Marking knife recommendation
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18 July 2017 at 9:45 am #313789
I’m looking to buy a marking knife, and I’ve noticed that some of the reviews on Amazon for the
Stanley Folding Pocket Knife 0 10 598
mention that Paul Sellers has recommended this knife in the past. I was all set to buy it, but then noticed that the blade has a dual bevel…. shouldn’t a marking knife have a single bevel, on the same side as your dominant hand?
18 July 2017 at 11:56 am #313794Personally, I like the triangle tipped model that has 2 bevels on the same side and is flat on the back. It allows me to mark on the right and left of where I need to mark.
Yes, the knife Paul recommends has a two-sided bevel. You simply tilt the blade to get it to run along the rule without a gap. It takes two seconds to learn how to do. You can then use either side of the blade, as needed. I own a couple “real” marking knives, and Paul’s is my favorite. I suspect you can make anything work as long as you understand how to lean the knife and as long as the knife is sharp.
Besides using it as a marking knife, Paul uses his as an all around shop knife as someone might use the ubiquitous trapezoidal bladed utility knife.
The blades for these knives are only .040 thick which puts the sharpened edge just .020 from the flat side of the blade.
The Sellers-endorsed knife has several things going for it. It’s cheap. The blades are thin, appropriately shaped, replaceable and resharpenable. It can be safely carried in your pocket. Besides, it’s cheap.
I have one and it works well as a marking knife but for marking purposes I usually use one of these:
Mine is an old one that I bought used somewhere for a dollar or less. I cut the blade down to about 2 1/2″ and reshaped the tip. I haven’t seen the new ones but mine tapers straight from the back to almost nothing at the edge with an insignificant bevel. “Perfect!”
Dave
I started with a flat-backed marking knife, but then went to the other marking knife recommended by Paul, the Swann Morton scalpel/marking knife — IIRC the model number is the SM00.
It’s basically the same thing as Paul’s Stanley, but has a narrower handle, which I prefer to the wider Stanley. Blades are re-sharpenable and replaceable and extremely inexpensive, and as Ed says, tilting to one side is a trivial exercise.
18 July 2017 at 7:09 pm #313823It really depends on personal preference, generally for most things the Stanley knife works just fine just tilt the blade as has been said, for that matter chip carving knives work just aswell.
A lot of people seem to like the spearpoint single beveled knives like the Veritas, downside is that they are pretty much useless for anything but marking.
The Japanese Kiridashi(Kogatana) seem also quite popular though you have to get a pair (right and left beveled) of them. The Japanese use them as kinda multipurpose knifes, smaller variants without a Handle seem perfect for getting into really tight spots though.
It really depends on the kinda work you wanna do, both the Stanley and the Kiridashi, or any western counterpart, seem more versatile than the Spearpoint thats ofc no issue if you’re looking for a pure marking knife.
If you plan to do any Veneering at all then absolutely go with a single bevel knife, they work alot better with a straightedge for long/wide sheets of Veneer where dead on precision without deviation is needed.Seeing as none of the knives are that expensive you can probably afford to try out more then one variety.
19 July 2017 at 4:51 pm #313866[quote quote=313823]It really depends on personal preference, generally for most things the Stanley knife works just fine just tilt the blade as has been said, for that matter chip carving knives work just aswell.
A lot of people seem to like the spearpoint single beveled knives like the Veritas, downside is that they are pretty much useless for anything but marking.
The Japanese Kiridashi(Kogatana) seem also quite popular though you have to get a pair (right and left beveled) of them. The Japanese use them as kinda multipurpose knifes, smaller variants without a Handle seem perfect for getting into really tight spots though.
It really depends on the kinda work you wanna do, both the Stanley and the Kiridashi, or any western counterpart, seem more versatile than the Spearpoint thats ofc no issue if you’re looking for a pure marking knife.
If you plan to do any Veneering at all then absolutely go with a single bevel knife, they work alot better with a straightedge for long/wide sheets of Veneer where dead on precision without deviation is needed.Seeing as none of the knives are that expensive you can probably afford to try out more then one variety.
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Good points – I did just that! On first impressions, I like the Stanley one best.
27 July 2017 at 9:48 pm #314083What you guys exactly mean by tilting the blade?
As I use the Stanley and sometimes when making knife walls all across the last points don’t exactly match.
27 July 2017 at 10:43 pm #314084What you guys exactly mean by tilting the blade?
The Stanley blade has two bevels that produce the sharp edge.assuming the work is in the horizontal plane, Just offer the knife to the work to one side so that one of the
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bevels
is vertical, instead of the whole blade being vertical.
As I use the Stanley and sometimes when making knife walls all across the last points don’t exactly match.
The likely culprit is not the knife, but rather that the work hasn’t been prepared square and parallel beforehand.
25 August 2017 at 7:40 pm #314681Ive started using an exacto knive.Used the stanley, ive got a nice lil pocket knive that flattened one side of one blade on that i lkie too, but the exCTO IS MY NEW FAV..
10 September 2017 at 3:09 pm #315752I haven’t used a “proper” marking knife for right now I just use a snap knife
Tried for months to buy one of those Paul Sellers Stanley knives.
They were sold-out everywhere (the Paul Sellers Effect).
When I tried later, Amazon could only ship the handle – ‘cos knives are sharp. Paying with a Credit Card didn’t change their stance.
So I use a regular old Stanley Knife – the type you’d use to lay carpets etc.[quote quote=317865]Tried for months to buy one of those Paul Sellers Stanley knives.
They were sold-out everywhere (the Paul Sellers Effect).
When I tried later, Amazon could only ship the handle – ‘cos knives are sharp. Paying with a Credit Card didn’t change their stance.
So I use a regular old Stanley Knife – the type you’d use to lay carpets etc.[/quote]
got mine here (assumes you’re in the U.S.):
21 October 2017 at 11:24 am #338145I use a pound-shop plastic snap-off knife and it works just fine.
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