Minimal hand tool set

[DigitalM]

I'm interested to hear what people consider the best balance of the fewest tools possible to do the maximum range of work. If this has been discussed a million times I apologise, just kill it admin! But hey, we all go to the pub and have the same conversation with our mates over and over and over don't we?!

This must be a situation that others have been in, I can imagine many scenarios where people want a portable tool set or a second set of tools somewhere else.

This is related to another thread I've opened but I wanted to focus the replies.

 

[Tasky]

I'd say it depends on what work you do. I imagine there is at least one essential tool specific to joinery, or carpentry, or coopering, carving, turning, cabinetry, wheelwrighting, etc...

I'm using the Paul Sellers lists of Essential Tools and Minimalist Tools as a checklist for shopping and kitting out my first set of woodworking tools. For now, that is my minimalist set, really... Along with a computer to play all the instructional videos as I work, of course!!

 

[custard]

It's about two grand's worth

:shock:

how-much-does-woodworking-cost-t106958.html

 

[DigitalM]

That's a very interesting thread from the point of view of what's the cost of the basics to start in the trade. I note your points about £5k and still there is kit missing. I'm thinking more in terms of a second set, and if you can't physically carry it one journey, then it doesn't make my brief (not that I specified that, but that's what I was thinking).

So I guess I'm thinking more along the lines of those jobbing carpenter self-made-suitcase type tool sets.

But thanks for the list, it's a real eye-opener overall, but doesn't come as much of a shock, I've been feeling it in the wallet for ages now!

Edit: My God I wish I was good enough to make something like that. Maybe one day, eh!

 

[DigitalM]

I'm using the Paul Sellers lists of Essential Tools and Minimalist Tools as a checklist for shopping and kitting out my first set of woodworking tools.

Thanks for this. I can't find it easily itemised anywhere, do you have a link? I only found a bunch of separate blog posts, but you seemed to imply that it's all collated somewhere?

 

[Tasky]

Thanks for this. I can't find it easily itemised anywhere, do you have a link? I only found a bunch of separate blog posts, but you seemed to imply that it's all collated somewhere?

Google for: "Paul Sellers My Essential Tools" - That's a single post.

His blog for Minimalist Tools is a mini-series, as is the Which Tools To Buy First, although that does have an intro page with a short list.
I also found Ten Tools Three Joints an interesting read.

I'm sure there are other peoples' lists to consider, too, though...

 

[D_W]

* Wooden 24" long plane (40)
* Wooden Jack Plane (25)
* Stanley 4, or record 4 (25)
* inexpensive grinder (really inexpensive - like 40 pounds - 55 with diamond dresser)
* 6 point rip saw (25)
* 11-12 point cross cut saw (carpenter saw size, or at least 24") (45)
* gents dovetail saw - something decent, not a $10 home store saw (25)
* cross cut saw in 12" range, about 13 teeth per inch (not vital, but nice to have and should be very cheap - but not home store stuff) - (25)
* Coping saw - doesn't have to be great - (10 with blades, 20 if you want it to be nice)
* Washita bench stone (50)
* Piece of leather with a smooth side (10)
* Any kind of very cheap burnishing stone if refinement more than washita needed, which is rare (10)
* Iles 6 piece chisel set (140 - vintage footprint red handle would be good, too, but hard to find a full set)
* 1 sash mortise chisel in 1/4" (20)
* Moving fillister plane (40)
* three pairs of hollows and rounds - good ones, not junk (100)
* Rabbet Plane (20)
* Junk saw for stock to make marking knives (5)
* cheap home store lock-back knife (10)
* curved and straight card scrapers (15)
* decent pencil, decent pen - need a white pencil, too (10)
* Couple of basic carving gouges (100)
* Used square (preferably a vintage combination square with a hardened head - so much nicer to use and never really gets "worn out") (50)
* Some worn out double cut files in flat and half round. Increase price of saws above if not wanting to buy files and file (20)
* record plastic handle plow (50 - and I might be high with that)

925 pounds?
And you need a bench, but it doesn't have to be expensive.

I built a 400 pound bench for $450 + vises using ash. You can make vises cheaper than those that I bought if cost is an issue.

I don't believe in making a softwood bench, and i'm not trying to start a war with that, I just don't want to make another bench in my lifetime.

Some of the things above can be cheapened. The washita cuts the sharpening cost by tons. It will sharpen scrapers by itself very well (no multi step stuff) and will sharpen everything except the sharpest of paring chisels and carving tools. The burnishing stone can be used for that with just about anything you want as grit if you want to go that route. 6 chisels new aren't *needed*, but it's so much easier to do that.

