Tick Sticking, a Carpentry HACK (few people know)

there's a tool that's been around for centuries and it's a tool you can't buy you have to make it and it's this here it's called a ticking stick now if you've never heard of a ticking stick I got to tell you this you're not alone ticking stick was made popular by shipwrights that's right boat builders because both builders are always dealing with very complex shapes that they have to reproduce and using a ruler or a tape measure just doesn't serve them so what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you how to use a tick stick to reproduce very complicated odd shapes now maybe you're wondering well why would I have to do that Leah well let me tell ya there is always a piece of tile carpeting roofing sheathing it could be anything that's an odd shape that's very difficult to map out with a ruler tape measure and so what I will tell you is this all you need is a tick stick a pencil and a piece of paper I'm gonna show you how it's done coming up next [Music] this is our odd shape this is the shape that we're gonna replicate and I'm gonna cut a pattern that's gonna fit in here perfectly just by using my ticking stick a pencil or marker a piece of cardboard that's it that's all you need now you may be wondering well how big of a ticking stick do I need well the size of the ticking stick is really based on the shape and size of what you're trying to replicate so this is my tick stick here I made it out a piece of scrap plywood and there's only one requirement when you make a tick stick and that is it has to have a point at one end now if you notice there's a little bit of a shape here for me and I put a little notch there so the more unique you can make the shape the easier it will be for you to use so let me show you how this thing works what you want to do is you want to take a piece of scrap cardboard like this here or a piece of tag board you could even use a piece of paper but generally you want to use something that's a little rigid like cardboard so what you have to make certain of is that the cardboard or tag board that you use it fits inside the shape and it doesn't obscure any points that's what's important you can't cover anything up you're gonna have all points exposed the next thing you have to do is we have to secure this piece of cardboard now just for the sake of ease I'm just gonna tack it to this you've got a surface that you don't want to nail into like I'm doing right here because this is just for demonstration purposes just use a piece of tape but make certain that it's secure and it won't slide on you okay so once you have your cardboard in place now it's time to grab your ticking stick now this is what we're gonna do is we have to take our ticking stick and we want to go to point a point B C D and finally point E so we're gonna take the point here and we're going to stick right there in that corner then we're gonna go over here and we're gonna place it here and we're gonna work our way around what we're gonna do now is we're going to outline it and you have to be very careful but you're ticking stick doesn't slide on you okay so I've got my first point now I just continue on now I'm gonna go to Point C I'm gonna stick that right in that corner just like that now I've got my roadmap done okay now I know it just looks like a lot of lines it looks busy but I want to show you something this notch here helps me identify where to lay my ticking stick when it comes time for me to replicate the points so I know since that's not that that belongs there and so forth and so on now I'm gonna take my pattern my roadmap here what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take another scrap piece of cardboard I'm gonna lay it right here now the only thing that I have to make certain of is that when I put my ticking stick down I remain on the cardboard so I'm fine there I'm fine there I think I'm gonna be okay it's just secure my um my cardboard and again you don't have to use tacks like me you can use tape just make certain that your roadmap it stays in place it doesn't scoot on you because if it scoots just even a little bit it's gonna throw your points off so now we take our ticking stick and we start laying out our points my ticking stick is in place to plot my first point so I'm going to go down here to the end and I'm gonna make a dot now I'm moving on to point be and again I find where I need to place my ticking stick you see that's where those not just come in handy it makes it really easy for me to line everything up and be right on the money I'm gonna come to the end of my ticking stick and I'm gonna place a dot that's my next point that's point B now I'm just gonna keep going looking for that notch there I'm lining it up perfectly okay the next point now I have all my points marked point a B C D and then of course my last point e now I can pick up well my template my roadmap and what I'm ready to do now is just connect the dots there we go I'm just gonna strike a line there we go now I'm gonna cure you one now I'm gonna connect this dark and this dark and I'm just gonna go around until all my dots are connected okay I have all my dots connected now I'm gonna cut my template okay so let's just pop it out alright so now it's the moment of truth there you go folks that's how you use a ticking stick this is Leah saying you can do this see you next time

Channel: seejanedrill

Views: 4,677,615

Keywords: tick stick, tick sticking how to use a ticking stick, ticking stick, how to use a ticking stick, carpentry hack, what is a ticking stick, what is stick ticking, what is a tick stick, measurement hacks, how to measure with a tick stick, how to to measure without a ruler, how to measure without a tape measure, old-timer carpentry hack, how to measure with a stick

Id: Cd2LY857oTY

Length: 7min 41sec (461 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 15 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Izaran]

That is definitely something fascinating and new information for me.

Definitely tucking this video away.

[u/Scheckschy]

This woman has one of the best DIY/carpentry channels on YouTube. I love listening to her, she really knows her stuff.

[u/ogonga]

I fixed a sagging door this week by watching her video. I tried shims in the plates, longer screws, and reseating the door latch to no avail. The trick was to bend the top hinge in the frame towards the wall.

[u/TheBadMonkie]

75% of the video: WTF is she doing?

76%: holy shit!

[u/VectorBrain]

Well that was a fun rabbit hole of carpentry hacks.

[u/KrisBoutilier]

The process described here is more generally known as spiling). It becomes increasingly useful when you're trying to replicate a very long compound shape, like fitting a replacement plank to a carvel planked hull.

[u/propagandhi1]

I love watching Leah.

[u/CC_Panadero]

This was strangely satisfying. I likely will never use this info and have no interest in it, yet I couldn’t look away! So soothing

[u/phdoofus]

Please stop using the word hack.