A Miniature Square for Sharpening

My Mini Square is so old it has an old Woodpeckers logo on it.

It’s difficult for me to imagine sharpening my tools without my little aluminum square by my side. It’s the substantiator of square and the confirmer of camber.

For the most part, I’m not a fan of aluminum layout tools. We had a bunch of them in the shop at Popular Woodworking magazine, and they got beat up quickly. But shop rash by itself wasn’t the problem. The tools and their coating were soft enough to deform when dropped or dinged against something. So I was constantly checking for burrs on the tools to make sure they weren’t fouling their accuracy.

And the bright red isn’t my favorite.

There is a place for aluminum tools. I’d feel differently about them if my shop were on a boat or in a generally wet environment.

And that’s why I love my Woodpeckers Mini Square for my sharpening station. For years I had a wee steel engineer’s square, but it was quickly rusted and fouled by its life with waterstones. To replace it, I considered a plastic square, but I dislike plastic about 3x more than aluminum.

So the Mini Square earned a permanent home in my sharpening tray. It’s a good size – 1-1/8" x 2" on the inside of the square. It has stayed reliably square for two decades. And the red color is useful when I’m looking for it in a dark tray of sharpening gear and steel blades. It never gets lost.

Made in the USA (Ohio, actually).