Just starting out

[Janie5605]

I've always been interested in wood working and finally find myself with the time to learn how to actually do some myself. I was wondering where I should start, what tools you recommend? Any books that I might find handy? I've been researching some but figured I should trust people who know what they are doing more then websites that keep trying to get me to use power tools. I'm very interested in hand tools and traditional woodworking methods. As back to basics as possible is what my goal is I suppose. Thanks for your help, I hope my inexperience isn't a bother, because honestly I've never done any wood working just watched from afar in awe.

[usacomp2k3]

Welcome! Have you checked out the hand-tool school? Sounds like a perfect fit for you.

http://www.renaissancewoodworker.com/hand-tool-school-intro/

[areynoldsre]

Rather than recommending tools I'd say decide what kind of projects you want to do - cabinets, boxes, chairs, turnings - then buy the tools needed to do those projects. And don't over buy tools, just get what you need to do a project and add tools as your skill improves. I hate to admit the number of tools I bought and then never used.

I'd strongly recommend that you look for classes or a wood working club to get to know wood workers in your area. I started out by taking a few classes and then joined a club. You can only learn so much from books and videos and a live instructor will help you so much as a beginner.

Fine Wooding Magazine has a web site called "start wood working" that has a reasonable list of hand tools for someone starting out:

hand tool list

[konkers]

Welcome! Have you checked out the hand-tool school? Sounds like a perfect fit for you.

http://www.renaissancewoodworker.com/hand-tool-school-intro/

You can get a free preview of the first episode where Shannon goes through the semester one tool kit. Definitely worth checking out.

[jhl.verona]

I received some good advise starting my beginners toolkit on this forum.

Later I found a series of articles on the Wood Workers Institute:

http://www.woodworke...page.asp?p=1098

http://www.woodworke...page.asp?p=1169

http://www.woodworke...page.asp?p=1223

http://www.woodworke...page.asp?p=1249

http://www.woodworke...page.asp?p=1283

http://www.woodworke...page.asp?p=1339

Although I find the list pretty daunting, as mentioned by others, get the tools when the job requires them.

Some tools are essential for any job:

Get a marking knife, steel ruler (preferably with etched markings tht the knife will sit in) and a try square.

Think about your sharpening system. I went with scary sharp, because the initial outlay is cheaper. Waterstones are more economical (and fatser) in the long run.

HTH

John

[Bob Rozaieski]

Welcome to the wonderful world of woodworking. There's plenty to learn and lots of mistakes to be made along the way, so the best advise I can give you is to jump in with both feet and don't be afraid of doing something wrong. It is inevitable that you will make mistakes and as a result make some firewood, but that's part of the fun.

So here are a few recommendations for you as you begin your journey into this wonderful hobby:

1. Pick a Project. Anything that interests you. Don't just say "I want to build boxes" or "I want to make furniture". Be specific. Choose one specific thing you'd like to make. As an example, let's use a small side table (by chance I happen to have done a podcast series on that ).
   
2. Get an Anatomy Lesson. Once you've picked a specific project, figure out what needs to be done to build that specific piece. Most importantly, how the piece will go together. Woodworking in its simplest terms is taking one piece of wood and joining it to another piece of wood (with joinery) to make something functional. In addition to figuring out the joinery, you will need to decide if you will buy rough sawn lumber or pre-surfaced lumber. If rough sawn, will you have the sawmill plane it for you or will you plane it yourself? Figuring this stuff out ahead of time will aid you in the next step.
   
3. Limit Your Initial Tool Purchases. After you have an idea of what kind of joinery and what kind of lumber you will be working with, decide what tools you want to use to complete those tasks and acquire only the tools you need to complete this specific project. If you will use only hand tools, decide which ones you will need for the operations you need to do for your specific project (we can help here so ask us about the specifics for your project). You'll also need to decide whether to buy new or old tools. We can make recommendations here, but they'll be all over the map based upon each of our own personal preferences, and ultimately this decision will lie completely with you and your budget and preferences. If you want to blend hand work with power, decide which operations you want to do with power and which by hand. Again, this will depend largely upon your personal budget.
   
