Here’s a variation on the common scribing technique of transferring the contours of a wall to the edge of a countertop with a pencil. As shown in the drawing below, I run a length of masking tape along the edge of the counter that needs to be scribed to the wall. Then I run a razor knife with a 1/4-in.-thick rare-earth magnet between the blade and the wall along the length of the counter, cutting the masking tape to reflect the wall’s contours. The cylinder magnet rides on the masking tape, helping to keep the blade perpendicular.
With the counter scribed, I remove the wall side of the tape, and cut, plane, and sand the counter as necessary to get a tight fit. Unlike a pencil line, which can become smudged and hard to see, the masking tape makes it easy to see where the cuts need to be and offers a measure of protection to the counter’s surface.
Don Mathis, Macomb, IL
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Nice tip/reminder from 2013.
Depending on your countertop material, you might want the scribe's blade to get a good bite of the countertop (or anything else like a cabinet edge...) to help stop it from chipping out as one closes in on finishing to the scribe line. I especially like the use of the magnet for keeping the blade perpendicular.