Thread: Looking out for a sliding Bevel

I bought the small veritas sliding bevel at the Melbourne Timber show and use it all the time (mainly for marking out dovetails). I have a larger Marples which is OK and for real big applications, I make one out of scrap.

The Veritas are good with their locking mechanism although I had to put superglue on mine because the meant to captive nut was not captive out of the the package. A bit disappointing after parting with over $60 but generally Veritas are good so I put it down to a one off and fixed it myself.

I recommend the Veritas.

If you can find one, I'd go for a vintage #25 Stanley with genuine brazilian rosewood handles and proper bluing (I've got the 8" model). I was going to get one of the R Sorby ones but after I received a STAINED rosewood 10" 'gilt edge square' I'm not getting anything from them no more!

As always, at the upper end of the market: (prices in USD for eBay auctions)
$24.50 07/01/04 8", New condition, pat.3/16/1897
11.01 30/12/04 8", New condition, no box
39.02 16/02/04 10", new condition, BBTM
12.50 03/03/04 10", Mint condition
15.75 16/03/04 8", new condition, BBTM
28.53 05/04/04 8", new condition, BBTM
9.99 14/06/04 6", new condition, BBTM
26.00 08/07/04 6", new condition, AASW

There was a review of sliding bevels, including the Veritas, in Aus Wood Review recently. If I think of it tonight, I'll dig it out.

Well, as a sliding bevel is not a precision tool and as my good 50 year old sliding bevel went missing, and I had a desperate need for one, I just went out and bought one from Bunnings for $3.50 with a blue plastic stock and a nice chrome blade.

The colour makes it easy to find amongst all the crap on the bench and marks angles just fine.

Lou

Barry is right. Sliding bevels nearly all do the same job no matter what their cost. The only issue is the locking screw. With some designs the screw fouls the work on one side. Can be irritating and inconvenient. It is always pleasant to use good quality tools though.

At school we use Marples sliding bevels which are cheap enough to buy and work okay. The locking mechanism can be set badly in that the small metal bar that locks the bevel angle will lock with the bar sticking out to the side where it fouls any use of the device. But that is a 30 second job to permanently fix and once done the bevel does the job well. At home I also (as does a previous post) have a cheap blue plastic thing I bought years ago. It cost about $2 and looks like it is worth 50 cents but it works perfectly well. If you have a look in the Carbatec catalog you will find sliding bevels on page 62 and 63. The ones we use at school are on page 63 (cat no M2226/9) and currently cost about $38. On the other hand if you are a millionaire you can purchase the same thing from Bridge City Tools (page 68) for about $200. Mind you for $200 you get brass inlay which was mined from the mountains on the moon. But I suspect that my plastic one works nearly as well.

Hey Fellas

Thx everyone for the replys..............has been a great help. Seems to be a bit of a school of thought that a sliding bevel is not a precision tool and that a cheapie will easily do the job.

As a woodworker that went through to HSC level at high school after a straight edge and mitre square a sliding bevel used to be the next most used marking out and checking tool I used to use.

I can remember 2 sliding bevels working there way round the workshop. A mean and nasty plastic job with a great big wing nut used to lock the bevel at the desired angle and a well made golden oldie ......hardwood handle; rounded flat brass locknut etc.

For some reason the golden oldie was sought after and in many circumstances set up for use as a mitre square. This is just for me but I often used that sliding bevel as a flexable precision tool and enjoyed using it............At this satge the Veritas is looking good at a fairly reasonable price.

All thread comments appreciated

Regards Lou

Well here they are thought I better show them off ................... n helps justify the price knowing the Pics will make these particular tools famous

I could't help myself when ordering online...........n threw in the Veritas Dove Tail markers in to boot.............I used them over the last weekend while practicing Dovetails and couldn't fault either tools...........both doing everything there mean't to................ felt good in the hands................. versitile; handy and should last a lifetime...............Money well spent!!!!



Regards LoU

How a piccy of your dovetails?

Nice equipment. As mentioned earlier I have the small Veritas sliding bevel.