Synopsis: A scratch stock is a simple tool, but it has an impressive ability to dress up furniture with distinctive decorative elements that are the right shape and size for the piece you’re working on. Rob Millard offers instruction on the construction and use of handmade scratch stocks, used to fashion beading, flutes, reeds, and molding for furniture and turnings. Though most of these details can be achieved with a router, the results promise to be more satisfying when done by hand. Described in this article are steps to construct the cutter and wooden body.

The scratch stock is a simple tool with an impressive ability to dress up furniture with distinctive decorative elements that are exactly the right shape and size. I made my first scratch stock years ago from a piece of oak scrap, and I’ve made a number of others since then. My shopmade tools aren’t…