Squares (lay out squares)

[Frank S]

My Grand pa was a farmer for almost as long as I can remember but before he retired he worked as a finished carpenter and cabinet maker.
He had a lot of wooden hand planes, and squares made out of wood with ornate curves and a wooden level that he had made. I can remember stories he told us kids as to why this curve or that curve was cut into the squares. It seems to me that he probably made the curves to suit his needs and the squareness of the 2 sides was only an after thought, also some were made as set angles not squares at all.
His last name was Mathes a cousin to George Curtis Mathes which was probably why we had several Mathes box fans and a Mathes radio