I was going to order up the dovetail marker equivalent of these. Has anyone tried those out? I picked up a dovetail saw at Woodcraft back in Jan. and I looked at them then, but never bought them. One of those things that you wonder later why the hell you never bought them while you were there. Hmmmm...
I have the dovetail version and I don't like it. Here's why:
It's made from aluminum and is therefore considerably softer than my veritas marking knife (which I do like very much). The making knife cuts into the metal way too easily.
Great for use with a pencil, not so great with a marking knife.
I have one. It's handy for doing rough layouts; I don't use it for marking every single side of every piece. To be fair though, I use their magnetized dovetail guide that I bought all the time. Once you learn how to use it, it really works well. If someday I can saw cleanly enough without the guide I'll use the marker regularly.
I already posted my comment but since you specifically asked I'll reiterate. I don't like the aluminum because my veritas marking knife bites into it.
I *do* however really like the veritas bevel guage (the one with the cam-lock that is inset and therefore not in the way) for marking dovetails. It really is a better mouse trap.
I love my saddle squares, but see some issues with the DT markers.
1.) I prefer to mark out dovetails with a knife. The aluminum of the DT marker may catch the knife edge and since it's soft, be cut by the knife. I haven't used the DT markers, so this could be a non-issue. I usually use the saddle squares with sharp pencils, so this hasn't been an issue.
2.) I frequently vary the angle of dovetails for appearance. My bevel guage is frequently set by eye.
BTW, I really like the Veritas bevel guages. I have a 4" and a 10", both have a nice locking lever that stays flush with the body and doesn't interfere with flipping it when using both sides.
The problem with the opaque DT marking gauges is that you can't see through them. You layout the centerline of your pins (or tails if you're a tails first person) but then the marking gauge covers up the one you're going to mark for the angle. You don't have the "context" of the line you're about to mark.
To get around that I made some at different angles out of plastic, with a centerline scribed in the plastic.
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second model added the saddle so two faces could be marked at a time. Lines are scribed into the top and bottom to avoid parallax (sp?). They're done with a Tite-Mark marking gauge BEFORE cutting the angled sides
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marking knife cutting into the metal or plastic - a single bevel knife, with the flat face against the guide minimizes the problem.
The recomendation to get the Frank Klausz video - Making and Handcut Dovetail Drawer is an excellent one. If you get it you might find these "instructions" -based mainly on the video - handy to have on the bench when you go to practice what Frank shows you. He covers a lot of ground - with a lot of very specific steps and procedures. With these "notes" you can try it, add your own notes and have it as a reference for future use. Dovetail cutting looks so simple and straight- foreward but there are lots of ways to screw them up if you're not methodical.
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