Story Stick

A story stick is a strip of wood or plywood marked directly with a project's actual critical measurements and reference points -- shelf spacing, joint locations, overall dimensions -- transferred by holding the stick against the work and marking directly from it, rather than reading a number off a tape measure or rule each time. Because the marks are transferred physically rather than re-read from a number every time, a story stick eliminates the small misreadings and rounding errors that creep in when the same measurement gets used repeatedly across a project -- especially valuable for a piece with multiple identical shelves or repeated joint spacing that all need to match exactly.