What tools and brands are must haves for a nub?


Recommended Posts

I think investing in the best tablesaw you can afford is smart. It's the central tool in most wood shops. A jointer and planer will let you mill stock flat which is important for making furniture, cabinets ect.

If you are more into curves, carving and more sculptural shapes a bandsaw would come in handy.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The book is good but he was looking for tool recommendations, especially hand tool recommendations and all he got was Marc's book and power tools! I think we can do better!

For hand tools, I think a Jack Plane (also referred to as a #5), Block plane, one or two backsaws, a couple chisels (1/2" and 1/4"), a cheap sharp point hand saw, combo square, and some sharpening medium. I am sure I am leaving a few things out but these will get you started. 

Now if you want brand recommendations, well that's a whole different animal!

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For hand tools, pretty much everyone has their particular "must have" list.

You'll find a good list in The Anarchists Tool Chest (book by Christopher Schwarz http://lostartpress.com/collections/books/products/the-anarchists-tool-chest).  The book will also help you understand what too look for in each kind of hand tool (for example what makes one chisel better than another).

If you're looking to learn to use hand tools, you might look at The Hand Tool School (https://www.handtoolschool.net/).  It doesn't take a large tool set to tackle semester one, and it looks like a good set of lessons and useful projects.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's some good info.  I keep seeing people talk about a farrier's rasp and Nicholson file.  Is either of those something worth purchasing?

 

A farriers rasp is what you use on horse hooves. This is a cabinetmakers rasp.

8ba8b5b5212ab53edee0a023753c0781.jpg

Ive never used a rasp for horse hooves on wood but im assuming it does a similar job. I have the auriou rasps and love them. You will pay alot but they should last a hobbyist a lifetime. Hand made, forged, hand stitched by some guy in France makes it worth every penny to me. And they do an amazing job. Great investment.

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

36 minutes ago, Alan Bienlein said:

Can't recommend any tools with out knowing the type of projects you might be building. The best advice is to buy the tools as the project dictates.

What Alan said - figure out what you want to make, and that will help dictate what will help the most. What is almost universal is stock preparation, if working with rough lumber. So jointer, planer, and hand planes for getting a board milled true is the first step for a majority of projects. Then your method of cutting is up to you, be it table saw, jig saw, band saw, coping saw, hand saw, circular saw, track saw, etc. Table saw helps immensely for batching out identical pieces and making dados/rabbets.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Depends on the type of woodworking you see your self doing. For general purposes...

.

A good jack plane goes along way if u dont have a jointer or planer. Woodriver is affordable and makes great mid level planes.

.

Chisels by Narex or Stanley. Mid price range great quality.

.

A block plane for cleaning up joinery and flushing up trim or face frames. Woodriver or even a cheap stanley will do.

.

A set of card scrapers by Crown. Once you learn to use these they become quite valuable for all sorts of odd jobs.

.

Rasps by Grobet or Lee Valley. A fraction of the cost of hand stitched french rasps and work quite well. If your making cabriole legs and such often then maybe Aurio or Liogier is worth your life savings. But for general use and light duty shaping these are great.

.

Cheap box store handsaws seem to work well enough for me. I personally only use a dovetail saw, a coping saw and a flush trim saw but others here will have better advice on this. Graham Haydon has great vids about saws.

.

All these recommendations are my idea of good value tools. High quality for the price and good enough to their job well. There are better brands in every category but you start to reach that point of diminished returns.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Who's Online   3 Members, 0 Anonymous, 57 Guests (See full list)

  • Forum Statistics

    31.2k
    Total Topics
    421.8k
    Total Posts
  • Member Statistics

    23,757
    Total Members
    3,644
    Most Online
    R Parekh
    Newest Member
    R Parekh
    Joined