Wheel Marking Gauge

identity

Name: Wheel Marking Gauge (also "wheel gauge," "disc gauge," used interchangeably in the sourced literature)
Regional / alternate names: Glen-Drake Tite-Mark (a prominent branded example, developed 2001); Veritas Wheel Marking Gauge, Micro-Adjust Wheel Marking Gauge, Dual Marking Gauge (Lee Valley's separately engineered line)
Family / category: Layout and marking tools → Edge-referenced scribing gauges → knife-bladed branch. The family is defined by its fence-guided circular single-bevel knife, not by any one adjustment mechanism. Coaxial or differential micro-adjustment, anti-rotation features, cutter recess, beam length and lock architecture are variant fields (see anatomy).
Scope: this entry covers the common fixed-disc form (Tite-Mark and common Veritas gauges), where the cutter is held still during the stroke. Historical and other disc gauges, including later patents with a rotatable marking disc, may differ and are not covered by statements about "the wheel gauge" below.
One line: A Marking Gauge whose knife is a circular single-bevel disc fixed at the end of a beam, used to incise a line parallel to a reference edge. A relative of the Cutting Gauge, with a circular rather than a straight blade.

how NOT to use it

not-for

• Arbitrary layout lines or lines with no usable reference edge within reach; use a knife and straightedge or square instead.
• A line the gauge cannot hold because the grain keeps drawing the cutter off the reference edge even after reversing the stroke; stop and use another layout method. (The earlier "long with-grain" ban and the "pin rides the grain valley" contrast are withdrawn: following the grain is generally a defect in an edge-referenced parallel line, and the maker describes the standard wheel gauge as usable across, along and on end grain.)
• Using any wheel gauge on a model the user has not read the maker's instructions for, particularly for cutter removal, sharpening and reinstallation.

dangerous (risk assessment; the absence of a located injury account is not evidence of safety)

Foreseeable harms: contact with the sharp disc, a hand entering the cutter path when the work is poorly held, and loss of control or line accuracy from a loose or damaged cutter or an unregistered fence. A sharp cutter with light repeat passes is more controllable than a dull cutter forced (the reviewer's safety notes [manual, relayed]; the "more passes, not more pressure" instruction is in the Dual guide, read).

Controls:

• Before use, inspect. Check the cutter is sharp, seated, undamaged and secure without overtightening; check the fastener, beam, lock and fence [manual, relayed]. Keep the fence's reference face clean [manual, relayed].
• Secure and support the work so it cannot move under the pass [manual, relayed]; the gauge is pushed or pulled against it.
• Keep fingers out of the cutter path. Hold the work and gauge so hands stay behind and away from the cutting path [manual, relayed]. At extended reach the Lee Valley guide's three-finger grip keeps the thumb and middle finger behind the fence.
• Light, controlled passes. Do not force a deep cut; make additional passes (Dual guide, read). Start lightly, watch the line.
• Do not overtighten adjustment knobs or the cutter screw (Dual guide, read). Use the maker's procedure for the fastener, since torque and thread design vary by model.
• Stop if the cutter loosens, wobbles, chatters or tracks unexpectedly. A loose cutter is a fault, not a stroke-direction problem to manage. Stop, retract or guard the edge, inspect the screw, washer, thread and cutter seating, and correct or replace the faulty parts before resuming [manual, relayed]. Do not continue a pass in "the safe direction" to compensate. (The cheaper-gauge forum reports above are one model-specific example of the same fault.)
• Handling the removed disc. At removal, sharpening and reinstallation the edge is exposed. Handle the disc by its non-cutting surfaces [manual, relayed]. For the Veritas Dual, the maker's method turns the wheel on a stone or 320-grit sandpaper with the eraser end of a pencil rather than with fingers on the edge (Dual guide, read). Do not hold the disc by its circumference while it is being worked on a stone.
• Reinstall correctly. Bevel orientation matters (Dual guide: one bevel facing the fence, one away). An incorrectly reinstalled cutter can cut the user or spoil the work [manual, relayed].
• Retract or guard the edge for storage and transport. Retract the wheel into the fence or gauge-face recess where the model provides one (Standard page and Dual guide, read); otherwise guard the edge [manual, relayed]. Do not leave the gauge loose among other tools or where hands reach in.
• Repair is not a beginner improvisation. Stripped threads, damaged cutters and assemblies the user is unsure of go back to the maker's instructions or an experienced hand.
• Personal protective equipment: none is stated by the maker pages read in this pass; this entry does not invent any. Lee Valley's pages read here contain no explicit safety statement; the controls above are the maker's practical instructions plus the reviewer's safety notes.