4. Check Out the Educational Resources. There are lots. Shannon's excellent web site and Hand Tool School has already been mentioned. I also have a hand tool blog & video podcast that focuses on beginner skills and beginner to intermediate projects, along with some historical perspective. You can find it at http://logancabinetshoppe.com/blog The podcast archives can be found at http://logancabinetshoppe.com/podcast.html The archives are categorized to help you navigate the different subjects. Be sure to check out the podcast series I did on building a small tea table. It was geared toward a beginning to intermediate woodworker. You'll have to decide if you're up for the project or not, but even if you decide you want to start with something smaller or simpler, the series will give you a lot of insight into the processes that go into designing and building a piece of furniture 100% by hand from rough sawn lumber. You can find the tea table series at http://logancabinetshoppe.com/podcast-porringer-tea-table.html
   
5. Learn to Sharpen Well. This is the most important skill that any hand tool user will need to learn. Sharp tools are a must. Dull hand tools don't work, will frustrate the user, and are dangerous. It is likely that you will learn a new definition of sharp as you work more and more with hand tools. Most likely, what you think is sharp now, isn't really sharp enough for fine woodworking. That will change as you gain experience.
   
6. Get Some Lumber and Get Started. You can read all you want and watch as many videos as you want, but there's no better teacher than experience. Hand work is a lot different than machine work in that you need to develop the skill, feel and control of the tools. It takes time working wood to do this. You can't learn it without doing it.
   

A few pitfalls to try and avoid (tongue in cheek, but true none the less):

• Paralysis by Analysis. This is a very easy rut to fall into. You get so wrapped up in which tool is the best, what operations to do by hand and what by machine, and whether to buy new tools or old tools, that you spend more time thinking about tools and woodworking than you spend actually doing woodworking. Remember, you can't learn to work wood if you aren't working wood.
  
• Tool Acquisition Disorder. Another very contagious afliction in the hand tool world. Hand tools are addictive, there's no doubt about that. Your first few good, well tuned hand tools will give you a taste of what good sharp hand tools are capable of. After that taste, you want more, so you buy more hand tools. You find yourself at yard sales and auctions at 6:00 am on Saturday mornings looking for any hint of rust. You buy tools that you don't have any immediate need for and may not even know what they are, but because "I might need them when I eventually build that Victorian era whos-a-ma-whats-it", you buy them anyway. Before you know it, you have boxes of rust piled up in every corner of your shop, buckets of secret rust zapping formulas, bald forearms (it's a sharpening thing; you'll learn about it), and a stack of untouched lumber underneath the piles from the last few month's worth of auction, flea market and yard sale hauls. To vaccinate yourself from this disease, you need to resist the temptation to buy tools that you don't have an immediate project need for and remember that in order to learn woodworking, you actually have to work with the wood .
  
• Perfect Joint Syndrome. This is a common infection that is usually contracted from doves; specifically, their tails. Symptoms include an irresistable urge to purchase every dovetail saw that comes into view, making at least a dozen small trapezoidal templates in angles from 1:3 through 1:15, and spending countless hours making hundreds of 3x3 bookends while inspecting each of their corners for atomic traces of light. The end result of this affliction is a large pile of practice joints, but once again, no actual project to show for it. To avoid it, consider the dovetail joint for what it was originally intended - a way to join board A to board B. Don't make a perfect dovetail joint the penultimate goal, especially not at the expense of the rest of the project.
  
• Informational Overloadism. This is a rather recent development among the hand tool community. In the last few years, there has been an explosion of information and resources related to working wood with hand tools. Often times, information is conflicting, convoluded, misguided, or just plain untrue. It can be difficult to separate the good from the bad for a new woodworker with little experience. This can lead to countless evenings spent with one's nose burried in books, browsing the thousands of pages of material on the web, and watching hours upon hours of videos. As the infection progresses, the patient begins to randomly replace their "s's" with "∫'s" and blurt out sentence fragments in 18th century French. Once again, the end result, as with the previous afflictions, is a neglected wood pile. To prevent this affliction, once again, the solution is to put the books down once in awhile, get out in the shop, and actually work some wood.
  

Have fun! Be sure to let us know when you've picked your first project so we can help you move on to the next step. And remember, keep your focus on the project, not the tools, and you can avoid the common afflictions that plague our community.

[rmac]

spending countless hours making hundreds of 3x3 bookends while inspecting each of their corners for atomic traces of light. The end result of this affliction is a large pile of practice joints, but once again, no actual project to show for it

Guilty as charged.

