What are the tools associated with the Fellow Craft degree?

The working tools of a Fellow Craft are the Plumb, the Square, and the Level 1. While an Entered Apprentice receives the Twenty-four Inch Gauge and Common Gavel to measure and prepare raw stone, the Fellow Craft receives tools used to erect and test completed structures 1.

In operative building, the Square tests the work of the Apprentice, the Level lays horizontal courses, and the Plumb raises perpendicular columns 1. Operative masons often provided their own measuring instruments, such as squares, levels, and plumb-rules 3. Speculative Masons later designated these instruments as working tools during a period of symbolic transition following 1717 2.

Within the monitorial instructions of the degree, each tool carries moral teachings:

The Plumb admonishes the Mason to walk uprightly 1. In American ritual practice, it is associated with the Scripture reading from the prophet Amos, teaching that the criterion of moral rectitude serves as the standard by which a Mason judges both his own actions and the work of others 12.

The Square directs the Mason to square his actions by the Square of Virtue, preserving its ancient signification across Masonic systems as an emblem of morality and conscience 12.

The Level symbolizes the level of time, reminding the Mason that actions erected on the journey of life cannot be undone or recalled, requiring every course to be built true 1.