In the past few months, both Fine Woodworking and Popular Woodworking (or was it Woodworking mag: the prettier sister?) published articles dealing with essential handtools.
I don’t want to debate the tools or manufacturers included in those articles, but to the assemblage, what tools (new or vintage) have you purchased over the past years or decades that you find you always have at your side and you would without reservation recommend for purchase?
Me, I have several. I can’t specify a favorite, but a few are: my Lufkin 6′ inside reading folding rule; my bronze LN 102 low angle block plane and my Disston #16 9 point panel saw (Mike W. please duplicate this Disston model). I know there are many more, but for some reasons, these are the ones that came to mind–guess that means something.
Tony Z.
Replies
In addition to what you've listed, I can't get along without my old Bailey #7. Also, my "good" set of chisels - 25 year old "Woodcraft" brand. The LN dovetail saw sees plenty of use too.
Hi Tony
Being without a workshop for most of this year has helped me highlight just what tools I really need. As the rebuild progresses, and more tools appear, it does not change much - I still gravitate to a few, and the remainder are just nice to look at, or pull down and use on occasion.
#1 tool is a marking knife.
#2 is a square. If I could only have one it would be a 6" double square. Add a tape measure to this group.
#3 are a bunch of chisels. I probably use these as much as anything else. 1/8" - 3/4" paring chisels and a 1/4" mortice chisel.
#4 would be a block plane. I usually grab a LN 60 1/2 but today I was using the Veritas LA because it could run on the shooting board as well.
#5 is a two-plane combination of a jack and a smoother. Frankly I could do just about all with these if I had to.
#6 - under the bench are two strops,one plain leather and one inpregnated with green rouge.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Edited 9/14/2008 1:33 pm ET by derekcohen
Edited 9/14/2008 1:35 pm ET by derekcohen
Hey Tony, howzit?
Good topic. But I find it an incredibly hard one to think through. I'll probably have to mull it over more than once.
As for woodworking, the little LN 102 bronze block plane is certainly in the top 10% of the list. So too with my LV saddle squares. 4" B&S double square. A couple shop-made try squares. My Seaton marking gauge (made by Dean J). Small (DT/carcass/tenon) and larger (panel) saws. A pair of blacksmith-made Japanese R/L knives for marking. A few sizes/lengths of flexible steel rulers. A few larger planes (smoother, two try and a jack). A couple braces that I have such an affinity for I use them most.
Beyond that shorter list, I find indespensible a larger group of tools. But those listed are my core tools I keep near me at all times. Most are vintage except the tenon saw (sash, 14") and two panel saws. The planes are vintage except my wonderful C&W smoother.
As for the Disston #16...we'll make anything for anyone. As for a line which would include it...well, there are a several Disston repops that are planned for somewhere if we ever get close to being caught up.
Take care, Mike
Ray, Derek & Mike,
Maybe I should have titled this thread "separating wheat from the chaff"! I've been blakening my fingernails now some 35 years (and I got a doosy that may not even have a fresh nail under it when it comes off), and I still get caught up in ad copy.
I've got tons of new and vintage tools that do just what I want them to do. These include AI and LN chisels (as well as many vintage brands), all sorts of planes and saws (both vintage and modern LN, Adria and a couple by a guy named Mike!). I've made more than a few of my own tools such as a striking knife similar to one Cherubini showed in PWW a few years back. I've been fortunate enough to have gathered more than a few machinists tools (typically Starrett, Brown & Sharpe and some English Moore & Wright squares that I should have mentioned in my earlier post).
I often wonder what a Mr. Disston or Stanley would think about us?
Got to go for some Sunday ice cream and then down to the shop!
Tony Z.
Tony,
Very provocative question. You got some great answers from some sharp people. Obviously I agree with everything all of them said. :-) So let me try to add some different thoughts. Mike W. mentioned that this is a question that you have to think about. I closed my eyes and thought about my shop. Which are the things I reach for more often than the others:
-pencil, pencil sharpener, paper, utility knife, square, sanding block (sorry about that), file, ruler, scrap pieces of wood, clamps, small pin in a pin vise to open up the CA glue top, device for measuring an angle (name?), set of carving gouges and my ceramic honing stone, Sharpie, ...I left out the measuring and marking devices, planes, etc that others mentioned.MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
Small (DT/carcass/tenon) and larger (panel) saws.
