Actually, that is his scratch stock.  I played around with it a bit.  He
calls that little block of rosewood his "universal holder."  All it is is a
small block of rosewood with a saw kerf in it, to hold the small scrap of
saw blade (which is what he uses - old trashed hand saws), with a hole
drilled and tapped to take the brass thumbscrew you see.  Tighten the
thumbscrew to hold the little scrap of saw blade; loosen to remove and put a
different profile in there.  He has a small roll of paper containing a
couple dozen bits of saw blade, all filed to different profiles.  He kept
saying "this is my Stanley 45 or 55."  The whole assembly literally would
fit in your pocket.

- Bill T.

-----Original Message-----
From: oldtools-bounces@r...
[mailto:oldtools-bounces@r...] On Behalf Of paul womack
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 4:57 AM
To: oldtools
Subject: [OldTools] Scratch stock

I have previously seen Hacks quick-and-dirty scratch stock.
In fact, having asked questions about it previously, I was lucky enough to
receive one in my most recent g-claus package (thanks Jim Crammond)

But the recent photos from Williamsburg reveal that he really likes this
design, even when not in a hurry:

http://picasaweb.google.com/hmc999/WilliamsburgConf2008/photo#51555295672824
08002

This appears to be a nicely fabricated "stockless"
scratch stock.

   BugBear
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