I get email from many different companies to promote one thing or other. Most of that is the result of making online purchases of tools or bits or screws or other supplies for use at work. I tend to at least glance through the email I get from these places, because I have purchased from them before, and I expect there might be a good deal or something I’m interested in.

At the beginning of last week, I got one such email trying to promote what is possibly the biggest rip-off I’ve ever seen in the world of woodworking. It was so amazing, I immediately had to send a link to John to see if there was something I was missing.

No, I wasn’t missing anything.

This week’s Offcuts does not mention any particular brand names to keep us from being harassed.

Well, a long time ago, after I had in my possession a hammer, a tape, a handsaw, a combination square, and a few other things, I bought a T-bevel. I’m sure most of you know what a T-bevel is and what it’s used for. Well, when I bought it, I didn’t have any particular use for it. I had some idea what it was for (this was a long, long time ago), but I generally only made things that were composed of 90 degree angles. Well, other than rough carpentry, of course, but who cares about precise angles when framing?

Still, it was pretty and on at a discount. In fact, I bought it at a clearance sale at a hardware store that was going out of business.

Over the past two decades, I have used it a few times.

Most times when I had a use for it, it was nowhere to be found and I quickly rigged something up to do its job.

Anyway, back to what I was talking about.

So, the email I got was promoting something called a Precision Bevel Gauge. It looks remarkably like a T-bevel but is roughly ten times the price. I guess it’s the precision that makes the cost higher. Oh, wait, a plastic T-bevel offers 100% precision. Doesn’t it?

Well, precision is metered by the ability of a tool to have repeatable results. So, used this time, it will give result A. Used another time, if it’s precise, it will give a result very very close to A. T-bevels, even the cheapest ones, practically all always give 100% repeatable results.

But that’s not actually important in this instance. What’s really happening here is a company is cashing in on people’s desire to have nice things to improve their ability to do good work. Everyone wants to make the family heirloom, the thing that will be appreciated and last throughout the ages. Everyone wants to make things that look like they’ve been made by a real craftsman. And, for a lot of people, those craftsman secrets are locked away in the tools a craftsman uses. Also, such charlatanism promotes the idea that you need a specialized manufactured tool for every little thing you do.

You know, you need some magic plastic contraption to hold your corners true at 90 degrees before you can clamp your box together. You need something to hold your wood every which way possible so you can make your cuts safely. You need this kind of jig to make this kind of hole to drive this kind of screw in this kind of joint. Every step of that operation will be made much easier if you buy all the different sizes.

You know, I once made a mistake cutting the pieces for a faceframe and found that I didn’t have enough length to cut the tenons at the ends of my pieces (I like mortise and tenon joinery). Instead of searching for a #10 biscuit and my almost-never-used biscuit joiner, I decided to quickly do a pocket screw. It worked beautifully. I mean, it’s still a butt joint, but it does have a screw in it to really hold it together.

I didn’t have a jig, though.

I’m not saying there is no value to many of these specialized tools. In fact, some people make heavy use of certain jigs and tools that others never in their lifetime touch, just because there are always a hundred different ways to achieve the same result. But I’m not a fan of all those things that claim to be so much better at the expense of other, more reasonable ways of doing the same thing. For example, I was just now reading an ad for a weird plastic contraption that claims to be safer to use than a push stick for ripping wood on a table saw. You need to adjust it for every change in width of cut. It actually puts your hand directly above the saw blade. Now, there is a significant hunk of plastic between the blade and your hand, so your hand is safe, but your arm follows the same path while the plastic obscures your view of the blade. Given how safe and secure it is, you’re far more likely to forget about your arm traveling just above the blade. Also, they are actually endorsing using this thing for ripping stock into strips as narrow as one-eighth of an inch thick.

Three times. I’d say you use that three times before the saw blade starts to eat it.

Ten times. I’d say you use that ten times and will forget to set it at least once, then you’ll cut it in half with the saw blade.

I feel sorry for anyone starting out on the road to being a woodworker. We no longer live in a culture that encourages people to make anything properly. The emphasis is always on how much you should be afraid to be hurt. My first experiences with learning how to make things, the most dangerous item in the room was the guy showing you what to do. Do something dangerous, he’d jump down your throat. Ah, but that was the way all trades used to be taught. Do it right or you’d be ridiculed for a week or more. Transference of fear is the way to go: don’t be afraid of the tools, be afraid of being an idiot.

My advice for the week is, before you purchase a specialized tool, especially if it has a high price tag, ask yourself (a) what does this thing do and (b) will I be doing that very much and (c) do I know of some way to do it that just uses the tools I already have. Practice the great art of simplification. Try to do as much as possible with as little as possible. And, of course, if you can make something yourself, go right ahead and do it.

I’m pretty sure someone around here can show you how to make a T-bevel very cheaply, easily, and quickly.