Most are vintage except the tenon saw (sash, 14") and two panel saws.
OK, I'm curious - who made those?
;-) Lee
The DT is a Molson, the carcass is a Patterson. The tenon is a Fulton. My 2 main user larger saws are one 4 1/2 ppi cross cut made by Bishop and the most used rip is a fine S&J. I also use an ancient Sorby rip from time to time. The S&J is a 5 ppi and the Sorby a 3 1/2 ppi. The Sorby likes thick, softer woods.
Take care, Mike ;-)
You need to be more specific, I think, as in:
Essential hand tools for .....
chairmaking
cabinet making
turning
carving
stock prep
etc.
Only when you start getting specific based up the ends sought, can you get really useful lists of the means.
An excellent point, Samson. An adze is a hopelessly archaic tool that's utterly useless to someone building kitchen cabinets, and an absolutely essential tool to someone hand-building Windsor chairs.
Tony - I've got way too many hand tools, and I use all of them once in a while. I've several that I covet more than others simply because I like them, among them a Norris smoother and a couple of pre-revolutionary war british molding planes.
However, If forced to assess what hand tools I use more than any other and could not function without, that list would include:
A woodjoy 3" square that incorporates all of the common fractional measurements encountered in a woodworking shop. Hands down, that's the most brilliant idea in woodworking tools in a generation, in my opinion (I just wish they'd laser engrave the measurements on the tool instead of shipping a drawing to post on the wall with it)
A blue spruce small marking knife - all my other marking knives now gather dust (and will probably be sold)
A Stanley cheap-as-dirt 16' long FatMax steel tape rule in ugly brilliant yellow plastic.
A lie-Nielsen #4 bronze smoothing plane, a L-N #8 iron jointing plane, and a pre-war Stanley #6 with a heavily cambered Hock iron. Followed closely by a Konrad Sauer copy of a Norris A6 with a 47 degree bed angle
A set of L-N hornbeam handled socket bevel chisels, a set of Buck plastic-handled firmer chisels, and a set of Blue Spruce long paring chisels
A Drabble and Sanderson 10" antique backsaw, filed rip
A L-N 10" carcass backsaw, filed crosscut
A Disston pre-1917 20" long #12 panel saw, filed 10 tpi crosscut
A Disston pre-1917 26" long #8 panel saw, filed 6 tpi rip
A Simmonds pre-WWII 26" long panel saw, filed 8 tpi crosscut
And - more important than anything else and (amazingly, considering the author) left out of the magazine article:
An 8' long shopmade cabinetmaker's bench with an piece 'o junk taiwanese made iron face vise and two blacksmith-made bench holdfasts.
Mortise chisels. Tonight I was chopping butterfly keys with them, who knows what it'll be tomorrow . . .
Brian
I have recently begun to reach often for LN Boggs spokeshave for anything that resembles sculptural work, curved legs, arches, etc. I was never a fan of spokeshaves until I tried this one. A sweet drive to be sure.
Steve
I'd add hand scrapers. Nothing leaves the shop without at least some selective scraping.
Norman
Please bear in mind I'm not asking for suggestions! I'm merely interested in what everyone else views as essential! I've got plenty of tools already and even more catalogs to tell me what else I need.
Maybe "newbies" to our profession or hobby will read this thread and look at the names of the favorite contributor to Knots and buy the tools to imitate that person! For Mel, we'll have a Mini-Mel, for Boss Crunk, we'll have Straw Boss Crunk. For me, just another dumba_s.
T.Z.
I need to get some scrapers and see if I like them. A tool that I like a lot--on door installations--is my 8' folding rule. It's great for inside measurements and with most doors being about 80" or taller, I really need the eight-footer. I don't think anyone makes them anymore.
db, yup they do, IIRC it's Lufkin X-46 and X-48 for the 6' and 8'. I believe that they are also made for Stanley and Starrett. Paddy
Good information Paddy! I just looked at the Lufkin, but couldn't find the Stanley or the Starrett. I can now get a backup.