damaging

• A loosening cutter mount, as in the cheaper-gauge forum reports (Williams and Palmer, 2007): a model-specific failure that degrades accuracy and is a safety fault. Fix the cause (screw, washer, thread, seating) rather than adopting a stroke-direction habit.
• Improvised doubling of cutters for mortise marking: faint lines (Cohen), and uneven cutter engagement is a risk the original run asserted without a source; treated here as unverified.
• Repositioning or sharpening without the maker's procedure: can seat the cutter incorrectly, damage the screw or leave a dull edge in service [manual, relayed].
• Overtightening the adjustment knobs or cutter screw (Dual guide, read).

beginner-trap

• Assuming "wheel" means the cutter rolls, or that the disc cannot follow grain. It is a fixed disc on the common forms and can follow grain; reverse the stroke when it does.
• Treating one model's instructions as the family's. Read the exact gauge's instructions.
• Buying the cheapest imitator and assuming all wheel gauges behave equally; Schwarz documents head rotation under load and knob durability issues on cheap copies.
• Expecting the small fence to track an edge as well as a traditional wide-fenced gauge; register it firmly.

lineage-misuse

• Running it exactly like a traditional Cutting Gauge and assuming the wide-fence habits transfer.
• Presenting the Tite-Mark as "the first wheel gauge." Walker's 1887 patent is the earliest circular-cutter example located in this research. Whether Drake's development was independent is the accounts' reading, not a proven fact.

correct use

What it is genuinely good at. An edge-referenced line parallel to a sound reference edge within the beam's reach. Lee Valley's guide (read 2026-10-16) says wheel cutters make clean lines both with and across the grain, that a wheel gauge has the easiest learning curve of the gauge types, can be pulled or pushed, and is useful as a transfer tool (for example carrying a mortise depth to a tenon's length). The Standard page says the hardened wheel cuts fibers instead of tearing them and scribes at any point on its circumference.

How to use it well, briefly (the workbench holds the deep operation). Follow the exact gauge's maker for push versus pull and for the cutter fastener. For the Veritas gauges read in this pass:

• Push the fence firmly against the work and keep a firm but light grip (Dual guide). Start lightly. For a deeper line, make more passes, not more pressure (Dual guide).
• The gauges can be pushed or pulled (Dual guide; Lee Valley guide). Grain can still pull the cutter off line. The Standard page says to reverse the direction of travel if the cutter follows the grain lines in coarse wood such as oak; the Lee Valley guide says the disc "may follow the grain" when grain lines approach the reference edge and the fix is to work the other way. Watch the line, and use another layout method if reversing does not hold it.
• Keep the settings unchanged through the job and avoid knocking the gauge once it is locked (Dual guide).
• For a line far from the reference side with the stem extended, the Lee Valley guide describes a three-finger grip: index finger on the stem, thumb and middle finger behind the fence.
• The fence is smaller than the wide wooden fence of a traditional cutting gauge, so it needs firm registration against the edge (Rousseau, carried).

Sharpening and cutter care (model-specific). Do not treat the disc as self-renewing or as something to "index instead of sharpen." The circular form provides a continuous cutting circumference, but sharpening, rotation, replacement, screw torque and bevel orientation are model-specific.

