A MARKING GAUGE OR A PENCIL

​A pencil certainly has it's place and if you have ever been around a home builder you've seen the famous pencil on the ear, keeping it readily available to mark that two by four or piece of sheet rock. But in the world of furniture building it's different especially when laying out joinery. 
The problem I have with using a pencil for laying out joinery is the inconsistency a pencil line creates. With a traditional marking gauge it cuts a line creating as close to a zero inconsistency as you can get, while making a nice crisp edge for your joinery but like a lot of things in woodworking everyone has their ideas and or preferences.
​Marking gauges are made in several different styles and I'm not here to write that book,  but I can tell you that my preference is a gauge with a knife over a wheel or a pin.  It's that nice crisp cut line it creates removing the guess work that goes with using a pencil. 
Imagine taking a piece of stock and measuring in one inch then with your pencil and a square mark your cut line, the question becomes where in reference to that pencil line do you cut to be completely accurate ? Now using your marking gauge mark the same cut and if you take a minute at your bench and try this exercise the difference between the two approaches is clear.  ​
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