Chris,

I did ask the question on the Japanese Tools Forum but haven't been getting any answers there.

I will also be attending your seminar on timber framing at the Shizutani School next month and will no doubt be a thorn in your side asking all kinds of questions. Beware!

Using a story pole doesn't seem required when creating one-off furniture. I like the trammel idea because I find it a bit dangerous holding four legs of a table together and marking across them with a square. If one leg is out of parallel you may get wrong readings on the other three.

The board used to hold the trammel points can act as a crude story pole.

By using a trammel you can lay out some key lines which may not necessarily be marked. For instance you may mark the height of a stetcher but it isn't knifed. Therefore, you could be off the width of a pencil line. What would be knifed is the location of the mortise for example. However, the location of a drawer stretcher is really important. My feeling is that the only really crucial part of furniture layout would be the drawer heights and widths. Evertyhing else in furniture-making has built-in adjustments.

Sorry to digress from the purpose of this forum, I just wanted to stir up some kind of talk and hear what your forum member's views are.

Regards,

Robert Gurney