• Veritas Standard: remove the securing screw and wheel, then lap the wheel's face on a sharpening stone (Lee Valley Standard page, read 2026-10-16). Veritas's instruction PDF reportedly says the same [manual, relayed].
• Veritas Dual: place a cutter wheel on a medium-grit stone or 320-grit sandpaper and turn it with the eraser end of a pencil. Reinstall each wheel with one bevel facing the fence and the other facing away. Do not overtighten the adjustment knobs (Dual guide).
• Nicholas Lawrence's forum report (a 1000-grit stone restoring a dulled Veritas wheel) is an anecdote, not the maker's method.
• Repositioning a cutter without the maker's procedure can seat it incorrectly, damage the screw or leave a dull edge in service [manual, relayed].

Storage. Retract the wheel into the recess in the fence or gauge face when not in use so the edge is protected (Standard page and Dual guide). If the model has no recess, guard the edge another way.

matching

does: incises a clean line parallel to a sound reference edge, commonly with or across grain and on either stroke on models the maker approves for it, within the beam's reach, at a depth set by repeated light passes. Cutter depth and visibility are limited by the cutter.

match a wheel gauge when: the task needs a line parallel to a sound reference edge and within the beam's reach, and the model's fence bearing area, adjustment style, cutter and line depth suit the stock. Choose by reach, fence stability, grain behavior and the exact cutter. Both pins and knives can be deflected by grain, so the user must verify the line.

match something else when: the line is arbitrary or not parallel to an accessible edge (marking knife and straightedge or square), the span exceeds the gauge's beam, two lines must be held at a fixed spacing and no purpose-built dual or accessory setup is available (panel gauge, mortise gauge), or the required depth or visibility exceeds what the cutter gives.

suits: dovetail baselines, tenon shoulders, drawer-side and case work, as with the parent Cutting Gauge; also a single-wheel line, a purpose-built dual-wheel configuration (Veritas Dual) and an accessory-based mortise configuration (Tite-Mark kits), treated as three separate setups with their own cutter spacing, line depth and manufacturer instructions.

kit-fit: pairs with chisels and dovetail saws as the parent cutting gauge does. It can stand in for a marking knife run against a straightedge only for parallel, edge-referenced lines within the beam's capacity. It is not a strict upgrade over the traditional cutting gauge: Rousseau (carried) says the wide wooden fence tracks an edge more reliably, a sourced tradeoff.

not-for (setup-keyed): an improvised doubling of two single-wheel cutters for mortise lines: one named practitioner (Derek Cohen) found the lines too faint, and a Fine Woodworking review reportedly limits heavy cuts on one Tite-Mark double-mortise setup [manual, relayed]. That is a limit of that setup, not a ban on dual-wheel cutters; purpose-built dual gauges and accessory kits exist. Do not choose a budget imitator expecting Tite-Mark lock precision; Schwarz documents real functional gaps in the cheapest copies.

access: beginner-accessible for ordinary layout use only with an intact gauge and basic sharp-edge handling taught first (see dangerous): the edge is exposed during use, removal, sharpening and reinstallation. A beginner should not be left to improvise repair of stripped threads, damaged cutters or uncertain assemblies; route those to the maker's instructions or someone experienced. The tool is a purchased precision item; budget access is through the Veritas line or a lower-quality imitator.

revival: a maker choosing hand-cut joinery today may reach for a wheel gauge because its fixed circular knife gives a clean line, and the Walker patent shows the idea is much older than the Tite-Mark. Veritas wheel gauges are currently listed for sale (Lee Valley, read 2026-10-16). The Tite-Mark is listed by Lie-Nielsen but shown as not available when read; its current production was not verified.

Matching fields to add to the schema (per the reviewer): fixed versus rolling cutter; single or double bevel; cutter diameter and material; removable, replaceable, rotatable or sharpenable; cutter fastener and specified torque or procedure; single versus purpose-built dual cutters; beam reach; fence diameter and bearing area; adjustment style (standard, coarse/fine, differential, coaxial); lock and anti-rotation method; cutter-storage protection; push and pull directions approved by the maker; intended grain orientations; maximum practical line depth; current product status with an as-of date.

anatomy

The wheel gauge is described here as four separable mechanisms, because they vary independently across models.

