What is this?

[Andrew Swartz]

Any guesses on what this is? It has me stumped.

tool1.jpgtool2.jpg

[Jim Belair]

For marking circles?

[Larry McGarrah]

It is a long scribe?

[jamie shard]

For marking circles?

+1

My guess a non-adjustable circle marker. Pivot is away from the handle, the marking knife would go where the wedge is. It looks like there is a roller in the base of the handle, right?

[Ben Beckham]

Looks like a plane tote attached to an arm and made into a compass-type marking tool. It has to be craftsman-made for some unique job.

[george wilson]

A cutting gauge,I believe.

[Gary Hodgin]

I have no idea, but that's a nice table top.

[James Owen]

It looks like a panel gauge with a tote added to make it easier to control the movement while marking, but the fence appears to be missing.....

[John Toigo]

It's variously called a Panel Gauge or a Veneer Cutter. Some have blades in them & some have marking pins. It works like a regular marking gauge only (usually) much larger.

[Michael Titus]

Also called a "slitting gauge". It's missing its fence; the hole at the end was probably used for hanging the tool on a hook. Graham Blackburn describes it on page 20 of the May 1994 issue of Popular Woodworking:

"The big cousins of the cutting gauges are called slitting gauges. These often have a stem as long as eighteen inches or more, fitted with a commensurately beefy stock. The end of the stem housing the blade is usually fitted with a handle similar to that of a jack plane. This is not merely a convenience for a large and otherwise unwieldly gauge-type tool, but is a necessary requirement for a cutting edge that needs a certain amount of pressure to be applied over the blade. To facilitate forward movement while this pressure is being applied, better models are fitted with a small wheel or roller directly under the handle."

[Zach Dillinger]

A cutting gauge,I believe.

Yep, a cutting gauge. Used to cut thin stock for door panels and the like, as well as mark large panels out for sawing. It's missing the fence, but should be easy to make a replacement.

[harry strasil]

notice the roller on the bottom of the handle so you can put lots of pressure down to sometimes slit thin drawer bottoms.

[harry strasil]

Its amazing how much slitting woodworkers of the past did. Its much quicker than sawing and there is much less wasted material as shavings on the floor. All of Stanleys combination planes eventually included a slitting blade and after using the process several times it becomes a habit. Some of the things use a slitter of one type or another are; slitting banding to width for inlay work, and after making a new style slitting blade similar to a thin skew angle chisel, slitting the inside edge of a rebate, slitting the first couple of passes for dados, and for accurately removing a narrow strip from the edge of a slightly too wide piece prior to edge jointing.

[Joshua Clark]

Yup- it's a handled slitting gauge missing its fence. These are not terribly common but they do come up from time to time. Many are craftsman-made but some were made and marked by planemakers. Here are pictures of a few I've had:

A really nice craftsman-made example

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More Pictures Here

and this professionally made example:

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More Pictures Here

Josh

[Andrew Swartz]

Thanks to all who replied. Joshua, it looks exactly like the slitting gauges you posted. What confused me is the presence of the little wheel in the bottom of the handle. It is unclear to me what benefit the wheel provides.