Reply To: Necessary tools to do quality work
Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Tools and Tool Maintenance/Restoration / Necessary tools to do quality work / Reply To: Necessary tools to do quality work
The list looks reasonable and I agree in many points with @kamikazekrieger.
I’m not sure, whether I should agree the recommendation of a japanese saw. On the pro side (additionally to the arguments of @kamikazekrieger) are: after trying it, you know, whether you like to saw at the pull stroke. On the con side: once you begin to work with resharpenable western saws, you have to learn how to sharpen it anyway and how to interpret sawing errors correct them (eg. too much set).
I started with cheap western saws. It was awful. Then I bought a japanese saw: much better – and it’s still sharp, despite sawing several meters of plywood. But: sawing on the pull stroke is a bit awkward to me, so I switched back to western saws – with all the consequences. Ymmv.
My personal recommendation for the first saws: handsaw for rip cutting and a tenon or japanese saw.
The marking gauge was was one of the first tools I made myself: The Poor Man’s Beading and Marking Tool by. Mr. Sellers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZnh7VHz_T4
Later I built this one: https://nerdpol.ch/posts/5d58f15083670134d20452540061b601
(nowadays I’d choose a larger diameter for the beam)
That leads to one possible missing tool on the list: If you don’t have a cordless drill, you need a brace and some auger bits and perhaps an eggbeater handdrill.
If you don’t have special purposes for the oil stone, I’d not purchase one. For the first time, sand paper on the glass plate works works well. At this time I recommend to save money for good diamond plates. Currently I do sharpening on waterstones but it requires effort to keep them flat, eg. to hone the back sides of chisels and plane irons.
If you already own a B&D Workmate or have the opportunity to borrow one, it will be ok. I worked on a similar Bosch PWB 600 and it was rather wobbly. That wasn’t fun. If your approach is some kind of “bootstrapping”, I recommend that you build a simple sturdy sawbench first. It IS possible for a beginner to build something like that: http://www.infixiert.org/img/20161019_ms_0001.jpg – or as the MkII version: https://www.infixiert.org/img/sawbench_mkii.jpg with additional clamping opportunities and a planing stop: https://www.infixiert.org/img/hw/20170529_hw_0002.jpg
Until now my mostly (>95%) used chisel is the 20mm (3/4″) wide one.
A year ago I bought a cheap chisel set (similar to the Aldi chisels) – can’t recommend it: no considerable edge retention, despite I honed them fairly steep (>30°), convex back sides, loose ferrules, and probably we better not ask for the conditions they’re produced under.
I also own a Two Cherries 20mm chisel: good steel, but still convex back, even after round about one hour honing the back…
So I recommend to purchase higher quality chisels. My chisels made by MHG: https://www.mhg-shop.de/shopping_cart.php?language=en&
Probably it makes sense to purchase a simple honing guide, in particular to restore the basic edge geometry of a chisel or a plane iron.
Hope this helps,
E.
PS: Please note: My recommendations and opinions are based of fresh beginner’s experiences.