Making a Simple Try Square

I find that I often get time between glue-ups and finish coating to plink away at small little projects. I made a simple little try square out of cherry this week. It will be great for my reenacting at Leonard’s Mills next summer. This one is a 12” square. I also have a 6” in the works. It was a fun project. I just sort of made it up as I went along.



Straight grain cherry stock





Squaring the stock with handplanes



Used Dozuki saw to cut the bridle joint for the blade to fit into



Chopped out the waste with 1/8” chisel



Hot Hide Glue for glue up



Clamped my 6” Starret into the square to ensure it won’t slip



Drilled out two holes for the pins. I used a modern twist bit but then slightly angled the bit once through. This gave the hole a subtle ovality resembling antique drill bits. Then I shaped the cherry pins with a bench chisel.



Hot hide glue installation of pin



Everything trimmed flush. Make sure to check for square on all sides!



Marking out details



The coping saw makes quick work of this



Files to smooth out saw marks



Three applications of dewaxed bleached shellac applied by rag. Then scuff sanded with maroon synthetic steel wool and waxed with Antiquax in Liberon #0000 Steel Wool.



Complete!







For more information, you can watch Bob Rozaieski’s video tutorial on making these, found here: http://logancabinetshoppe.com/blog/2011/02/episode-33/ I watched this after I completed mine. He has many good tips. It would be worth your time watching it.

Ps. A few things I wish I had done:

1. Left the blade about 1/4" proud of the top of the handle. This makes truing up easier later. In fact, I may trim the handle down a bit so that I can have at least an 1/8" for later if it goes wonky on me.

2. Saw the bridle joint from both sides of the handle. This would make a cleaner looking joint. (Refer to Bob's video above for an explanation.)