Following with fascination !Hey I was one of those kids that took my school teachers literally. I was told we were all going to the metric system and dumb me I took them seriously and learned it. Along with the stuff I do in the "real world" to make a living I use almost exclusively metric measurement.Does anyone have a source for one of the folding rules you are discussing that is available in metric? I have a little plastic one from Sears but want the nice big wood and brass one. Ahoy to any one in Europe who is reading this.FYI I asked Vertas to make a metric scale for their Wheel Marking Gauge 05N35.21 and I'll be darned it it wasn't in their new catalog. Thanks Veritas !This is a bit out of bounds but one of the most useful tools I use period not just for wood working is a stupid little tack puller. It has a screw driver handle and a forked end like one of those dandelion cutters. It is fairly thin and I can slip it in where we all try our screw drivers (and ruin them in the process). This thing is way wider though. I pry, align, lift, tweak, and even occasionally pull a tack. Just the thing for separating two stuck together parts. I have two, one at work one at home. Use them every time I am in the shop.And this next one nobody will believe but I got a little windfall from a relative that passed away. I wanted to get some thing I would never buy normally that when I looked at it I would think of them. I bought one of the Woodcraft 75th anniversary LN #1 finish planes, the one that looks like all it is good for is a paper weight. I USE IT ALL THE TIME to correct my hand made tools or make more e.g., winding sticks, wooden hand planes, precision jigs.I have a Starrett granite surface plate and I can tell with dial gauges just where to cut to make a wooden ( or plastic ) tool just that much more accurate. The little #1 can cut exactly where and as little as needed. Maybe that makes me a "Gent" but I don't care I like the plane.
Sorry now you know my awful secret.OK now I am on a role! Get this one I stumbled on: I had one of those quick keyless chucks lying around, not the big knurled metal ones ( too heavy ) but the smaller rubber coated ones like for a cordless drill. One day I needed to hold a some such and I stuck it in the chuck and tightened it down. It was too easy !Now I have a set of cut off allen wrenches I put in it, custom made probes and hooks, often I stick a drill bit in it and just turn it to chamfer a smaller hole or enlarge one. I put a unibit in it and have lots of control for too many things to mention here. I can not tell you all the things I use it for. For instance with allen wrench sizes smaller than 1/8 (3 mm) if the allen screw is so tight the normal wrench just twists I can choke way up on it and the wrench is solid and I can exert the right twist and push the allen into the screw to break it free and if it breaks off I just cut it off and go again rather than break a nice 1/4 " socket allen tool.OK one last tool and I am done. The magnification visors. Huge improvement for me cutting dovetails by hand and most things by hand. I went over board here. I have several visors each with a different power/focal length lens. Great for seeing what is really going on while sharpening cutters and drill bits. I have one setup with a product that puts LEDs all around the perimeter of the lenses. Great for looking into a deep mortice etc. No shadows.God am I a nerd or what ? PS: (the time edit shows 1:47 but it is about midnight where I am/ don't believe everything you read)Edited 9/18/2008 1:47 am by rocEdited 9/18/2008 1:51 am by roc
Edited 9/18/2008 2:01 am by roc
roc, IIRC back in the day those folding rules came in every number set, length, with and without the extension. I think that Lufkin held the rights and made them for all the companies. You should hunt them down, search Ebay, check any old small town (surviving) hardware stores you come across and the big time tool auctions.
I also picked up that LN #1 but years after the anniversary as a blow out of excess stock. Only those with a #1 understand how priceless they are for small boxes, drawers, drawer runner rails or jig parts. It may be cute but it is also an exact, precise and wonderful plane. Paddy
Paddy,
You left out one use for the LN #1: for those of us getting close to the retirement era, and have more days with aches than days without, particularly in the hand regions, I've found I can wrap my hand around the #1 and use more comfortably sometimes than a block plane.
I also have a piece of carbide to get out to you over the next few days.
Tony Z.
1) I just finished making cabriole legs and could not have done them without my favorite half-round rasp, spokeshave and card scraper.