I would make anything else I needed after that list (grooving planes, shoot boards, etc). Adding a metal jointer is nice - sometimes the try plane is a bit brash for edge work, and having an adjuster is nice for that kind of stuff, but the try plane leaves a metal long plane in the dust for rough lumber preparation.

 

[AndyT]

Dave's list is a luxury list for someone with plenty of space. That fitted case is nice but has two many chisels.

For quite a long time, when I was younger and living in rented flats, I still wanted to make stuff - and did too - useful things like bookshelves. Most of my toolkit fitted into a small metal barn style toolbox, which held a few essentials such as spanners for bike maintenance too. From memory the woodwork kit was something like this:

Tenon saw
B&D Electric drill and bits including masonry bits
No 4 Stanley plane
Oilstone
One 1/2" chisel
Tape measure
Rule
Try square
Stanley knife
Screwdriver
Bradawl
Hammer
Workmate (proper-ish B&D made in England from actual steel)

 

[D_W]

Dave's list is a luxury list for someone with plenty of space. That fitted case is nice but has two many chisels.

For quite a long time, when I was younger and living in rented flats, I still wanted to make stuff - and did too - useful things like bookshelves. Most of my toolkit fitted into a small metal barn style toolbox, which held a few essentials such as spanners for bike maintenance too. From memory the woodwork kit was something like this:

Tenon saw
B&D Electric drill and bits including masonry bits
No 4 Stanley plane
Oilstone
One 1/2" chisel
Tape measure
Rule
Try square
Stanley knife
Screwdriver
Bradawl
Hammer
Workmate (proper-ish B&D made in England from actual steel)

Mine is made on the assumption that you're going to do "maximum work" and without any power tools. There doesn't appear to have been a stipulation of power tools or not, but I think there needs to be some capacity to dimension lumber. You could use a 4 with two blades, but it would get old really quickly.

There is a professional woodworker on the US forums who works entirely by hand. I think he probably does more restoration work at this point than original work, but he has mentioned from time to time having jobs like carving a design in the end of 60 oak church pews. In his list of his own original tools, he was cutting dovetails (for paying work) without a backsaw, but rather with a carpenter's saw.

You can go without some of the things I've added, and I've probably missed a few, but with the list of tools I have above, you should be able to do a lot of work without spending unneeded time on various steps.

Add a propane torch and an oil quench and you can make a whole lot of inexpensive tools (small hand-driven carving tools, etc).

I think I forgot rulers and a drill. I'd go to an office supply store or an art store (probably a better idea) and get steel rules in 6, 12 and 24. The same quality of steel rule is far cheaper at an art store than it is at a woodworking store. Probably not more than 25 pounds for the three. I'll assume the person doing this work already has a tape measure, because I'm not aware of many households that do not.

Though it will be panned by purists, I'd buy a cheap cordless drill for the drill part, or if money is really tight, a corded drill. Add a set of decent jobber bits and a cheap set of spade bits.

 

[DigitalM]

Mine is made on the assumption that you're going to do "maximum work" and without any power tools. There doesn't appear to have been a stipulation of power tools or not, but I think there needs to be some capacity to dimension lumber.

Yeah I wasn't very specific. I started another thread about a kitchen-use stowaway workbench that had more detail. Maybe I should have merged the two, but I thought it might lead to better discussion to keep it separate, I'm thinking now that was wrong. However, I'm enjoying all the response for what they are, whether they're on my particular brief or not.

I was really thinking of a set that could fit in something smaller than your average hand tools tool chest. Something more like those old jobbing-carpenter wooden suitcases they would lug from job-to-job. This is mainly becuase I don't have a lot of storage, already have loads of tools over at the workshop, and would either buy a second set to keep at home, or decided exactly what the optimal toolkit is and then make something to suit like aforementioned suitcase and lug around with me when necessary.

Sorry, I should think a bit harder about my posts first. However, it's all great stuff and I'm very much enjoying the responses and learning a lot. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts.

 

[MikeG.]

* Wooden 24" long plane (40)
* Wooden Jack Plane (25)
* Stanley 4, or record 4 (25)..........

I've been woodworking for nearly 40 years, almost exclusively with hand tools for the first 3 decades, and I don't have these.

 

[DigitalM]

* Wooden 24" long plane (40)
* Wooden Jack Plane (25)
* Stanley 4, or record 4 (25)..........

I've been woodworking for nearly 40 years, almost exclusively with hand tools for the first 3 decades, and I don't have these.

Yeah, but he's just a wooden plane fan. You've got a 4, 5 and a 7 or 8 though, right.

 

[thetyreman]

you can get by with very basic tools,

start by making some sawhorses, then use them to build a workbench, once you have that everything becomes much easier.

 

[MikeG.]

.......You've got a 4, 5 and a 7 or 8 though, right.