• Cutter geometry: a circular single-bevel disc, flat on one face and beveled on the other, mounted at the end of the beam (the "long" Tite-Mark offsets it on a longer beam). On the Tite-Mark and common Veritas gauges it is fixed during the marking stroke.
• Cutter fastening: a screw (Lee's patent describes a hand- or tool-tightened screw at the shaft end, with the wheel removable). Screw design, thread, washer, torque and bevel orientation on reinstallation are model-specific.
• Coarse and fine fence adjustment: standard (no fine adjust), micro-adjust, differential or coaxial (Tite-Mark-style, adjuster and fence on one axis). Lee Valley sells a standard wheel gauge without micro-adjust and a micro-adjust version, and the Veritas Micro-Adjust page describes an upgradeable mechanism [manual, relayed].
• Fence locking and anti-rotation: V-groove with V-shaped locking knobs (Tite-Mark), nylon drag screw, eccentric fence (Lee's patent and Veritas listings; reduces rolling on a bench), and other locks on other models.

Further variant fields: beam round or flat, beam length and reach, fence diameter and bearing area, cutter-storage recess (Tite-Mark; Veritas Dual and Standard pages describe retracting the wheel into the fence/gauge face), single versus purpose-built dual cutters. "Coaxial adjuster" is a Tite-Mark implementation, not the definition of a wheel gauge.

variations (living)

Prices are omitted from this table because they change. Dated observations: the Lie-Nielsen Tite-Mark page, read 2026-10-16, showed $129.00 and "This product is not available" with a notify-me option, a 7 in. by 5/16 in. shaft, A-2 tool steel and Glen-Drake manufacture. The reviewer's 2026-09-03 review reported the Veritas Micro-Adjust listing at about $69.50 [manual, relayed].

trades

Primarily Western cabinetmaking and fine furniture joinery, the home trade of the Marking Gauge family. No leatherworking, luthiery or metalworking use was located in the searches performed; absence of evidence, not confirmed absence.

lineage

Ancestors

• The Cutting Gauge: same single-bevel severing idea and the same job (a clean incised line a pin gauge can tear). The wheel gauge swaps the straight blade for a circular cutter. Its fence and adjustment arrangements vary by model.
• 19th-century wheel/disc-cutter marking gauges. US Patent 359,336, Edwin Walker of Erie, PA, "Combined Surface and Marking Gage," filed April 24, 1886, granted March 15, 1887 (read in full on Google Patents in the original run [WG3]). Claim 1 recites "a stem having a circular cutter on one end thereof, with a sliding head provided with a friction-cushion and friction screw." This is the earliest circular-cutter example located in this research, 114 years before the Tite-Mark; a patent proves disclosure, not commercial adoption, influence on the Tite-Mark, or absolute priority. Two further period examples are named by Christopher Schwarz, citing Milton H. Bacheller Jr.'s American Marking Gauges (not re-verified against Bacheller): Billings & Spencer Co. (Hartford, CT, split-head design, two locking thumbscrews) and the E.P. Johnson gauge (early 20th century, rarer). Lee Valley sells a replica of the Johnson gauge (item 15N1101, original run). Drake's own account, as Schwarz relays it, traces the Tite-Mark through a 1993 book rather than this patent, so the two look like separate developments; that is an inference from the accounts, not proof that Drake never saw the patent record.

