The customer pushes on the blade. Nothing.  He pushes harder.  Nope.  Then he bears down hard enough to emit a little grunt and the blade moves a tiny bit.  The customer hands the tool back with an enormous grin on his face.

The 28-year-old Australian toolmaker smiles back.

Vesper’s sliding bevels are based on the famous (and desirable) St. Johnsbury Tool Co. bevels of the late 19th century. These bevels, which were protected by patents issued in 1870 and 1878, have a unique locking mechanism that secures the blade by twisting a thumbscrew at the butt of the tool.

The thumbscrew pushes a bar inside the bevel forward. The bar has a wedge-shaped end that wedges the blade into its locked position. Vesper says it took him about a year to work out the particulars of the mechanism in his shop in Somerville.

The workmanship on all of the Vesper Tools I examined was spot-on.
The infills were let seamlessly into the bodies. All surfaces were flush.

“All I had was a blurry patent drawing,” he says. “And then, ‘A-ha!’ – I had it! The end result is they lock down better than any other bevel.”

Like the St. Johnsbury Tool Co., Vesper makes the tool in a variety of sizes (4”, 7” and 10” blades) and they are built to a high level of workmanship.