The Best Wood Scribe Tool For Woodworking (2021)

FastCap Scribe

Best Wood Scribe Tool

Top Pick: FastCap Wood Scribe

A wood scribe tool is one of those obscure hand tools you didn’t know you needed until, well, you do. When it comes to trimming, installing cabinets, mortise and tenon joints or even a straight line scribe to prevent wood tear out a scribe is a must. In this article learn what styles of wood scribes are available and what’s best for your projects.

When I was first learning to install cabinets one job the owner of the cabinet shop always tackled was scribing the cabinet fillers and backsplashes.

While he avoided more mundane work the scribing was a job for a perfectionist and I soon realized why he enjoyed it. But, the problem was he had decades of free-handing experience and didn’t need to use a wood scribe tool.

So learning to scribe took a lot of patience.

Getting started, in this article we’ll cover the common styles of scribes for woodworking. And, like any tool, understanding the key features of a wood scribe tool is a must:

Support any pencil or marker
Trace smooth and rough surfaces
Easy to grasp and trace
Depth adjustment from the material edge to the scribe line
Marking scribes with knife-like ability to indent the grain for saws or chisels.

Scribe	Product Desc.	Shop
	BEST OVERALL: Trend U/E wood scribing tool	CHECK PRICE
	BEST MARKING KNIFE: Big Horn 19601	CHECK PRICE
	FOR ROUGH SURFACES: Profiler+ Ultimate Scribing Tool	CHECK PRICE
	BUDGET PICK: FastCap Accusribe	CHECK PRICE
	FOR EDGE MARKING: Newkiton wheel marking gauge	CHECK PRICE

In This Article

Types of Wood Scribe Tools

First, there is no single wood scribe for every application.

Instead, scribes can be categorized into these types:

Contour scribes that will transpose a surface contour to a piece of wood
Center scribes that will mark the center of an edge of wood
Marking scribes that indent the wood for cutting. These are commonly used with a square for rough carpentry where pencils don’t mark precisely. Or, for scribing the grain to prevent tear-out during crosscuts.
Wheel marking scribes that trace an outer edge and mark a line or indent on a piece of wood

Because scribes all work slightly differently it’s common you’ll need one of each type.

Common uses for a wood scribe

While not used daily for most woodworkers, you’ll find a surprising number of jobs require a scribe.

Here’s where scribes are most commonly used:

Scribing cabinet fillers and face frames during cabinet installation
Tracing wood trim for adjustment while installing trim
Marking or indenting wood for chisels or saw blades.
Finding the centers of wood strips with a center gauge
Drawing circles, similar to a compass

Of course, there are many more uses. But I think you get the idea that having one of these gauges in your toolbox is beneficial.

Best Wood Scribe Tools

After years of use and research on wood scribing tools, here are my recommended best wood scribe tools:

Trend UE/SCRIBE Wood Scribe Tool (Best Overall)

One of the most common uses for a wood scribe is to transpose the curves of a wall or floor to a cabinet, floor piece or trim.

And the Trend U/E is a master at this that features:

Compact design
Replaceable leads with easy adjustment
Flat back for tracing

While the largest drawback is the non-standard lead tips, if you order an extra dozen or so you’ll be fine to just keep them in your toolbox.

Pros

Cons

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2. Big Horn Marking Knife (Best Scribing)

EVERY woodworker should have a marking scribe knife in their toolbox for preventing wood tear-out when crosscutting plywood with a circular saw. Maybe you didn't plan this one, but it's a handy purchase that will improve your projects quality.

If your needs for a wood scribe are to simply make a straight line outline using a square then a marking knife is what you’ll need.

While these tools are simple, they are handy for rough lumber and cutting when a pencil just won’t do.

Key features:

Heavy duty carbide tipped blade to keep sharp
Safety pouch when not in use (it’s a knife, after all)
Large easy to grip handle

Pros

Cons

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3. Profiler+ Rough Surface Wood Scribing Tool

The Profiler+ is one of the few wood scribe tools that can trace both smooth and jagged edges. With this dual capability you can easily scribe smooth surfaces like walls for installing cabinet fillers and then switch over to jagged edge fireplace tracing and fitting.

Key features:

Excels at rough outline tracing
Easy to adjust
Only scribe with easy glide wheels integrated for smooth outline tracing
Accepts standard sized pencils and some markers

Pros

Cons

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4. FastCap Accusribe (Budget)

FastCap is known to take standard tools and make them better. And, with this scribe, they took a standard compass and produced one of the most versatile scribes for flat and circle tracing

This modern twist on a classic compass design is yet another innovative product from FastCap. Because it features an articulating arm and flat-sided, non-rocking straight edge it’s built to do traditional and custom wood scribing. And it’s one of the few that can still draw custom size circles.

Key features:

Doubles as a scribe and compass
Accepts standard size pencils and small markers
Easy to adjust for standard butt-joint scribes
Flexible for outside edge or tracing applications

Pros

Cons

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5. Perfect Butt Wood Scribe Tool

Sometimes simple is best.

And the Perfect Butt (aside from perhaps it’s name) achieves simple with a bare-bones simple design concept: just pick the right size wheel and have a sharp pencil inserted.

Where does this tool pay for itself? If you’ve installed counters you know scribing the back splash or edges to a wall is a challenge – and the design of this wood scribe makes it an easy-to-use option.

This is a great pick-up for any cabinet installation or carpenter’s toolbox.

Pros

Cons

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6. Center Scribe for Fast Marking

If your projects involve marking the centers on an edge of wood (furniture backs, stair railings, ends of dimensional lumber, slats) then this nifty jig will quickly and accurately give you a center line to work from.

Pros

Cons

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7. Newkiton Wheel Marking Wood Scribe

For scribing mortises and tenons, etching a clean mark on the edge of a shelve or any other precision wood edge task this Newkiton is a smooth performer. What doesn’t it do? Well, this style of wood scribe isn’t designed to transpose surfaces like the Profiler+. Which helps you now see why owning two wood scribes is a must.

Pros

Cons

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a wood scribe tool?

If you’ve used a metal scribe you know there’s only one type: a scribe that scratches the surface of the metal. With wood scribes you’ll find a wider range of tools that include this etching capability. But, wood scribe tools also use a pencil to transpose contours or edges to the wood.

How do you scribe a piece of wood?

Scribing a piece of wood is common in cabinet or trim installation as you are trying to perfectly mate two pieces of wood in an uneven space. Using a contour wood marking tool is the best option as it will transpose the surface of the target wood to the wood that will be trimmed.

How do you scribe a cabinet filler strip?

Cabinet filler strips are best scribed with a contour gauge and then sanded with a belt sander to match the wood contour to the wall.

Summary

Hopefully this guide helped you compare the variety of wood scribe tools on the market. But while one scribe might not fit all your needs, any combination of the top 3 should fit your woodworking needs.