Craftsmanship in Wood

Speaking of calipers, has anyone had experience with these?

'geji' is the English word 'gauge'.

No experience with these. They look to be metric only. Could be handy for layout for sure. Similar to using the end of the combo square blade but with a much larger surface.

For depth gauging only, there is also the Mitutoyo product:

These are great. Suzuki-san (suzukitool.com) just started offering them in metric and imperial. As Chris said; a great layout tool, can be used like the end of a combo square, but much more stable and with a long blade, so that when marking mortises it's often unnecessary to even move the gauge. Also useful for marking rabbets and dados, especially with two of them set a different depths if needed. I've heard some people say they are a redundant tool, but so far I like them.

It might be redundant to say, but maybe one can never have too many redundant tools?

Well, given time to ponder the matter further, I succumbed to the pressure and have become more interested in getting one of these Matsui gages. Lord, I am weak.

I put in a mail to Mandara-ya to ask about pricing and availability for the model circled below:

I'm curious to see how you guys like these. I use their kibiki and it is wonderfully smooth, so I imagine their gauges are really nice to use as well.

That pup's 31000円. They call it a 'column' gage.

I have both the metric and shaku version. Suzuki-san started carrying them by my request and I think they are the greatest layout tools ever invented, except for a sashigane of course. ....
I can strongly suggest these scribing gauges. You will not regret it. Super accurate and it is so easy to reset them to whatever dimension you need. I travel a lot with a minimal toolkit and always cary one with me. Sooo many applications. Just love them.
I don't think they come in imperial but I don't care much since it is my least favorite measure unit anyway.

Redundant tool? hmm interesting. If you look at things that way I think most of our tools are redundant a square, axe and inkline will do it.

Actually I don't mind getting a third one with the long blade.

I don't think it has anything to do with weakness, it's more about accuracy and consistency. Don't we all like that?

And I also just got a shaku caliper made by Matsui. Should have gotten that tool years ago.

Good news: Looking at the parts list, it looks like that Mitutoyo depth gage might be able to be converted to a Kegakigeji - you'd have to make some fences and bolt them up square and parallel.. Not easy, mind you, but not impossible. You would end up with a scribing gage that give you inch/metric conversion, floating zero points, and data recording, not to mention.. it's attached to a digital depth gage!

Bad news: even before having to make the fences, that tool is about $460 for a 12"/300mm version.