Woodworking Hand Tool List
This is a list of basic, personal hand tools I suggest for woodworkers learning the old ways. No need to get them all at once. Bargain vintage tools from a flea market or antique store often work. Avoid overly precious tools priced to look at. Avoid gimmickry, and stick to classics - mostly.
Of course, you’ll want to add some power tools to this list, but add them consciously as you discover what will truly help you along. I am not a purist about working in the old ways, but I do take it slow and notice how electric power can overshadow the subtleties of the hand. If you really learn to tune and handle a plane, you will discover that in many cases it is more efficient & easier than a power joiner or belt sander. Nevertheless, if you are trying to make some money, you will have to come to some compromise with power & newer technology. I hope I’m getting across the real questions you’ll want to ask along the way.
Fine Woodworking Tools
(companies & catalogs: Garrett Wade, Woodcraft, Lie Nielsen, Japan Woodworker, etc)
#04 smoothing plane - Veritas #04 or Lie Nielsen with high-angle frog (If you only buy one top-of-the-line tool, the Lie Nielsen is the one to get. Look down their options for the #4 and select the 50 degree high angle frog - or “HAF.” Their iron version is just fine.)
#05 jack plane - vintage Bailey or Stanley would be fine, but check for flatness
#07 or 08 jointer plane - vintage Bailey or Stanley would be fine, but check for flatness
Cabinetry chisels (1/8", 1/4" , 1/2", 3/4", 1", 1.25")
Hand scraper (about .031" or .80mm thick)
Cabinet scraper - Stanley #80 is good , Veritas is best
Japanese Dozuki & Ryoba handsaws. Irwin versions of these are commonly available in the West - for instance their Extra Fine Cut Saw and Double Edge Pull Saw.
Fine and ultra-fine sharpening stones (generally I recommend a hard Arkansas and a vintage barber stone made in Austria with the name Franz Swaty on it - they come up on eBay. I prefer stones that are about 6” inches long.
Spokeshave - one of the following: Lie Nielsen-Boggs Flat, Veritas Flat
General Shop tools:
3/8" cordless drill & set of high speed steel drill & driver bits
screwdrivers - I recommend a Klein Tool Multi-Bit as a good place to start
Claw hammer (16oz)
Pocket knife
Calculator with trig, square root, Pi, and fraction functions
Measuring & marking tools:
16ft tape measure
6ft folding ruler with slide-out extension (I used to recommend the natural wood Lufkin, but recently not impressed with the quality unless you can find an old one. Starrett is great, but very expensive. Consider other brands and let me know when you find a good one. Check them against a tape measure to assure accuracy before accepting.)
Try square - 3" or 4" engineer's (or equivalent)
Combination or sliding square
Folding bevel - approximately 10"
Marking gauge or mortising gauge
Dial caliper (this should read in thousandths of an inch - fractions will be a bonus. I like my non-digital, dial version best - replacing batteries is a pain.
Scribe
X-Acto type knife and a few extra standard point blades
Camera equipment:
Camera: A point and shoot digital is fine, but best is a digital SLR with a fast lens - zoom from wide angle to middle range. Lens quality is more important than pixel numbers or even camera body.
Camera operator's manual - read it and know how to use your camera in the Aperture Priority setting.
Tripod
Let me say this: Don’t let your projects out the door without photographing them well first. Photographs are all you have once your “baby” has left the shop. Photos will be your primary way of getting a next job or just sharing your delight with friends. If you need to communicate before or after getting a job, then your artwork and photography must be as awesome as your craft work. Get used to the idea that a good photograph takes one to two hours to set up - with bounced even lighting, a highlight, and sensible background.
Safety equipment:
Disposable nuisance dust masks
Eye protection
Ear protection
Work gloves - lightweight deerskin are available in most hardware stores
Full face shield as needed
Respirator as needed (OSHA, for organic solvents)
Needle point tweezers
Work apron with pockets (the short type with wide shoulder straps and a crisscross tie in back is recommended - Bucket Boss makes a nice one.)
Drafting and Drawing Supplies:
Basic drafting tools (adjustable triangle, architect scale rule, flexible curve, technical pen, compass)
Portable drafting board & T-square
Drawing supplies
12" x 18" newsprint pad
small pad of tracing paper
12" x 18" light sketch (Strathmore Drawing Medium is preferred);
medium sized technical pen
colored pencils
4H pencil
block eraser - art gum type
eraser shield
Digital Alternatives for Drafting & Drawing:
Don’t be concerned if you don’t have a computer. Most of my students get started without. But, if you have a computer (I like a laptop that I can carry around), you might be interested in some of the digital approaches to design, illustration, and photo editing. Just know that for me, design always starts with a pencil and a piece of paper. The eye-hand-body-space enables a direct intuition of visual meaning very important for generating ideas. At this early stage a computer is very clumsy - to me anyway. Rarely do my projects start with any less than a dozen loose iterations with pencil and paper. Successful designers spend time at this and do not build the first thing that comes to mind. After this start you can bring your best idea to the drafting table or to CAD and begin refining it. Regardless, do not become enamored with technology, but with good results.
DesignCAD 3DMax (about $100) This is a powerful little 2D/3D drafting program that can do most of what the big money AutoCad can do. If you are interested in drafting on a computer this is a good place to start. I use it all the time for 2D line drawings, but it will also do 3D. Adding color pencil shading to line drawings printed out on art paper makes a very nice illustration. SketchUp is free, and also very popular, but I have no experience with it. Doesn’t hurt to check it out as an alternative to DCAD.
Photoshop or Photoshop Elements software. Photoshop is the industry standard photo editor that can also be used as an illustrator for your designs. I use it mostly for tweaking my photographs, adding text, and the occasional illustration. Photoshop Elements can do much of what Photoshop does and is a very capable alternative. I do my initial line drawings in CAD and then import these into Photoshop for coloring and any text.
FormZ (http://autodessys.com/) is a very flexible 3D modeling program that you might consider down the road. It’s a little hard to learn, but for 3D modelers it is the most bang for the buck. Think of CAD as native to 2D (that with effort can stretch into 3D). Modeling programs, on the other hand, are native to 3D. They are much more complex and can produce photo-realistic drawings. Usually best to learn 2D & image editing first. I would generally say that you can learn 2D by reading the book and going through the exercises. 3D is something else altogether. I’d recommend a specialized course to learn 3D modeling.
Finally, a word on deciding which programs you are going to learn. Because programs (CAD, photo editing, modeling, rendering) require some dedication before they become second nature, I believe it is impossible to get objective advice by asking one or two experts. People that use these programs naturally become loyal to what they know - me included. Once you learn one of these programs it begins to feel natural - while programs you do not know will seem ridiculous and frustrating. So ask a LOT of people for their recommendations - find a forum where there is a serious discussion on the matter. For modeling and rendering, look at final images that have been produced with the program you are considering.