Set square

[Philip Davies]

In 1984, Wally Faulkner was teaching Institute of Carpenters C & J class at Reading Tech and told us how, as a young man, when he arrived on site, the foreman allowed the chippies 15 minutes to make themselves a saw stool. This would have been in the Fifties.

Now, I was quite intrigued by this, because, having made a pair myself, and puzzled over the angles, I thought that was not a lot of time, considering that you cut four housings in the top, a tongue on each leg, and two cleats, before nailing. O and of course the legs are also angled at the bottom.

Wally took a template to work in his bag. Imagine going to work on a bike, with all your tools on the handlebars! But he didn’t show us this until a later lesson.

So, I began practising, making quarter size saw stools. I had the advantage of a workbench with a vice. The best I could do was twenty two minutes.

This set square has the angles you need. Twice the length of the stock is the length of the leg.

Wally's template is worth a post on its own.