60 degree miter square

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Everyone’s got a 45 degree miter square and probably a few 90 degree try squares, but I’ve got some projects in the queue that are going to need 60 degree angles, so I decided I needed to make a miter square.

O1 tool steel for the blade, treated with Birchwood Casey Plum Brown. Sapele for the body with a #7x15mm finger groove on both sides. Brass screws holding the two bits together, and some brass square tubing to protect the end-grain on the body. Assembled over the course of three mornings.

May you have the day you deserve!

13 Comments

That looks great Dave! I usually make a quick guide out of a piece of scrap plywood. 
Nice.  So my question is: how did you make sure that it is 60°?

--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.

Nice!

Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".

Dave, 

Nice 60 degree you made.  like the Sapele body wood.

daveg, SW Washington & AZ

Thanks, folks!

Nathan, I used it to make a mark at 60 degrees both ways from a straight edge, then laid it down and looked to see if the two lines (which should be 60 degrees apart) lined up with the sides of the square.

I also checked the 120 degree side against a hexagonal box I have. Everything was within a pencil-line thickness are 4 inches from the vertex, which is good enough for the work I'll be doing.

Dave, I bought a 8/4 x 8 x 6 foot board of sapele at the local lumber yard for far too much a couple years back. I've been taking small pieces off it (sometimes quarter sawn, sometimes rift-sawn) for tools for a couple years now. It's good looking stuff.

May you have the day you deserve!

Fancy miter square.  But is it a square if it is 60 deg? Either way, it looks great and it also looks like it will be very reliable.
I really like the look of this tool, looks like the tools of old, when tools were made to look beautiful & made with pride. 
`I think I see some diamond inlay work coming up.

Regards Rob

Thanks, guys! Note that this square is similar construction to the ones I made for BigShooter in a swap back in 2021. Those were Khaya instead of sapele, but otherwise pretty much the same. I had even planned to make this 60°︎ version back then. Only took me three years to get to it.

May you have the day you deserve!