2) The mortise and tenons never fit well without a swipe or two from the shoulder plane
3) All the other hand tools everyone else has identified
Hi Tony
I deleted this part of my response when I made it earlier because it may have been viewed as ostentatious. But I think that it should be made and the attached image is for illustration ..
The essential hand tools are the ones that you hang from the wall alongside your bench!
Such as these marking knives.
View Image
.. or marking gauges ..
View Image
So .. which tools do you want to hang on your wall?
Regards from Perth
Derek
derek,
I went back and re-read your original post. "Nice to look at" is the phrase that jumped out at me, in the context of this post and its pics. Do you really find that all those marking knives are essential to the work you do? Or do you just like to look at them?
Me, I have a "marking knife" that I bought because it was nice to look at (it has a rosewood handle). I hardly use it, because my pocket knife has three blades, different shapes, and one or the others is handier, both in the sense of better suited, and in that it is "at hand" (in my pocket).
I do have four "t-bevels" ( bevel squares, bevel guages, set squares) Some of them are pretty, some are just utilitarian. I find that it is practical to have several when doing chair work in particular, and it helps if they are easily distinguishable from one another, so as not to get their angles mixed up.
I guess that the essense of essential tools has to do with what you are doing with them, would you agree?
Ray
Hi Ray
About the marking knives .. I make them (for myself, for friends, to sell - want one? contact me off line with your address). Some of the extras are there because I am testing them out as I work (e.g. I have a new construction method and testing it for strength. I am also using a new steel, etc).
L to R: birdscage awl, Japanese knife (heavy duty), scraper burnisher (carbide courtesy of Tony), dovetail marking knife and scratch awl set, two extra knives, plane setting hammer (all shopmade except Japanese knife), Chris Vesper sliding bevel.
Marking gauges... I have more than these four. These are the ones I mostly use. I'm sure that you use more than one at the same time.
They are "nice to look at". You are right. My workshop is not only a place where I build stuff for home, but also a sanctuary. I am re-building it at present (first time in 12 years. It has grown higgledy-piggledy and was very utilitarian before. I am taking advantage of the building addition we are completing at home to do this work). It is going to be a great place to work in - both in terms of facilities and atmosphere.
It is interesting that some consider nice-looking tools to be not-really-real. Why can't real tools also be really nice looking? (and this was why I hesitated to post this here early on - you should see some of the others!).
Looks aside, these are some of the tools I find essential and I want them close at hand.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Edited 9/20/2008 7:06 am ET by derekcohen
Edited 9/20/2008 7:09 am ET by derekcohen
Derek,
When I am not pressed too hard for time I like to make the effort to pretty-up shop-made tools. Will try to post a pic of a few.
Most of these were made for a special purpose, not for every day use, so they are stowed away, not kept on display to add atmosphere.
As you may be able to see, my tool rack back of the bench ain't much for pretty. Nor the bench itself, for that matter. If having them nearby means they are essential, they are a pretty homely lot of essentials indeed. But I like them, warts and all. Maybe that means beauty is in the eye of the holder?
Ray
Good one Derek! Hits the nail right on the head!
Well, my answer is what tools are in the bench tool well or on the bench. My Lufin 6' inside reading rule remains, as does my LN 102. My Moore & Wright 2" machinist square must added, as would 1/2" Buck and 3/4" Witherby paring chisels. A card scraper is always at hand, and on the other bench that is attached to the wall, I have a leather strop always out and a hard arkansas stone in a vise more or less permamently. This bench also has my saw till and plane cabinet, however, out of those two categories, I find I'm always looking for a reason to use my small Preston shoulder plane, my Clifton #3, my Stanley push drill and my Disston #16 cross cut saw. Jeez, I have to apologize to posting this question in the first place! It's like asking which of your kids is your favorite!
This past week, I hit a milestone! I finally took digital photos and attached them to an email to send to friend cross the continent. Now, he didn't acknowledge receiving them, but if he does, I'll take the next step and attach some shop and project photos to my forum posts.
Hope all is well with you and yours and hope in the return move to your shop you locate all those items you took the care to store to prevent damage!
Tony
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