If you’re just getting into woodworking, deciding what hand tools to buy first can be a daunting task. Though the first 12 are on us, you will have to fine tune your collection depending on the type of work you plan on doing.
Hand tools are expensive and the prospect of buying everything you need to start building fine furniture can be overwhelming. The good news is that you don’t need every tool you’ve been told you need, and you don’t have to pay as much as you might think. By following this list, and a few guiding principles, you can have all the essential tools on a reasonable budget, and in the end, you’ll be a better woodworker.
While it would be a challenge to make furniture solely with the tools on this list, you can accomplish the majority of hand-tool tasks you’ll face. Soon enough, you’ll be proficient with the most important tools of the trade, have some money left in the bank, and as your skills grow, you will have a better understanding of the other tools you need, depending on the type of work you want to do.
When I decided to build fine furniture, I owned a framing hammer, a tape measure and some miscellaneous tools from the two summers I spent building homes. Having just graduated from university, finances were tight. I knew I had to nickel-and-dime my way to an adequate tool kit, and now that I’ve done it, I’m happy I did. It ensured that I bought only what I needed and spending more time with fewer tools helped me develop my hand-tool skills. I bought used tools when I could, forcing me to spend a great deal of time restoring, tuning, lapping, and sharpening. The more time I spent with each tool, the more comfortable I become using it, and the better my results were at the bench. I made sure that I only purchased a lower quality tool if, through a little extra effort or some minor adjustments, it could achieve the same results as a higher quality tool. In a few short months I had amassed the hand tools I needed. While my kit has expanded, I still turn to these tools for the majority of my work.
