I just recently received two new stainless steel, (SS), squares from Benchdog, (BD), and figured I'd do a review.
I already had two squares from Woodpeckers, (WP), in SS in the 150mm and 450mm sizes so I ordered the 300mm and 600mm from BD to fill out the stable. I did have squares of these sizes from WP, but they were the aluminum bladed items and I've found that I prefer the SS versions for most tasks.
The BD squares were packed well in custom styrofoam cutouts packed inside a cardboard box. No damage was evident on either the inside or outside of the shipping box. BD provides their squares with a black anodizing as compared to the WP red. The scales on the SS portions were clear and easy to read, even without my bifocals. One thing I noticed was that the edges of the SS blades were rather sharp. It wasn't as noticeable in one direction, but when running your fingers over the edge of the blade in the other way gave concern as to receiving a cut from it. I ended up taking some 600 grit paper and softening the edges to a less sharp edge. Still crisp but not one you'd worry about getting injured on. None of the aluminum edges on the BD tools had any sharpness to them and I've new noticed any of this sharpness on any of my WP SS items.
Seeing as I've never really checked my WP SS squares for squareness, I gathered all four squares and did a little testing.
I grabbed a straightedge and and panel to mark upon and clamped them both down on a larger piece of plywood.
This ensured I had a straightedge for the squares to butt against while I struck lines along each side of the blade. I used a 5mm mechanical pencil to place a line on the length of each side of the SS blade then flipped the square. I offset the blade a small portion and again struck lines along each side. I am not looking for machinist quality on how precise they were and viewing the lines side-by-side gave me a good indication of each items squareness.
Here are the lines as struck on my indicating panel.
I only did the squareness test using the inside of the bar and did not repeat that test for the outside. I decided instead to place the outside of each of my three smaller squares inside the legs of the next larger square and check for any gaps. The 150mm and 450mm squares showed no visible gaps while the 300mm BD square had a little light visible between the two at the top of the blade. Again, probably more than adequate for woodworking, if not machinist worthy.
I then checked the etched scales against my 600mm Starrett rule. I believe it to be accurate and have used it as "My Reference" in the past. Images show the results with the end of each rule butted against the same reference surface.
Overall I am happy with each of them and am glad to not have to drag out the big 600mm aluminum WP square. Having the 300mm in SS means I will be using it much more as well
