"Fourth. Dress down the edge, making it square with the working face, and testing its whole length with the try square. This is the 'joint edge' ([Fig. 116]).
"Fifth. Set the marking gauge, as shown in [Fig. 117], holding it in the left hand and the rule in the right, to two inches, the width of the finished piece. The reason for this is that the scale on the gauge stick is sometimes inaccurate.
"With the gauge block against the joint edge, gauge a line the entire length of the working face. In doing this, the gauge may be used in either hand, and in fact it is well to practise so as to be able to use either at will. The tool should always be pushed from you, and at the same time tilted from you, until the steel point makes only a fine line. If it is held upright, the point will try to follow the grain, which is very seldom parallel with the edge.
Fig. 116. Steps in the process of squaring up stock
"You have now laid out on the working face your first dimension—the width.
"Sixth. Plane down the edge opposite to the joint edge, almost to the gauge line just drawn. Remember that the tendency is always to take off too much, and when a piece is too small there is no way of making it larger, but if it is left a little too large, it is a simple matter to take off one more shaving. In other words, always be on the safe side, and take off too little rather than too much. Test this edge to see that it is square with working face before reaching the gauge line. Get into the habit of marking all high spots with a pencil, and planing out the marks.
