Hello Roger, et al,

This passage has been eating at me for a number of days now...I thank you for it...as it has been making my brain itch!!

For someone that has been at this and related crafts for so dang long and spent entirely too many sleepless nights in dusty stacks of documents (before they all got digitised...ha, ha) when I read something or hear something that seems out of context...it just won't let go of my brain.

This is not a "...a new reordering of knowledge that was truly lost and had to be regained," by any stretch of the imagination. The topic of Layout (with its many terms in multiple languages and traditions) and its many methods has kept many a Wright of Woods of all sorts from Shipwright to Cooper up pondering the methods. It has also been part of the..."general discussion," well before Jack's time, or any of his publications. He is well read and known now for instilling a great deal of interest in our craft with his wonderful published works...no doubt!! Nevertheless, he was not, nor is the progenitor of this topic contemporarily...not by any means. Many of us, way back in the 70's began (like generations before in these Wood Crafts) started asking and reading old text...or those around us passing on knowledge...how to lay out all manner of thing...from templating a Vase, to Long Coat and on to lofting a small Schooner or Timber Frame Barn.

So, on that note, what had eaten at me these past few days was...Where the heck did I read..."Square Rule," for the first time. I knew I was pretty sure "Edge Rule" was from my Amish Mentors, and I know I have heard Rudy C. and Ed L. both used these terms in discussions well before any of the books we have contemporarily publish on the subject today. I just couldn't pull out from my memory where I got to reading about Square Rul???

Today I am pretty sure I found the first source reference of which I read this burried in my notes...!!

"Civil Architecture" by Edward Shaw 1836 pg 143 from his chapter on Carpentry and the section on Framing. Shaw goes on to describe both Scribe Rule and Square Rule to some length.

There is more in other text that I am unable to gather at this time. I have been after this subject for some time now, and a number of us firmly believe the roots to Square Rule are in Shipwrighting, as this craft is closely related and connected to the work of the Timberwright both now and historically. During the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Layout became a focal point in many wood related industries...ship design and building be a major one, with framing (aka timber framing) being a firm second and/or equal..