Marking Sticks

A "story stick". See:

Don't know about woodturning - I think it's just called a gauge in that case.

But for general carpentry my late Dad often used a piece of lath he called a story stick - with measurements marked on with pencil or occasionally a saw-cut for a specific job. He reused some, kept others for repeat jobs.

He also used a simple adjustable sliding stick for measuring recesses, which he called a pinch stick or pinch rod. With that, a bevel gauge, and a profile gauge (i.e. his finger), he could fit a shelf perfectly into an uneven recess in a few minutes - all with hand tools.

I still follow his advice to gauge rather than measure whenever possible.

John

Some call them "story sticks"

I recall some of the oldtimers used to call them shooting sticks. Nowadays I hear story boards or story sticks. If you need to do a LOT of one pattern, you can insert metal points in the edge of your stick (cut the heads off brads, or, easier to adjust for even height, insert screws from the back of the stick until the points protrude) and simply hold the stick up to the spinning wood to make all your marks at once.

-mike paulson, fort collins, co