If you’ve never heard of it before, a contour gauge is a rather ingenious, low-tech tool that could be remarkably useful on your next home restoration or general woodworking project.

The gauge’s frame contains a bunch of plastic sliding teeth that you press onto the profile of any object — whether it’s curved, pointy, oddly shaped, or otherwise — which you then lock into place, creating a very close copy of that shape for easy tracing and cutting elsewhere. Perfect for laying down flooring in weird spots, tile work, constructing things around pipes, duplicating complex cuts across work pieces, etc.

It’s kinda like one of those pin art toys but, y’know, actually useful.

The one I’m linking today is from RAK, the same company who makes this handy magnetic wristband, and I trust the quality of their products. The gauge is 10 inches long and measures contours up to 3 inches deep, which should be fine for most people. However, Amazon is full of these things so you might find something more suited to your particular needs.

This guy’s video review of the RAK contour gauge is worth a watch:

Get the gauge for $35 on Amazon.