Descendants and later developments

• US 7,269,906 B1, "Marking gauge," Robin C. Lee, assigned to Lee Valley Tools Ltd (read on Google Patents, 2026-10-16 [WG13]). Provisional priority October 4, 2004; filed October 4, 2005; granted September 18, 2007; the record lists it as expired in October 2019 for non-payment of maintenance fees. It discloses a marking gauge with alternative wheel, blade and pin markers; a wheel attached to the shaft end by a screw (tightenable by hand or with a tool, removable when not in use) whose inside face is beveled so the cutter is pushed away from the workpiece edge and the fence stays in contact; a swivel chuck for the blade; a pin hole in the chuck; and an eccentric fence (about one inch in diameter, off-center shaft hole) to increase contact area and reduce rolling on a bench. Claim 3 covers a set screw attaching the wheel cutter at the end opposite the chuck. This is primary evidence of distinct Lee Valley engineering. It is not proof of any feature on any specific current Veritas model, and it does not by itself establish the absence of copying, licensing or influence.
• Current Veritas products (Standard, Micro-Adjust, Dual) are documented developments in the same family; see variations.

Contemporaries

• The Cutting Gauge itself, still made and preferred by name by working practitioners (Tim Rousseau: the traditional wooden cutting gauge's wide fence "track[s] the edge of the board more easily than wheel gauges," carried from the original run) for the fence-bearing-surface tradeoff documented below.
• Veritas and the Tite-Mark as parallel developments. Schwarz, as relayed in the original run [WG2], does not consider the Veritas gauges Tite-Mark copies, and said in a 2008 Lost Art Press comment that Drake was first, in modern terms, to put a recess in the head to store the cutter. The Lost Art Press page as retrieved in this pass confirms the recess remark but does not use the word "copies" about Veritas. Independent development is Schwarz's reported assessment. The makers have not been located saying so directly, and different patented features do not by themselves prove non-copying.
• The Stanley No. 97: a period all-metal gauge (dealer listings, 1900 to 1958) said to combine a scribe point and a cutting wheel. Honest gap: sourced to snippet-tier dealer listings only; an unconfirmed lead.

history

The invention story (Schwarz, "The Beginnings of the Tite-Mark," Lost Art Press, 2008 [WG1]; "The Tite-Mark & Its Imitators," Never Sponsored, 2024 [WG2]). Kevin Drake, a former drummer and computer programmer, moved to Fort Bragg, CA in 1999 to study furniture-making at the College of the Redwoods under James Krenov. He had a local machinist build a copy of the self-made micro-adjustable marking gauge from Jim Kingshott's Making and Modifying Woodworking Tools (1993), which Kingshott said was inspired by a Billings & Spencer split-head gauge. As relayed from the original run, Drake found his copy bound because its adjuster and fence moved on two parallel but separate axes, and he redesigned the gauge so both act through the same axis. [Drake's exact words not re-verified: the Lost Art Press page as retrieved in this pass quotes him only as saying he "saw it had a major limitation" and redesigned the gauge; the two-axes wording is from the original run's other source and is paraphrased here.] The binding belonged to Drake's own machinist-built copy of Kingshott's design, not to an original antique Billings & Spencer gauge.

The Lost Art Press article says Drake had the machinist make 30 more gauges, which he sold to summer students at the college, and that he has made and sold about 10,000 Tite-Marks (the author's narration). The 2001 founding date comes from the original run's convergence of three secondary accounts (Lost Art Press 2008, Popular Woodworking 2007, Never Sponsored 2024); the Lost Art Press page alone does not date the 30 units. When the machinist could not make a hundred more, Drake was redirected to a student, and Glen-Drake Toolworks followed ("Glen" is Drake's middle name; original run).

Patent status. Drake chose not to patent the Tite-Mark, according to Schwarz's account of his reasoning (reported testimony, from the original run's Never Sponsored source; paraphrased here, not quoted, because the long quotation was not found on the pages retrieved in this pass). Schwarz's 2008 comment confirms the design was unpatented and that "its features have shown up elsewhere." No Tite-Mark patent was located in the searches performed. A name search of a patent database is not an exhaustive search (spelling, initials, assignments, jurisdictions, unpublished applications and identity ambiguity all remain), so this is a search result, not a proven universal negative.

