Car boot squares

On Sunday morning my students and I met at 8am to check out the local car boot sales. There wasn't much there, but I found two squares for £1.00.

As I sanded away the rust from the combination square the name of the maker emerged and I discovered a Rabone Chesterman square model 1812.

The second square was by Crown of Sheffield here in the UK; not old but sound, of good steel, pleasing brass and solid beech. Now, as you can see, they don't look much really, but let's look at the wretched things a little more closely. Say you've got little money and  and need a square as part of your new kit. It would be easy to snub these two, accepting that first appearances count. Within a few minutes the squares started to look a little healthier and once de-rusted and checked for truth I found them both dead square*.

Fine surface pitting is soon removed by abrasion with 250-grit paper and further refined to about 400-grit. A spot of oil over all surfaces coats the steel to prevent ingress of moisture.

The wood stock on the Crown square had no finish and so I applied three coats of shellac followed by furniture polish applied with steel wool and buffed out with a shoeshine brush.

*I have made it a policy never to admit a non-square square to ever remain in the shop so it's now the square is tested for absolute truth.

Here are the end results of my work