-- Russ

[neander.normite]

Bob,

You're a madman on your responses, seems like you can just shut a topic down. In a good way though, there just isn't anything left to add when you get done it seems.

[Bob Rozaieski]

Bob,

You're a madman on your responses, seems like you can just shut a topic down. In a good way though, there just isn't anything left to add when you get done it seems.

In no way do I want to shut the topic down (in a good or bad way). Just providing my $0.02 and having a little fun. The best way for us to help anyone new is for all to share their experiences and recommendations based on their own learnings. We were all new to this at one time, but non of us has experienced everything, so the more we can share, the better for the community as a whole. I often learn more from these posts than I share.

[Bob Rozaieski]

Guilty as charged.

-- Russ

You know what they say. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem . I'm not just the president, but I'm also a client (but I've since destroyed the evidence).

[neander.normite]

I would second what Bob said about just putting a blade to wood. I read and watched so many videos on handtools for about 6 months, all while doing hardly nothing with them. Two days into my first handtool project I think served better than 2 months of reading. Knowing that you have to transfer your weight when planing is one thing, learning how to do it is another.

Also, don't get trapped into the 30 minute project box, we all know you can't build a dresser in 23 min even if that's how long it takes Norm, but when can get a false sense of how easy something is with handtools. I spend a good amount of time watching Roy, Bob, and Shannon use handtools. And let me tell you, the first time I milled a board by hand it wasn't as easy as they make it look. I had to stop, come back the next day and really think through what I was doing to get it right. I still suck at it, takes me forever it seems to get it right, but I feel much better about one board 4 square by hand than than 100 by machine.

[jhl.verona]

Bob, thank you for that, but your links are broken (they all have a superfluous full stop on the end).

<snip>

http://logancabinetshoppe.com/blog

http://logancabinets...om/podcast.html

http://logancabinets...-tea-table.html

</snip>

John

[Bob Rozaieski]

Bob, thank you for that, but your links are broken (they all have a superfluous full stop on the end).

John

Thanks! I fixed them.

[WeilWorks]

As always Bob has some of the best advise. I have been studying hand tool woodworking for about 3 years now, watching as many podcasts and reading as much as possible. I haven't been able to get truly started working wood (beside doing carpentry) due to grad school and almost no $$$ to put toward it.

I have several books now on the shelf on both techniques and toolage as well as design and style. Learning as much as have has been great! but it is all head knowledge. So I suggest (though I'm not really qualified to) doing as much learning and thinking as you can stand, then use that head knowledge and passion that you've nourished to tackle whatever project you want.

I'll post a couple books that have helped and encouraged me later.

[WeilWorks]

Here are a couple

Wood ID'ing &Use

jointery

really the entire series of "Complete Illustrated Guide to..." from Taunton Press are fantastic

Toolbox Book

These are my top picks so far. I'm sure there are others that would help you out tons too. If you find some that help you out, let me know! I'm always looking for another good book

[jmaichel]

I can say this hand tools are tough and the learning curve is rather step. I have watched several videos, podcast, books and ect... I have also made a lot of firewood along the way and very few projects. A couple things that I have learned is flat enough is good enough when first starting out and it has taking me a long time not to get to fixated on milling. 2) I have recently started by milled lumber straight from my hardwood dealer to ease the frustration of the milling process and just focus on joinery and building projects. 3) Avoid expensive lumber I found it that it's not worth it right now at least for me. I would rather use popular or what ever is on special at my hardwood dealer and just trying to focus on building and completing projects even if they look like crap, there is something to be learned. I think Bob said it best, get out and build. Hand tools are very sensory oriented and it takes awhile to get in touch with your inner square, I am still very far from it. Good Luck!

James

www.handtooltalk.com

[marist]

These guys are right. Pick a specific project and go for it. It can be something as simple as a picture frame or a pencil holder. You'll learn alot from building something - even if it is only made from 4 or 5 pieces. Shop furniture can be great for learning. Saw benches and chisel racks can be built with many different types of joinery. It may not look the best, but it'll be functional. Right now I'm building a rack for my lathe tools neander style. Every piece is held together with dovetails. You can definitely tell my first joint (read BRUTAL) from my last joint. I still need LOTS of practice, but I'm having fun. I hope you do too. Good Luck!