Adze & sledge gauge

S

Square_peg

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Feb 1, 2012
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Ever wondered what angle to put on your adze or to dress that sledgehammer face? Here's a gauge you can match the tool up to.

RR%20Tool%20Gauge.jpg


My track chisel head and spike maul fit the gauge pretty closely. My adze is very slightly more acute. The chisel point of my track chisel is a little thin which may account for the chip.

This gauge is made of 1/8" brass and is 5 inches wide. I scaled the image accordingly. If you wish to copy it you should make sure your image is scaled to 5" wide.

I live near the abandoned CMStP&P grade - now a favorite trail. I collect artifacts and tools from this railroad. With the adze & sledge tie-in this thing was a natural buy for me.
 
Fascinating! Can't imagine those are too commonly found.
 
What a prize! Who'd even a figgered or known such a thing existed. I wonder how they reprofiled a sledge face back then? Apprentice on the end of a file for as long as it took?
 
That is terrific! Slip an axe gauge on their and talk to someone with axess to a CNC machine.
 
Not really. I would have to be newer than 1928 when they added "& Pacific" to the name and likely before the final bankruptcy in 1977.

My guess would be 1930's. This much brass wouldn't have been used during the war. And while the tools were still in use in the 1950's this just doesn't feel like that new of item.

Agent H, I could cut an axe gauge into that bottom 'V' but I just couldn't bring myself to modify this.
 
Square_peg said:
Agent H, I could cut an axe gauge into that bottom 'V' but I just couldn't bring myself to modify this.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't suggest messing with one! I was thinking you could use that one as a template, add an axe gauge in design, and maybe chat with someone with access to a CNC machine, make a series of them.

You could even use your forum handle in the naming of it - the "Square_peg"

Plastic, steel, titanium! Years from now someone's kid might be asked to get the "Square's Gauge" from the tool rack.

I'll stop now. I don't like to waste a pot of coffee.

That thing is pretty neat though.
 
Warren Tool (of Ohio) had smaller versions of that gauge:

$_57.JPG

s-l1600.jpg


The older one is stamped "Grinding Gauge" and "Warren Tool & Forge Co." (the company name used up to 1932, according to the Directory of Obsolete Securities, 1972)

The newer one is stamped "Grinding Gage" and "Warren Tool Corp." (the company name used from 1932 onward), and has an additional cutout.
 
My pleasure! I use that method for rapid prototyping on cardboard so I've gotten pretty fast at it. :D
 
Three open source programs. Inkscape to do the trace as a scalable vector graphic, which I then get to the correct scale and export as a .PNG file. I use PosteRazor to make a 1:1 scale printing .PDF file that will tile large drawings on multiple sheets of paper that you overlay. However, PosteRazor wants to work with .JPG files, so I use GIMP to convert the .PNG to .JPG format first. So it goes InkScape --> GIMP --> PosteRazor.
 
I just use the pen/bezier curve tool to do the trace, then group the elements and use the measurement tool to assist in the scaling. Pretty simple once you get used to the curve tool manipulation. :)
 
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