Marking Knives: Four Years Later

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In 2004 I purchased six spear-point marking knives to test them for a tool review in Woodworking Magazine. After about six months of using the spear-point tools, I declared a winner, published the story and moved on to another project.

That’s the way these tales usually end. You never hear about how the entire group of tools fares after the testing is done – after they’ve been sharpened 20 times, laid out another 100 joints and been loaned out to fellow woodworkers.

That, in my opinion, is probably the better story. So here it is.

Six Knives for the Shop

I’ve always liked spear-point marking knives because you get both a left- and right-hand bevel on one tool. This gives you great advantages when laying out dovetails because you can mark out all parts of the joint with one knife without sacrificing any accuracy.

Other single-bevel knives require two tools to do the same job. Still others offer you a knife edge (like on a steak knife or pocket knife) instead of a bevel and flat face. The knife-edge marking tools require you to twist the tool a tad when marking to the left or right. That works most of the time, but not when marking dovetails with skinny pins.

The only disadvantage to the spear-point knives is that the very tip of the tool is fragile and it becomes rounded over with use. At first, this annoyed me because I couldn’t reach all the way to the back of my dovetails. Then I realized that the so-called defect is really a red herring. Marking all the way into the corner doesn’t do a dang bit to improve your dovetailing.

Here are the three other things to consider when you choose a spear-point knife:

■ Ergonomics: A marking knife must be comfortable in a variety of positions. It must be

balanced, lightweight and keep your fingertips away from the sharp edges. You should be able to control the knife without a death grip.

■ Blade Angle: This is the angle of the spear point. Larger angles (such as the 75° tip of the Chester Toolworks knife) make a better line when the tool is nearly upright to the work. Smaller angles (such as the 50° tip of the Hock knives) cut better when pitched lower. This is an important difference. Larger blade angles are better for marking dados and tenons using a square because you want to deeply score both the near and far corners of your work to make it easy to carry the line around the workpiece. A larger blade angle cuts these corner marks without you having to radically angle your wrist. I prefer the smaller-angle knives for dovetails, especially for transferring marks from the tail boards to the pin boards. The lower blade angle allows you to exert pressure in the right place.

■ Blade Thickness: If you make (or plan to make) closely spaced dovetails and you make your tails first, this is an important feature. 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.

All six of the spear-point knives were made by individual toolmakers, with the exception of the Veritas knife from Lee Valley Tools (which has been discontinued). Each entry below contains my initial impressions and the ultimate fate of the tool.

After a few months of use, I just couldn’t get comfortable with the Knight Toolworks knife. After a few trial separations, we finally parted. Our biggest disagreement: The blade was just too thick for dovetailing.

Knight Toolworks

knight-toolworks.com

Price: $32.50

The Knight marking knife has a chunky handle that isn’t comfortable when held in a pencil-like fashion. Specifically, I wish the thick back end of the knife were thinner, which would make it more comfortable for marking dovetails and make it look less like a prison weapon.

The middling blade angle (60°) allowed it to cut well in upright or down-low positions, and the thick blade (.125”) 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.

Toolmaker Steve Knight has always specialized in planes, but he’s dabbled in chisels and knives over the years. And I think it shows in this tool. This tool always languished at the bottom of my drawer and I decided it was the first one that had to go. I tried giving it to one of the other woodworkers in our shop, but the thing always ended up back in my drawer somehow. Undeterred, we sold it to an employee at our publishing company during a bi-annual sale where we dispose of the projects we’ve built. I haven’t seen it since, and I’m afraid I don’t miss it.

I always intended to make handles for these knives, but I never got around to it. Nonetheless, the knives have grown on me and both offer daily service – though one isn’t in the shop exactly….

Hock Tools

hocktools.com or 888-282-5233

Price: $31 (large knife), $28 (small knife)

Toolmaker Ron Hock began his career making knives and then ventured into making plane irons after meeting woodworker James Krenov at the College of the Redwoods in Ft. Bragg, Calif. Hock’s tools always have good steel and always hold the best edge, and the two spear-point knives he sells are no exception. I have beat the snot out of these tools and they hold up better than anyone else’s in the test. Normally, I don’t put much stock in edge retention with marking knives, but it’s nice to know that these knives will always be sharp. Some details:

Hock Tools, large knife: The low blade angle (50°) allows the tool to cut well while the tool is nearly parallel to the bench, though the blade’s thickness (.093”) limits the type of dovetails you can mark out with it. 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 (a task I have long forgotten about). 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.

