Japanese Mitre Square by Shinwa 62103 Review

Extremely high quality. Perfectly proportioned and very useful. I look for excuses to use it because it feels great in the hand and (as absurd as it sounds) looks pretty. Many Thanks.

I had one of these about thirty years ago and found it very useful for layouts. After restoring my wooden shop, I even missed it several times. So I was glad to meet one of them again. It remains as convenient for mitred layouts and as it was many years ago. Its tolerances are good for creating hard corners with a knife or pentagonal pencil.

It does exactly what it says on the description. But it does it very, very well. It is very well made and durable. It's more accurate than most angle gauges I have in the store and matches the few that are accurate. You feel like you're holding a real caliber and not a plastic or flimsy metal imitation.

I had one of these about thirty years ago and found it very comfortable to put on. After restoring my wooden shop, I even missed it several times. So I was glad to meet one of them again. It remains as convenient for mitred layouts and as it was many years ago. Its tolerances are good for creating hard corners with a knife or pentagonal pencil.

On the back of the packaging it says that an accuracy of up to 0.01 mm per 100 mm is guaranteed. If my math works, it's accurate to within 0.01 degrees (arcsin(sin(pi/4)-0.0001). For reference, Incra's guaranteed tilt angle of 45 degrees is accurate to 0.001 inches by 5 inches, or 0.02 degrees (arcsin(sin(pi/4)-(.001/5))) and Starrett's combined square is accurate to 0.004" x 12" or 0.003 degrees. I'm very happy with that. - James