The mechanism: what "wheel" means. Walter Egon's 2023 Substack piece [WG8] and the sources above agree that on the Tite-Mark and common Veritas gauges the cutter does not roll during the stroke; it is a fixed disc. A single-bevel cutter produces an incised face from its flat side, with the bevel pushing the gauge toward the reference edge (Lee Valley's Standard page: single-sided bevel "pulls the gauge face against the stock"). The earlier claim that this makes the line independent of stroke direction or grain is withdrawn: see correct use for what the makers actually say.

Competitive landscape and imitators (Schwarz 2024 hands-on comparison, original run, partially paywalled). Three imitators were purchased and tested at the prices then listed: the iGaging MicroMarking Gauge (no V-groove on the shaft, plastic-tipped locking knobs that fail), the Clarke Brothers Wheel Marking Gauge (advertised "patent pending"; Schwarz's view was that everything on it is prior art), and the Katz-Moses Marking Gauge (the closest copy, still inferior in fit and finish). Prices are omitted as volatile. A 2008 Lost Art Press comment says one English company "has simply ripped him off," without naming it; an unverified named claim, not confirmed fact.

Honest gaps in the history, carried plainly:

• Billings & Spencer's and E.P. Johnson's own patent numbers were not located; only Schwarz's secondhand account citing Bacheller.
• DATAMP's own search tool was not used; the sibling Marking Gauge entry's patent-count figure has not been cross-checked against the wheel-cutter subclass.
• No dated catalog page or invoice of the Tite-Mark's first sale; the founding date rests on converging secondary accounts.
• No museum accession record found for any wheel gauge, in a non-exhaustive search.
• The detail of Drake's redesign is snippet-tier.
• First-sale and priority claims in this entry are "earliest located," never "first."

human side

Traditions & trades. Same home trade as the Marking Gauge family, Western cabinetmaking and joinery. No leatherworking or luthiery use was located in the searches performed; that is a search result, not confirmed absence.

Named makers and craftspeople. (All of this is AI-derived corpus material summarizing published and forum accounts; it is not testimony from a craftsperson to Hewn.)

• Kevin Drake: developer of the Tite-Mark; per Popular Woodworking (2007, original run) he personally turns the wooden handles for other Glen-Drake tools on a lathe.
• Christopher Schwarz: the tool's most prominent chronicler and an advocate, not a neutral reviewer. He frames the Tite-Mark as a combination of small engineering decisions (coaxial adjuster, V-groove with V-shaped locking knobs, cutter-storage recess, nylon friction screw). These are Tite-Mark features, not requirements of the family.
• Named forum practitioners (Sawmill Creek, "Marking Gauge - clone of Tite-Mark," 2017, original run): Mike Henderson found a $30 clone sharing the Tite-Mark's cutter and thread spec, and posters debated the ethics of copying an unpatented design. Derek Cohen reported that an improvised setup doubling two wheel cutters gave lines "too faint to be helpful"; this is one practitioner's report on one setup. Nicholas Lawrence found that honing the flat face of a dulled Veritas wheel on a 1000-grit stone restored a usable line (a forum report; for the maker's own method see correct use).
• Andrew Williams and Jerry Palmer (Sawmill Creek, 2007, original run): reported that on one cheaper wheel gauge the cutter's holding screw tightened when worked in one direction and loosened in the other, letting the wheel wander off the line. This is kept here only as a model-specific failure example. It is not a rule for the family, and the right response to a loosening cutter is in dangerous.
• Hank Knight and Alice Frampton: reported the Tite-Mark and Veritas produce functionally equivalent lines, with differences in one- versus two-handed adjustment, feel and price (original run).

