Reply To: Brand new – decided to get into this after stumbling onto Paul's workbench vids
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Hello Blake and welcome to this forum. There are some really great and helpful people here. Woodworking with hand tools can be intensely rewarding. I used to work with machines, but when my space got seriously reduced, those machines went into storage and I got into hand tools. Probably one of the best things to happen to me (although I’d still like much more space).
I’ll get to some of your question in a moment, but first let me say this. There is a learning curve with hand tools – all of them – from saws to chisels to planes to, well, you get the idea. So don’t get frustrated – all these things require practice to get good at. You will be able to make some things without much practice, but you will see those things get nicer and nicer the more you work at it.
As far as the tools are concerned:
– Don’t bother with the triangle shaped square, unless you are doing some building framing (its main purpose). It is a “nice to have”, but I rarely use mine and never for my projects.
– I would avoid the new Stanley #4 plane. It will only lead to frustration. Have patience when looking for an older pre-1960 #4 (or at worst, pre-1970’s). A great resource when figuring out the date of a plane is here. When looking online, you want a body that is not cracked, a mouth (the opening on bottom of plane) that has not been worn away (should be flat in that area), a frog that mates very stably to the body. There are a lot of resources online showing how to refurbish a plane. An excellent and very thorough video is by Mitch Peacock on his youtube channel called “WOmadeOD” (Made in Wood).
– For chisels, consider going to Home Depot or Lowe’s and finding a set of Aldi chisels. There has recently been some blogs and forum topics about them on this site. Paul has said that the Aldi chisels are very good for the money. I don’t know anything about the chisels you listed, but I’d be leery of them.
– This wasn’t on your list, but if you have planes and chisels, you will need to sharpen them. I CAN’T STRESS THIS ENOUGH – you need to keep your tools sharp. If you spend an hour planing some boards or chiseling mortises, it is very likely the tool will be quite dull by the end of that hour. It might be the case that you should have sharpened well before you realize the dullness. The frequency of sharpening comes with experience, but I will tell you this – it is MUCH more frequent than you realize or would like.
– Sandpaper – probably can’t go wrong here. Time will tell. Paul uses 150 to 250 grit almost exclusively.
– Rasps: you are right, they are not really a starter tool, but nice to have. Probably can’t go too wrong with cheap ones, but they may not last long and rasps cannot be refurbished.
– Combination square: this is also really important to get good quality. I broke down and bought a Starrett because I know they are the best. You can sometimes find these at garage sales and probably on eBay. Expensive, but the best. The combo square will be your best friend. Without a square that is true, you have little chance of getting the quality of results you want. Whatever you get, make sure it is true. There are ways to true up a combo square if you find it is not square.
You will need a good marking knife. Paul uses a fairly cheap Stanley knife. He has blogged about it, so search for that to find the details.
Ruler, measuring tape, saws, files, pencil sharpener, straight-edge … Lots of things that you’ll eventually want to get.
Again, don’t get frustrated. It takes a while to get started and longer to get good at things. But the personal satisfaction is tremendous. Good luck and we look forward to seeing some of your projects.