Founded in 1843, the Stanley Works of New Britain, Connecticut, has a lengthy and rich history as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of quality hand tools and hardware items.

Having grown up not far from New Britain, I always took great pride in knowing that many of the tools used by my dad, a remodeling contractor, were produced just up the road.

In fact, several of my most treasured tools were made by Stanley and handed down to me by my father, including a Yankee spiral ratchet screwdriver (the original cordless screwdriver), a low-angle block plane, and the sliding bevel square shown above.

To construct out how I use that one (and why they don’t manufacture ‘em like they used to) read on.

This specific model square, the No. 18 Stanley, was produced in the
early 1940s, and features an 8-inch-long slotted blade that’s fitted to
a precisely machined solid steel handle.

It has a heft and rock-solid
feel that you just don’t get with contemporary bevel squares, which typically
have plastic or wooden handles. I recently saw an identical bevel
square to my No. 18 Stanley for sale on Ebay; opening bid: $60.

However, what I love most about that tool (besides the fact that my
dad gave it to me) is its locking mechanism, which is

positioned at the
end of the handle, well out of the way of the blade.

Most contemporary bevel
squares have a thumbscrew located at the intersection of the blade and
handle, which I’m certain is cheaper to produce, but it’s a terrible
design.

The thumbscrew always seems to be in the way, preventing the square
from laying flat against a surface.

It doesn’t sound like much of an
inconvenience, but you’d be surprised how many times during a job that
the obtrusive thumbscrew requires you to flip by the square and
reposition the blade.

The sliding bevel square, which is plus known as a T-bevel or
adjustable bevel square, is an indispensable tool for laying out,
copying, measuring, and marking virtually any angle.

I used mine
recently to determine the angles of out-of-square wall corners during
the installation of interior trim, including chair rail and crown
moldings. I measured the angle, locked it in, and transcribed it to my miter saw to manufacture the cut.

The T-bevel’s plus great for accurately setting the blade angles on
table saws, circular saws, and for adjusting the
drilling angles on drill presses.

More:

See our gallery of heirloom tools

And a few router bits that reproduce an antique Stanley plane

Orginal post by Joseph Truini