Plug Gauge: Machinery Steel Case-Hardened in Charred Leather (Markham, 1908)

A plug gauge checks the size of a hole. Hardened tool steel can creep in size for months, so some makers used machinery steel and case-hardened it instead. E. R. Markham's Tool Making (1908) packs the turned gauge in charred leather in a box, keeps it red hot in the furnace 7 or 8 hours, lets it cool, reheats it in a tube to a low red and plunges it in raw linseed oil. No tempering is needed, and the gauge does not change as it ages. Grinding and lapping are as for any plug gauge. Mild steel stands for his machinery steel; the 3/4 in size is his Fig. 293. Source: E. R. Markham, Tool Making (American School of Correspondence, 1908), pp. 178-182. Picture: his Fig. 295, ring laps in a holder.