No. I've got a jack plane, and block plane. One day if I happen to stumble across a nice 7 or 8 I might be tempted, but I've thrived without forever.

 

[ED65]

I'm interested to hear what people consider the best balance of the fewest tools possible to do the maximum range of work. If this has been discussed a million times I apologise, just kill it admin! But hey, we all go to the pub and have the same conversation with our mates over and over and over don't we?!

The good news is that better minds than ours have thought this through in the past, so we don't have to hash it out completely from scratch

There were many vintage woodworking guides and by necessity most included a list of starter hand tools for the reader. One of the most influential lists has been Charles Hayward's, with recent help from Chris Schwarz. Over his years of writing Hayward went through three or four iterations of the basic tool kit to keep up with the times, starting in a period when woodies were very much the norm through to an era when they were seen as largely old fashioned and metal planes had become more affordable for the majority of interested parties.

This starter kit was intended to be supplemented with some additional purchases to more fully kit yourself out so that "advanced work" can be done. Even the full list of tools is not overwhelming by any means; it's far less kit than most would now consider the minimal set of tools and would be easily portable if the need were there.

Is cost a factor? Total spend will of course depend on how fully kitted out you need to be, then whether you feel you must buy new or are comfortable going largely with secondhand (and then just how disciplined you can be with yourself about hunting down bargains). I reckon with a very few canny new buys, as needed, but mostly getting stuff at car boots and through Gumtree the average bloke could set themselves up for south of £500. I've certainly done so and prices at car boots here in Ireland aren't even close to those in the UK: hasn't Phil P. famously said he's never spent more than a fiver for a plane?!

I think clamps have to be considered separately and it wouldn't be hard to spend 300 quid or more just on those.

 

[Jacob]

T...

So I guess I'm thinking more along the lines of those jobbing carpenter self-made-suitcase type tool sets....

Easy answer to that.The old C&G Tops joinery/carpentry course equipped you with the ideal set of starter tools and the suitcase type box which you made in week 5.
The next additions would be tape measure, block plane, Rebate plane (old woody or Stanley 78)

Comes up a lot - I've got it handy to copy and paste:

Tops course kit

1 toolbox - made week 5

5 1/2 Record jack plane

Good quality Sanderson & Kayser saws:
26" hand saw 6tpi
22" panel saw 10tpi
14" tenon saw 14tpi

3 Marples firmer chisels 1" 3/4" 1/2"
Rabone Combination square
Whitehill 16oz claw hammer
Nail pullers (Footprint?)
sliding bevel (poor quality)
double sided oil stone - box made week 6
big screwdriver
small screwdriver
2 ft boxwood rule
nail punch
brace & bit (one 32mm bit for yale locks
mallet
S&J carpenters axe
marking gauge
bradawl
brass face marples spirit level
plumb bob

£300 ish new perhaps? £100 second hand.

 

[D_W]

* Wooden 24" long plane (40)
* Wooden Jack Plane (25)
* Stanley 4, or record 4 (25)..........

I've been woodworking for nearly 40 years, almost exclusively with hand tools for the first 3 decades, and I don't have these.

What is your trade?

 

[MikeG.]

Architect. Why?

 

[Jacob]

* Wooden 24" long plane (40)
* Wooden Jack Plane (25)
* Stanley 4, or record 4 (25)..........

I've been woodworking for nearly 40 years, almost exclusively with hand tools for the first 3 decades, and I don't have these.

I've got a 22" woody which does come in useful very occasionally (straightening very long pieces) but a "wooden jack plane" is almost a contradiction in terms; a "jack" plane needs to be a jack of all trades and very adaptable in ease of use/adjustment and convenience of sharpening (needed frequently). Woodies fail badly on these, compared to a Record 5 1/2.
4s are cheap and handy but easily managed without if you have a 5 1/2.
I find a 5 more useful then a 4.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Yes, I went lots of years without a 4 ......... or a 5, come to that. I tend to use a 4 1/2 or a 7. By the bye.
it's a little pointles in a way to compile a list for someone else, as working practices and needs differ and what suits one doesn't suit another. There are things others class as essential that I haven't used or missed in fifty years.
I would say buy what you need if you need it, but watch for silly prices for other stuff - it never occurred to me once that I would stop doing what I do, so I've paid a ridiculously low price for a tool that I then haven't used for 10 or 15 years. I have several planes (all pre '70s) that have cost me a fiver or less, but I confess to £30 for an old Stanley No.8 (with near full length Sweetheart iron) and I don't think I've ever paid more than a fiver for a chisel - I'll stretch to that for Wards. I sold on a hundred or so a while back. I have three Marples rosewood mortice gauges, the most expensive of them was £4. My little dovetail saw is a gem - well worth the £3 I paid.
The thing with this of course is that it can't be done in a hurry.