Honest gaps. Schwarz's 2024 piece is paywalled past its intro. No documented cut or pinch injury account was located for this tool; that is a research result, and it is not a risk assessment. The risk assessment is in dangerous. No Drake interview or podcast transcript was located.

proof of existence

• The circular-cutter mechanism's earliest example located in this research: US Patent 359,336 (Walker, 1887), read in full in the original run. A strong anchor for the mechanism's age; not connected in any sourced account to the Tite-Mark.
• US 7,269,906 B1 (Robin C. Lee, Lee Valley Tools; granted 2007) read on Google Patents 2026-10-16: primary record of a wheel/blade/pin marking gauge with an eccentric fence and a screw-mounted wheel.
• The Tite-Mark's founding has no located patent and no located primary dated document (invoice, catalog page). It rests on converging secondary accounts (Popular Woodworking 2007, Lost Art Press 2008, Never Sponsored 2024), the Glen-Drake and Lie-Nielsen commercial listings, and Schwarz's statement of about 10,000 units sold (unverified against sales records).
• No Tite-Mark patent was located in the searches performed (including a Justia name search in the original run, which is not an exhaustive patent search and whose unrelated results are not used here).
• No museum accession record found for any wheel gauge.
• Billings & Spencer's and E.P. Johnson's patent numbers were not located.
• Bottom line: strong on the age of the circular-cutter idea (a patent read in full) and on Lee Valley's distinct engineering (a second patent read); weaker on the specific Tite-Mark's founding, which rests on journalism rather than a primary document.

references

• [WG1] Schwarz, Christopher. "The Beginnings of the Tite-Mark." Lost Art Press blog, May 10, 2008. blog.lostartpress.com/2008/05/10/the-beginnings-of-the-tite-mark/. kind: blog. Re-read 2026-10-16: confirms the 30 units sold to summer students, about 10,000 sold, the recess remark and the unpatented design; does not contain Drake's long "two axes" or "stolen wallet" quotations.
• [WG2] Schwarz, Christopher. "The Tite-Mark & Its Imitators." Never Sponsored (Substack), June 15, 2024. neversponsored.substack.com/p/the-tite-mark-and-its-imitators. kind: blog/essay. Original run only; paywalled past the intro; not re-read this pass.
• [WG3] Walker, Edwin. "Combined Surface and Marking Gage." US Patent 359,336, filed April 24, 1886, granted March 15, 1887. patents.google.com/patent/US359336A/en. kind: patent, primary. Original run.
• [WG4] Justia Patents, "Kevin Robert Drake." patents.justia.com/inventor/kevin-robert-drake. kind: patent-database name search. Original run; used only for "not located in the searches performed."
• [WG5] Holmes, Roger. "Woodworking Tourist: Glen-Drake Toolworks." Popular Woodworking, March 2007. kind: magazine profile. Original run.
• [WG6] Sawmill Creek, "Marking Gauge - clone of Tite-Mark," January 2017. sawmillcreek.org/threads/marking-gauge-clone-of-tite-mark.251250/. kind: forum. Original run.
• [WG7] Sawmill Creek, "Tite-Mark v. Veritas Wheel Marking Gauge," 2007. sawmillcreek.org/threads/tite-mark-v-veritas-wheel-marking-gauge.54522/. kind: forum. Original run; cited as a model-specific failure report only.
• [WG8] Egon, Walter. "Marking gauges." Substack, 2023. walteregon.substack.com/p/marking-gauges. kind: blog. Original run.
• [WG9] Tools For Working Wood, Tite-Mark product page. kind: retailer page. Original run; prices not carried.
• [WG10] Lee Valley, Veritas Micro-Adjust Wheel Marking Gauge product page (item 75849). kind: manufacturer listing. Original run; not reachable this pass; micro-adjust and maintenance statements [manual, relayed] via the reviewer.
• [WG11] Popular Woodworking, Tite-Mark endurance test (PDF). kind: magazine review. Original run; the review calls it dated independent evidence [manual, relayed].
• [WG12] Fine Woodworking, "Workshop Tip: Quick Way to Sharpen a Wheel-Type Marking Gauge," March 2022. kind: magazine tip. Snippet only, not confirmed.
• [WG13] Lee, Robin C. "Marking gauge." US Patent 7,269,906 B1, assigned to Lee Valley Tools Ltd; priority October 4, 2004, filed October 4, 2005, granted September 18, 2007; listed as expired October 2019. patents.google.com/patent/US7269906B1/en. kind: patent, primary. Read 2026-10-16.
• [WG14] Lee Valley, Veritas Standard Wheel Marking Gauge (item 59455). leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/hand-tools/marking-and-measuring/marking-gauges/59455-veritas-standard-wheel-marking-gauge. kind: manufacturer listing. Read 2026-10-16.
• [WG15] Lee Valley, "Getting Started with Your Veritas Dual Marking Gauge." leevalley.com/en-gb/discover/post-purchase/veritas-dual-marking-gauge/getting-started-with-your-veritas-dual-marking-gauge. kind: manufacturer guidance. Read 2026-10-16.
• [WG16] Veritas Standard Wheel Marking Gauge instructions (PDF), assets.leevalley.com/Original/10091/59455-veritas-standard-wheel-marking-gauge-c-02-e.pdf. kind: manufacturer instructions. Fetch failed 2026-10-16; content relayed via the review [manual, relayed] (cutter marks in both directions, push or pull, reverse for coarse grain, across/along/end-grain use, remove and lap the cutter).
• [WG17] Lie-Nielsen, Tite-Mark Marking Gauge. lie-nielsen.com/products/tite-mark-marking-gauges-tite-mark-. kind: retailer listing. Read 2026-10-16: "This product is not available."
• [WG18] Lee Valley, "Woodworker's Guide to Marking Gauges" (2020). leevalley.com/en-gb/discover/woodworking/2020/september/woodworkers-guide-to-marking-gauges. kind: manufacturer guide. Read 2026-10-16.
• [WG19] Fine Woodworking, Tite-Mark double mortise review (2005). kind: magazine review. Not reached; [manual, relayed] via the reviewer.
• Cross-referenced from sibling entries, not re-verified: Marking Gauge, Cutting Gauge, Panel Gauge (open question whether the wheel mechanism scales to a 24 in. or longer beam).

