However, I would recommend that you build a wooden work table or buy one if you think that building a work table is too advanced for you right now. However, I created the DVD (and streaming version) of “Building the Portable Moravian Workbench” with Will Myers so that even beginners can build a solid, portable and very affordable workbench that fits almost anywhere, using mainly or only hand tools. You can buy it in my store here. You can find Will's free workplans for Moravian Workbench here.
Whatever path you choose, be sure to choose between building or buying a 26% sturdy wooden workbench, with a solid top of at least 3 inches, base legs that provide strong support, and at least one strong press. My worktable guide contains much more details on how to choose a wooden workbench. A test square is used to square the workpieces and achieve a precise fit of the joints. If you're still not confident enough to build your own test square, you should buy a good metal square (between 9 and 12 inches).
It will be used to draw square lines around the faces and edges of the boards, such as a line that indicates where to cut with the saw. Dividers are also used to trace arches and much more. You should definitely have at least one “pair” of dividers (a compass), between 6 and 9 inches. It's also useful to have a pair of small spacers (like 3 inches), so I can store more than one measurement at a time.
It's very practical to have a nice 24-inch vintage wooden ruler because it fits in your pocket or apron and allows you to measure quickly. They are quite affordable, but you should know what to look for so as not to be left with a mess. Woodworking clamps hold the freshly glued joints together until the glue hardens. To begin with, I would recommend buying at least one quality manual thread clamp (about 10 or 12 inches) and some parallel or bar-type clamps.
I SAW YOUR 2-MINUTE VIDEO ABOUT OLD MITER BOXES. IN THE END YOU TALKED ABOUT ANOTHER VIDEO THAT DELVES INTO DIFFERENT BOXES OF OLD MITERS. WHAT IS VIDEO? My requests are: 6 and 5 inch airplane, wooden Chelsea set, clamp size 7 and 5 feeds, rebound plane, electric router and drill set, jigsaw, angle grinder, electric and battery drill, three squares, circular saw and 2-piece hand saw and 2-piece hand saw and 2-piece claw profiler. It will be a pleasure for our company to respond to my order with all the details of the price of each item mentioned on the page.
You'll use it to cut all your carpentry. You'll use it to cut smaller pieces to their final length. It must be precisely adjusted to produce joints that do not require additional work. A quick look and you'll be very confusing with so many types of rear saws out there.
The dovetail, the spike, the girdle, the shell, etc., have different configurations of length and depth below the back and the geometry of the tooth. Everyone has their place, but I firmly believe that, starting out, a housing saw will serve you better. By definition, it is a cross-cutting saw of medium length and depth. It will allow you to cut dovetails, spikes and everything else.
Like the Jack plane, this is an area where I recommend buying a new saw. There are a large number of modern manufacturers and a wide range of prices. I have tried many of the modern brands and they all work very well. Let your budget be your guide.
The vintage market is another option, but just like the hand saw, pay the premium to get a saw from a reputable dealer and have it sharpened and fine-tuned by an expert. A bad woodworking saw will cause a lot of problems and increase your frustration exponentially. The goal with all carpentry should be a good fit right out of the saw. Without a rear saw, you can trust that this will be very difficult.
Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to develop a problem with the saw later on, and this is one area where using multiple saws can be a great advantage for your work. For now, go for vanilla and the corpse saw is your answer. Interesting steering mechanism for your jig saw. As I said before, you can skip this one if curves aren't part of your designs right now.
A jig saw is very useful for removing debris from dovetails, but, as usual, a chisel can do that job just as easily. I'm including this on this exclusive list mainly because I want new users of hand tools to start accepting that anything can be done with hand tools. There are no capacity limits or angle limits, and anything your brain can imagine can be done with a saw and chisel. The jig saw allows you to break straight lines and you'll be surprised how adding a smooth curve at the bottom of a coffee table apron changes the look of the entire piece.
No frills and always within easy reach. Many of you will continue to scratch your heads and won't be sure where to go from now on. There are many brands of tools and deciding which of the types listed above is half the battle. The moment I start making brand recommendations, that's when people start to get mad at me because the brand of their choice has been underrated.
I believe in the mantra of “buy your latest tool first first”, to a certain extent, and with the previous tools that I labeled critical, I recommend spending some money getting them right now. Things like gauges and chisels can wait until you know better what you need. Whether you're a purist of hand tools who appreciate the intrinsic feel and quality of finish of human-powered tools, or someone who uses hand tools only for touch-ups that are difficult to do with a machine, Rockler has the hand tools that fit your needs. We have all kinds of products, from hand saws for tearing, cutting and cutting fixed carpentry to chisels for cleaning dovetails and sharpening mortises and spikes, to bench plates for smoothing the tops of tables.
We also have mouthpieces and scrapers, files, microplanes and rasps. For carvers with good taste for curves, sculpture and three-dimensional surfaces, we have a wide variety of tools for carving wood, from knives for cutting chips to tools for carving palms. Nothing could be further from the truth: even the first attempts with a hand tool will give you better results than the first attempts to do the same with machines. These three tools (the connector, the assembler and the smooth planes) allow you to do almost any stock-preparation job, from start to finish.
Making your own wood, hand planer or knife offers a great deal of satisfaction that you only get when building your own carpentry tools. I have created the manual tool buying guides above to help beginners who feel overwhelmed trying to understand which hand tools they need first. You could argue that using hand tools is cheaper than using power tools, but I think that quickly that briefcase would become very thin. As a beginning carpenter, I have chosen traditional media because I can find good deals at local markets and, with a little adjustment, the tools work well.
But even those have risen a lot in price and with them comes a lot of time spent restoring a tool that you might not really know how should work. This set of tools will allow you to complete any of the projects from the first semester of my school of hand tools and will also help you develop the skills needed to create your own next generation of tools. To do the same job with power tools, you would need three to four machines, a bunch of small motorized hand tools, and good dust collection to remove all the small particles. Get a variety of sizes to be able to perform a variety of tasks (3⁄4″, 1⁄2″ and 1⁄4″ tools would be a good start).
At the bottom of this page is a complete and practical list of tools ordered by “urgent”, semi-urgent and “not urgent” to buy. . .
