Footprint 1877 160200 Rosewood Mortice/Marking Gauge

While I agree, every woodworker can use one of these, this one ain't it. It is NOT all rosewood as the manufacturer would have you believe. Only the face is. The slider is some cheap hardwood poorly stained to resemble rosewood. Again, Crown products are far superior than Footprint's. And in this case, less $$$. Matter of fact, you can get these for about $25 at your local WoodCraft stores. And their brands are cheaper and better quality (all rosewood for one).

I have to agree with some of the other reviews that this marking gauge isn't the best one out there. It uses a pin instead of a blade to mark the wood, and in the beginning I didn't think this would make a difference. I was wrong. Aft4er I purchased a marking gauge with a blade I could see (and feel) the difference. On the bright side, it looks great hanging in my tool chest.....

I've been doing wood working for a number of years and seen the value of using a marking cage. I finally decided to actually go buy one. I've looked at and tried a few and this one had the features I wanted including the double pins. The price was right and have used it now several times and I'm satisfied with its performance.

Well made tool that is beautiful to hold and works great. Of course my husband could use a much less expensive tool to accoumplish the same task, but for those that appreciate fine hand tools, you will appreciate this mortice marking gauge. The first one arrived with the brass knob missing-I can see how that could happen-but they sent me a new one that arrived in 3 days! Fab customer service and great tool-what else could you want? My husband loved it. Thanks!

I have been using this mortice/marking gauge for a while.It does its job well and didn't build up any play over time.Definitively a good buy

There's no doubt that a marking gauge is essential, and makes for for more accurate joinery cutting. And this particular example seems really well made for the price. The biggest thing that bugs me, however, is that it uses pins rather than knives to do the marking. Being round, the pins tend to wander when traveling with the grain, making for less accurate lines. With cross-grain marking, then tend to tear the wood fibers rather than slice.The mod I'd recommend would be to file the pins flatter near the ends, creating knife points rather than sharpened rods. This will help in cross-grain situations, slicing the grain and giving you a much sharper line. And if you angle the front of the "blade" away from the tool just slightly, it will pull the tool tightly against the workpiece when marking with the grain (instead of following the grain off your intended line).This little modification should make this gauge a sharp performer. (I apologize for that horrible play on words.)