 |
| 1m Drawing Square in use |
We took a couple
Stoney Knoll 1 metre drawing squares with us into the field this summer. I love mapping, but hate measuring, so this is probably my favourite new piece of field gear. Its sturdy, collapsible, and accurate. I've tried making 1m drawing grids in the past, but they always warped and I never figured out a way to make them collapsible. The Stoney Knoll squares come apart into four 1 metre long rods and eight elastic grid strings, and come with a sturdy canvas shoulder bag for storage and transport.
 |
| Bungie strings stretch over obstacles |
Each of the red grid strings is a bungie cord with a ring on each end. The rings fit over knobs attached to the yellow frame. The stretching grid strings make them quick to assemble and disassemble, but they are also handy while you are using them. They stretch over and around rocks that might be in the middle of your unit and if you are careful, you can even step onto the screen while you are mapping, without fear of moving or breaking your drawing square.
 |
| 20 cm grid squares - good for big rocks |
The hollow square aluminum rods are held together at each corner by plastic "L" connectors to create a solid 1m x 1m frame. The version that we bought had 8 strings and was divided into 20cm grid squares, which seemed to work well with the scale of rocks and features that we were mapping. Occasionally, we wished for 10cm grid squares. I see from their website that Stoney Knoll, now has a
Deluxe drawing square with 10cm grid squares. Nice!
 |
| Legs would be awesome! |
If the Stoney Knoll designers are looking for an Ultra Deluxe model, it might be great if it had collapsible legs on each corner. Occasionally we were mapping very uneven ground surfaces and had to balance the screen on makeshift supports using buckets, nails, dustpans, camera bags, files, or whatever else we could find to level it. If the square had built in or attachable legs it would solve that problem.
 |
| Great product. |
Even when it wasn't being used to map, the 1m square was handy to have on site as a guide to quickly set up new units - just line it up on your existing grid and pop in stakes at the corners and you are good to go. It came with a sturdy canvas bag with a shoulder strap for the frame and a smaller nylon bag to store the strings in. Our screens are still in good shape after 3 months of daily use and I'm sure that we'll get several more field season out of them. Everyone maps at a different pace, but for me, these grids let me map a 1x1m unit in about 1/4 the time of using a measuring tape to measure in each rock. At $140US, they are worth the investment and pay for themselves with time saved and frustration averted.
Photo Credits: Tim Rast
PDF
