Warning: an old timer in Louisville made me redo a scribe 4 times before he said a word
Back when I was 19 and green, I was fitting a face frame to a wall that was out of plumb by about 3/8 of an inch, and I kept cutting the scribe wrong. This old guy named Earl watched me ruin 4 poplar boards in a row without saying a thing, then finally picked up my block plane and showed me how he marked the high spots with a pencil first. He said the wood will tell you where it wants to go if you stop guessing, and 20 years later I still mark my high spots before I touch a saw. I think about that a lot now that I mostly cut on a CNC and hardly ever pick up a plane. Any of you still do your scribes by hand these days, or has everyone gone to a jig?