8 Siding Spar Gauge

25 Jul 22:

Once we get the Nutshell Pram mast tapered we need to mark it so we can shape it to 8 sides. A spar gauge is the way to go, so I made one.  But I had to overthink it for a while...

Marked and cut out a piece of spruce to make the guide. Used standard 7-10-7 dimensions, gleaned from Greg Rossel's book on boatbuilding.

Now what size hole to drill for a Ticonderoga #2 pencil? Turns out it wasn't 1/4" or 5/16". So off to the hardware store, thinking maybe 9/32" would work. Not wanting to make 3 trips, I bought 2 other bits as well.

9/32" bit did the trick. Drilled one extra hole just to confuse estate sale people down the road. You might spot the new Crescent Nicholson round file and handle we bought, general purpose, didn't have one this small, because another option would have been to round out the 1/4" hole a little.