidy them up a bit, but frankly the patina is pretty nice and they work well even without that.
Tools like this fascinate me. They are functionally pretty much the same as the modern equivalent that only costs $3 when mass produced. But take a close look at them. They are made from beautiful brass and wood, and with great care. They are ergonimically shaped and manufactured with care. If you owned one of these, you likely kept this tool for decades. You may have taken the time to stamp the tool with your initials, because it was your tool and you wanted to keep it, much like "P. P. N." did with this one.
And they rose beyond just pure functionality. Check out the thumb screws that these things had.
These were likely cast specifically for use in hand tools. These were manufactured as practical tools, but also beautiful tools. They were meant to inspire pride and craftsmanship.
I have no idea who manufactured these (they bear no company stamp) or how old they might be. Stanley was making similar sliding bevel gauges a hundred and fifty years ago, but my guess is that they are probably around a hundred years old. I smile everytime I use them.
Happy Friday the 13th all!