Wood-working for Beginners: A Manual for Amateurs. Charles G. Wheeler
"universal" tools, upon the importance of which all agree, such as the saw, hammer, hatchet or axe, and a few others; but beyond these few you can have as many "lists" as you can find people to make them, up to the point of including all you are likely to want. So let your list make itself as you go along, according to your own needs.
It is safe to say, however, that if your work is to be at all varied, such as is given in this book, for instance, you cannot get along to good advantage for any length of time without a rule, a try-square, a straight-edge, a knife, two or three chisels, a hatchet, a gouge, a smoothing-plane, a spoke-shave, a panel-saw, a hammer and nail-set, a bit-brace and three or four bits (twist-drills are good for the smaller sizes), a countersink, a few bradawls and gimlets, a screw-driver, a rasp and half-round file for wood, a three-cornered file for metal, an oil-stone, a glue-pot. An excellent and cheap combination tool for such work as you will do can be bought almost anywhere under the name of "odd jobs." Of course you will need nails, screws, sandpaper, glue, oil, and such supplies, which you can buy as you need them. A section (18 inches or 20 inches high) from the trunk of a tree is very useful for a chopping-block, or any big junk of timber can be used.
You will, however, quickly feel the need of a few more tools to do your work to better advantage, and according to the kind of work you are doing you will add some of the following: a fore-plane, a splitting-saw, a mallet, a back-saw, compasses, one or more firmer chisels, one or more framing-chisels, a block-plane, pincers, a gauge or two, one or more gouges, a steel square, a draw-knife, a large screw-driver, a scraper, a few hand-screws (or iron clamps), a few more bits, gimlets, bradawls, or drills, cutting-pliers or nippers, a bevel, a jointer (plane), a wrench. An iron mitre-box is useful but rather expensive, and you can get along with the wooden one described further on. A grindstone is, of course, essential when you get to the point of sharpening your tools yourself, but you can have your tools ground or get the use of a stone without having to buy one for a long time.
The following list makes a fair outfit for nearly and sometimes all the work the average amateur is likely to do, excepting the bench appliances and such contrivances as you will make yourselves and the occasional addition of a bit or chisel or gouge or file, etc., of some other size or shape when needed. This is not a list to start with, of course, unless you can afford it, for you can get along for a good while with only a part, nor is it a complete list, but merely one with which a great amount of useful work can be done to good advantage. You can always add to it for special purposes.
For further remarks about these tools and others and their uses, see Part V., where they will be found alphabetically arranged.
| 1 two-foot rule. | 1 compass and keyhole saw (combined). |
| 1 try-square (metal-bound). | 1 bit-brace. |
| 1 pair of wing compasses. | 3 auger-bits (½",¾", 1"). |
| 1 marking-gauge. | 3 twist-drills (1/8", 3/16",¼"). |
| 1 mortise-gauge. | A few bradawls and gimlets. |
| 1 steel square (carpenter's framing-square). | 1 screw-driver for bit-brace. |
| 1 bevel. | 1 countersink. |
| 1 "odd jobs." | 1 hammer and 2 nail-sets. |
| 1 chalk-line and chalk. | 2 screw-drivers (different sizes). |
| 1 knife. | Files of several kinds (flat, |
| 5 firmer chisels (1/8",¼",½", 7/8", 1¼"). | three-cornered, and round |
| 2 framing- or mortising-chisels (1", 1½"). | for metal, and half-round |
| 3 gouges (¼",½", 1"). | and round for wood). |
| 1 iron spoke-shave (adjustable). | 1 large half-round rasp. |
| 1 draw-knife. | 1 cabinet scraper and burnisher. |
| 1 hatchet. | 1 mallet. |
| 1 block-plane. | 1 pair cutting-pliers. |
| 1 smoothing-plane. | 1 pair of pincers. |
| 1 long fore-plane (or a jointer). | 1 wrench. |
| 1 jack-plane. | 1 oil-stone and oiler. |
| 1 rabbet-plane (¾" or 7/8" square). | 2 or 3 oil-stone slips (different |
| 1 cutting-off saw (panel-saw, 24"). | shapes). |
| 1 splitting-saw (26"). | 1 glue-pot. |
| 1 back-saw (12"). | 2 or more iron clamps. |
| 1 turning-saw (14"). | 2 or more wooden hand-screws. |
| 2 or more cabinet clamps (2' to 4'). |
An adjustable iron mitre-box will be a valuable addition to this list, and a grindstone is of use even when you get most of your grinding done.
A few carver's tools are also convenient at times if you can afford them, as a skew-chisel (½"), a parting-tool (¼"), and a small veining-tool.
General supplies, such as nails, screws, glue, etc., specified in Part V., will of course be required.
There are still more tools than those given above, as you doubtless know, but by the time you have become workman enough to need more you will know what you need. Ploughs, matching-planes, and all such implements are omitted, because it is better and usually as cheap to get such work as they do done by machine at a mill. I also assume that all your heavy sawing and planing will be done at some mill. It is not worth while for the amateur to undertake the sawing and planing of large pieces, the hewing and splitting of the rougher branches of wood-work, for such work can be done almost anywhere by machine at very slight expense, and stock can be bought already got out and planed for but a trifle more than the cost of the wood alone.[6]
Be sure to get good tools. There is a saying that