The Shinwa Mini Try Square is a small try square with a stainless steel blade riveted into a solid brass stock, for fine joinery, small parts and model work. Shinwa calls it the Mini Sukoya; sukoya is the Japanese name for a try square. We carry four sizes: 4.5, 6, 7.5 and 9 cm.

The blade is 1.5 mm stainless and the brass stock is 6 mm thick, heavy enough to sit firmly against the edge while you mark. The corner relief is extended where the blade meets the stock, so the measuring edges stay clear of the riveted joint, and a small hole in the blade lets you hang it on a nail by the bench. There are no graduations. Shinwa holds the 4.5 cm square to within 0.04 mm along its blade, the 6 cm to 0.06 mm, the 7.5 cm to 0.07 mm and the 9 cm to 0.09 mm.

Shinwa Rules was formed in 1971 from three measuring instrument makers and is based in Tsubame and Sanjo, in Japan's Niigata Prefecture. In 1977 it received its first patent, for technology to mass-produce calibrated stainless steel rules of stable quality, and it describes itself today as a top-selling maker of metal rules in Japan.