The reviewer's corrections (11)

• BLOCKER — 1. — Exact claim: “always work the wheel in its tightening/braking rotational direction, not the loosening one”; “a beginner can use this safely” if taught that rule.
• BLOCKER — 2. — Exact claim: The access block calls the tool broadly beginner-safe, while dangerous says only that the exposed disc is an obvious cut hazard and that no actual injury account was found.
• SHOULD-FIX — 3. — Exact claim: The whole family is assigned to the “coaxial-adjuster sub-branch,” and the coaxial adjuster is called “the tool's defining mechanical innovation.”
• SHOULD-FIX — 4. — Exact claim: The wheel “handles both grain directions,” marks “indifferently to stroke direction,” and fixes the parent's “grain-direction limits.”
• SHOULD-FIX — 5. — Exact claim: “Long with-grain repetitive marking” is not-for because a wheel knife lacks a pin's “‘ride the grain valley’ behavior.”
• SHOULD-FIX — 6. — Exact claim: The circular edge “indexes to a fresh section instead of needing resharpening”; correct use says rotate a dull section first, and damaging calls that the design intent.
• SHOULD-FIX — 7. — Exact claim: “Descendants: None yet documented”; Veritas is supported mainly as an “independent parallel invention” on Schwarz's judgment.
• SHOULD-FIX — 8. — Exact claim: A Justia search under “Kevin Robert Drake” “confirm[s] no woodworking-tool patent exists under his name” and is “a genuine checked negative.”
• SHOULD-FIX — 9. — Exact claim: The wheel gauge substitutes for “a marking knife run freehand against a straightedge,” while the base gauge is categorically not for mortise double lines because doubled cutters are faint.
• SHOULD-FIX — 10. — Exact claim: The Tite-Mark is in “active, ongoing commercial operation” and the family is “fully in active commercial production,” with current prices presented as durable variant data.
• MINOR — 11. — Exact claim: “No leatherworking or luthiery-specific use ... surfaced” and the wheel-cutter mechanism's “earliest confirmed instance” is Walker's patent.