The large knife was always too large (.752”) for shop work, and so it became a trusted general-purpose knife in the office by our shop. It opens all our boxes, cuts wood, paper, cardboard and anything else you’d find in a publishing company (including the top foil of an occasional wine bottle). I know I sound like I’m running down this knife. I’m not. I’ve paid a lot more for knives that do a lot less in my hands. This one is just too big for my shop work.

Hock Tools, small knife: Though this tool is also sold without a handle, it fits easily in the hand as-is, like a pencil. It’s a little thinner (.060”) and considerably narrower (.255”) than the larger Hock knife. 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 and has earned a place in my tool cabinet. Instead of making a handle, I wrapped the small knife with high-friction tape, like a hockey player. With the tape, the tool is a bit graceless, but I don’t care. It’s always sharp and goes almost everywhere.

The Veritas doesn’t get pulled out for dovetailing (it’s too thick), but it a great knife for all-around general joinery. And it is the easiest knife to sharpen, hands-down.

Veritas Striking Knife

leevalley.com

This tool has been discontinued, but can be found on the secondary market

While the large bevels of this tool make it easy to keep sharp, I initially had some concerns about the handle. Overall, the shape of the handle is comfortable and its flats keep it from rolling off your bench (very nice). The handle’s factory finish was rough, so I sanded it off, took the wood to #400 grit and applied a better finish – a task long forgotten. Also, the bead on the handle was vulnerable to damage at the outset; ours became chipped after two months of use. However, after those first few chips, the bead has stayed intact for the last few years.

The blade angle (55°) makes it well suited for dovetailing, though its thickness prevented it from sneaking into the narrowest dovetails. So the Veritas ended up as more of a joinery knife, and it works well at that task. After four years of use, I’m still appreciative of how easy this tool is to sharpen.

I miss this knife. Though it is thicker than I like, I loaned this one to a woodworker and wish I hadn’t. Maybe I should call Dave Anderson and fix that situation.

Chester Toolworks

chestertoolworks.com

Price: $39 and up

Though this tool looks a lot like the Blue Spruce tool below, it’s actually quite

different. The large blade angle (75°) made it well suited for bench work; marking tenons, dados and anything else across the grain was a breeze for this tool. It wouldn’t sneak into tight tails however; it’s three times thicker (.093”) than the Blue Spruce knife. My handle wasn’t quite as comfortable as the one on the Blue Spruce tool, but the tool did a high-quality job overall. The ease of sharpening ranked somewhere in the middle.

A year or so after the test, a fellow woodworker asked to borrow the Chester knife (made by Dave Anderson) to work on his hand-cut joinery skills. This guy knows I have a lot of knives so he wasn’t in any rush to return it. He still isn’t. He likes the knife very well. I’m going to have to order a new one.

Still the winner, the Blue Spruce is the one marking knife I reserve for myself. It is an elegant piece of work. Perfect in every way.

Blue Spruce Toolworks

www.bluesprucetoolworks.com

Price: $45 and up

This tool is the best choice for woodworkers who hand-cut dovetails, which describes me. The thin (an astonishing .030”) blade of the Blue Spruce Small Marking Knife is reinforced by two brass ferrules, which make it rigid as all the thicker knives. The middling blade angle (65°) 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 shape on the end of the handle. Its only drawback is that its thin blade makes it the most difficult to sharpen, and I do so begrudgingly. The tool holds its edge well, though not as well as the Hock knives.

Since this review appeared I have continued my affair with this knife and have even acquired a second one for my shop at home. This knife is a must-buy for hand-dovetailers, especially if you cut your tails first. No other knife works as well. Period.

Add to the fact that the Blue Spruce is great for bench work, you can see why I would (if pressed) forsake all the other knives for this one. I called this knife out as the best in the group in 2004 and I’m doing it again. So perhaps first impressions actually are important.

Christopher Schwarz is the editor of Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine. His first marking knife was an Xacto knife left over from his days as a print production artist. You can visit his personal blog at LostArtPress.com.