Why I posted on making the Paul Sellers' dovetail template

Some time back I posted how to make my dovetail template because of all the ones I have made through the the years this was the one I felt to be the best. My reason for passing it on was of course to ensure its future in the tradition of would be craftsmen making their own as had happened with me would continue as a non-commercial enterprise. I have patterns for forty such designs I have either designed or made through the years. The key thing for me was of course making your own.  I recently noticed something that did sadden me though and that was that a commercial maker took the freely given guide and made it their commercial product to sell in their product line. Should they have asked? I'll let you be the judge.

Of course making your own is free, it provides training and it helps woodworkers to establish new skills. That has generally been the reason we do what we do. It also means that it is very affordable. On the other hand the now commercial version is available in commonly available wood at $25 a pop using materials that cost almost nothing so the profit margins are very high for them, and offering a set of three at the discounted price of $65 means even higher profits of somewhere around say $60. Anyway, they are using something they call resin infused figured maple when just about any ordinary non infused hardwood left for five minutes in thin superglue does the same thing if indeed the wood was even a problem which of course we know is not. The inference that it gives greater stability is of course poppycock when the natural stability of the wood is already way beyond  what’s needed.

My thought is that you still only need one marker with a 1-7 pitch but as they take only fifteen minutes to make you can make others as needed in the moment.

I ask that you continue the tradition and make your own. Here is the link on making it and also there is the video on YouTube too. Keeping it alive for me is important. Students in my classes make them and we have taught over 5,500 students to make their own as part of the courses they take. Online of course the numbers increase to hundreds of thousands and I like the idea that it’s a continuing tradition that was dying out until my blog post.