Fig. 14.
The bridge builders’ steel square, which is illustrated in [Fig. 14], is also made by this company. This square has a blade three inches wide, which is made with a slot down the center one inch wide. The tongue is the same as in the No. 100 square, but has no figures for brace or octagon rules. It is not so handy for general purposes as the regular square, but for special purposes in bridge building, or for laying out very heavy timber structures it has special advantages, as 3-inch shoulders and 3-inch tenons and mortises can be readily laid out with it. Another square, shown in [Fig. 15], known as the “machinists’ square,” is made by this company. It has a blade 6 inches and a tongue 4 inches long, and is very finely finished. This square is found very useful for pattern makers, piano and organ builders, and where other especially close work is required. A number of other squares are made by this firm, but as they are not intended for woodworkers’ use, I will not describe them here.
Fig. 15.
I would not complete this description of Sargent’s make of squares if I failed to make mention of their “bench square.” I give this name to it because of its fitness for bench purposes. The square referred to has a blade 12 inches long and 1½ inches wide, and a tongue 9 inches long and 1 inch wide. The figuring on it is divided into inches, half inches, quarter inches, eighths and sixteenths of an inch. This is a very handy square for bench and jobbing purposes, and can be used in many places where the larger tool is unavailable, and may on emergency be employed for laying out rafters, braces and similar work. A square that was quite popular some sixteen or eighteen years ago known as “The Crenalated Square,” an illustration of which is shown in [Fig. 16], is still preferred by many workmen. The peculiarity of this square is that the inner edge of the tongue is notched or crenalated, as shown in the illustration, the notches being intended as “gauge-points,” where a sharpened pencil may be inserted, then the square may be drawn along the timber or board, with the blade held snug against the edge, as shown, and mortises or tenons can be laid out at will.
Besides being crenalated, these squares have all the advantages of other squares, and are well made and pleasant to handle. They are made by the manufacturers, The Peck, Stowe & Wilcox Co., of Southington, Conn., in polished steel, copper plated, blued, with enameled white figures, and in nickel plate.
Fig. 16.
It is the simplest of tools, and may be described as the mechanical embodiment of a right angle. It must necessarily have some breadth in order to give the tool necessary stability, and, therefore, as the embodiment of a right angle it is of a form to give us both the exterior and interior shape. The blade of the square is made a little wider than the tongue, more for convenience, I think, than for any other reason, for I have seen squares somewhat old, to be sure, and made long before the tools which are now in most common use were sent out from the factory, of which the blade and tongue were approximately of the same width.