Reply To: Necessary tools to do quality work
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I started out a few weeks ago as an absolute beginner in woodworking. While restoring old tools is nice and might be cheaper, keep in mind, that you will have soo many skills to learn doing the actual woodworking, stacking the other skills like restoring old planes and saws on top of that, might pile up to a mountain of skills too high to master in the beginning.
I started out with an old wooden plane, watched lots of videos and thought, that might be not that hard. The “problem” is, that you don’t have any experience or knowledge about how that tool is supposed to feel in your hand, how easy or hard it is to do the actual work. Once you have an idea how a tool is supposed to behave, restoring a tool to get close to that point is a lot easier than doing it from scratch with no experience at all.
I will not say, that this will be impossible, but it will be a steeper learning curve.
With that in mind, I’d say that going for a used metal #4-plane might be an okay idea. You definatly need to learn to sharpen the blade anyway. At one point I gave in and got a new no #4 plane, because I was really unhappy with the old wooden plane.
I’d go with a japanese ryoba saw as a first saw. You don’t need to sharpen it and keep that skill for a later time and you get a crosscut and a ripsaw in one saw. It might not be that long as a usual handsaw but you can handle 4 by 4 material with it with no problem.
I had a wobbly workmate knockoff which I used to build my current “workbench”, which is basicly just an oversized sawhorse, adapting the dimensions of the Paul Sellers sawhorse and following his videos.
Tools used as far as I remember:
– ryoba saw
– combination square
– sliding bevel
– 20mm / 3/4″ chisel
– wooden/ nylon hammer
– drill with drillbit & countersink bit
– screwdriver
– tape measure
– some cheap knife with disposable blades
Link to a thread about the sawbench:
In hindight, the combination angle of the legs proved to be tricky for a beginner, there is another design by Christopher Schwarz, that might be more easy.
http://contrib1.wkfinetools.com/cSchwarz/sawBench/Sawbench-1.pdf
A workmate and this sawbench got one thing in common, both are way to light to work for planing. You will push the workmate around. I can prop the sawbench against a wall though and it will not move, which you cannot do properly with the workmate. I padded one end with cork, which was actually a cork pot coaster from Ikea.
My second “project” was a dovetail template and winding sticks. I made these out of one storebought piece of beech with the proper width and thickness. I just made sure, that I got a really straight one. Beech was not the best wood to use, as I was told later.
Tools:
– ryoba saw
– 3/4″ chisel
– hammer
– combination square
– sliding bevel
– tape measure
– marking gauge
– plane, depending on the wood
I just used a black marker for the dark line of the one winding stick and marking the middle of the sticks.
You’ll absolutly want a benchhook. I made one with a little apron instead of a cleat, so I can clamp stuff. A benchhook can also act as a makeshift shooting board.
Benchhook turned sideways:
Tools:
– ryoba saw
– dovetail template
– 3/4″ chisel & hammer/ mallet
– combination square
– plane
– tape measure
– marking gauge
A nice thing to have is an improvised “moxon vise” until you get a proper bench.
All of the above can be build by a beginner with a limited toolset and those little helpers will help you along the way.
So my tool recommendation apart from the tools used for the mentioned projects:
– a fine saw, be it a dovetail/ tenon/ carcass saw or a japanese dozuki saw. I went with the dozuki
– a few more chisels in different sizes
– lots of clamps, for clamping stuff to your workbench, whatever that might be and for glueing stuff together
– sharpening tools for chisel/ plane blade ( and saw, if you go the western route).
– drillbits & drill, be it a manual one or a power tool of some sorts.
– marking knife of some sorts
– card scraper & burnisher are nice to have, to remove pencil marks.
– if you don’t plan to work on curves or round stuff, you can get the spokeshave later.
Here is a tool recommendation for a starting kit from the Renaissance Woodworker:
A video worthwhile to watch.