Is this Scribe Mortising Gauge EBONY or ROSEWOOD? and who made it?

[gtarmkr]

Hi, I have a weird Mortising Gauge. I do not know if the marks are the maker or just the owner. It says FIGUYMEY? or F.GUYMER. The wood is really dense, and is BLACK. It looks to dark to be rosewood, and it is heavy. It measures 11" long. Any info would greatly be appreciated.

[rusty]

Since it just says GUYMER on the end, I'd lean toward F.I.Guymer.
Guymer is a proper name, and I did find a F.I.Guymer listed on one of the geneology sites (1909) , probably immigrating, Liverpool to Manitoba, perhaps from Middlesex.

Going way way out on a limb tho.....

Could be Ebony, ebony has a lot of variation, including a red streaky type...
(I'm more used to seeing the pure black type, once set up a wood lathe for a fellow making pins or thumb pieces or such for instruments; strange wood...)

[Branson]

Looks like ebony to me.  And I would say it is craftsman made, by Mr. Guymer.  Quite a few professional wood workers made their own, and why not?  Their competence was shown in the tools they made.  With marking gauges, almost all were made with wedges. 

It wasn't (isn't) just because of difficulties with threading; with a wedged fence, you can change the depth with one hand.  All traditional Viet-Namese wood workers make their own and will tell you a wedge is best because of the one hand operation.  I have several of these.

I have also one that was in an English tool box that was craftsman made and wedged.  It was specifically made for marking mortises.  The fellow had set two scribes (nails) on each side of each end of the bar.  They marked the width of 8 of his chisels, and the measurement of the space was marked on each side.  The man really believed in saving time!

[gtarmkr]

Thanks Rusty and Branson. I think it is Ebony. I wish they had a Rosewood Ebony test kit. When you tap it with your fingernail it makes a high pitch sound. It is a very dense wood. Rusty, Ebony is defiantly a strange wood. When you cut it, it gives off a unique smell. It chips easily on the edges also. The maker is still a mystery. But it does look like someones custom made piece, by how long it is. And like branson mentioned by using the wedges probably easier to make by hand. 

[scottg]

 At 11" long its inbetween a marking gauge and a panel gauge. But generally too long to be considered marking.
  Almost has to be,.. most commonly said.............
1  user made if you don't like it much, (especially if you specialize in collecting factory tools exclusively)
2 craftsman made if you like it but not a lot,
3 bench made if you like it better than that,
4 custom hand made if you really like it,
5 museum grade if it knocks your socks off.

  Humans are odd.  They make up different words for the same thing, to tell you how they personally feel about something.
  These get mixed around a lot from the order of my list, but as a toolmaker, I hear all different things.

 Besides ebony there is African blackwood? The guy could have had something to with woodwind instruments which always specified blackwood.
  Its sort of lightweight as far as thickness and no metal wear strips, so it wasn't worked hard year in and year out, whatever it was made for. 
 
  With time, many other woods turn black. Cocobolo will turn black and some rosewoods will too, ironwood (of which there are a zillion kinds), etc, etc.
  I have a western black oak towel rack I can see from here. It is now pitch black in only a dozen years just hanging there.
  Funny, the towel bar, turned from the same stuff is still light, but the frame could be ebony from 6 feet away.

  just ruminatin' on a Sunday
 yours Scott