Thank you for the visual guide and the detailed write up, I like your sensible approach to buying only the basics and growing from there. Thank you for the good service at the fair prices. Just like a benchtop mortiser, a chain mortiser allows you to easily cut mortises in your wood stocks. A good update to your sharpening is definitely something like a coarse diamond minimalist woodworking tool set key which will do the rough stuff along with stone flattening. So my advice for machines is fairly limited when it comes to furniture making, but minimalist woodworking tool set key Miikka says, the bandsaw and the planer are probably the two that are going to help you out the most. All filed as rip saws and set of teeth greatly reduced.

A good update to your sharpening is definitely something like a coarse diamond stone which will do the rough stuff along with stone flattening. Oil stones do wear very slowly, and you can function of the curved stone as it wears. Plow planes are great opens up options. Dis cost about 8 hours of shop time which could be two weeks worth depending on work an kids.

I say first but there is probably a couple almost worked versions that got cut up into marking gauges. I still have, and use, that same plane. I have just given away my set of chisels, to my son, as I have collected a few old wooden handled ones which I now prefer, but those old blue plastic Marples set did me well for about 25 years.

Richard, would you write something similar about essential and minimal machines set, please? I know you have dumped them all except a bandsaw, so it would be interesting to know how would you go about efficiently processing rough lumber with just a bandsaw. You can process your lumber with hand tools. You do not need any machines if you want to work by hand.

No machines are essential and a minimal machines set would be to have none. Thanks, I came to woodworking with just hand tools and run for many years like that. It was only when my workbench business grew out of control that I had to incorporate the machines. So my advice for machines is fairly limited when it comes to furniture making, but as Miikka says, the bandsaw and the planer are probably the two that are going to help you out the most.

Quick clamps were very useful for me early, although they have some major drawbacks. Battens and wedges are useful skills to have when the tools are at a minimum. I find the more cost effective stuff to be far more beneficial for the rest, I particularly dislike modern hard steels for example.

Dear Richard , thanks for the valuable info! I wish I knew these things 1 year earlier, before I spent my money on maschines. Please, keep posting, I promise I keep learning! It seems like ages ago that I watched your video on planes. It was when you noted that the no. And btw I love my no. Thanks Phil, all a man needs; a No 5 and an orange saw! Thanks for the link to the Thor website — great to see a British manufacturing company still going strong!

I noticed that they do go heavier than the one you have — the N is g 26 oz and the N is g 2 lb 10 oz. Those hammers come with two white nylon faces, but you can get the softer or harder faces for them as well. One fine flat rasp and a medium flat file would complete my set. I am really glad that Richard mentioned the ECE wood plane in this article. Although I have purchased more used planes then necessary I really only use my old Stanley 5 and my ECE which is probably a smoother but I bought it about 20 years ago so I am no longer sure and it is not marked.

The Stanley is my workhorse for the rough stuff but it is heavy and at 70 it wears me out quickly. The ECE is significantly lighter and was a headache learning how to properly set the blade but I did learn and I use it more and more.

I now find setting the blade with a small hammer much quicker and efficient then spinning that dial on the Stanley. Or maybe 3 in 1…….. Other than the panel saw, all my kit fits into a 50x33x17cm wooden wine box.

My only additions to your list are a Stanley No. Now it works a treat and looks like new. I had one or two German chisels once that were supposed to be carbon steel — they were rock hard compared to these. I think this is the single best thing I have learnt from this website — getting tools sharp without the fuss. It used to be such a performance with water stones.

My panel saw is a 25 quid course toothed Bahco that can be filed. Have you got any plans to do something on this? Someone on here made the point that it took them a few years before they got a clear idea about what they wanted to make. I can relate to that. Like yourself, I get great satisfaction from working with this small kit. I just wish I could get the rest of my life so minimal! So much for not getting a 8 plane. The owner did not know really what she had and just wanted to get this tool out of her shop.

A very timely post. I have a nice collection of premium hand tools that I have been selling off with the aim of a minimalist yet highly functional kit. As someone who finds hand planing a challenge the minimalist approach seems like the best way to truly learn a tools quirks and develop the skill required.

So the Veritas BU planes are going along with the Tormek required to sharpen those gargantuan irons and a diamond plate and oil stone are on the way to get my old Stanley no 5 humming. Last weekend I dug the timber for my English Workbench build out of the loft, it is awfully twisted, but I hope to make some headway this bank holiday.

If you really do want to get good, then I do believe that minimal is the way to go. Thank you for the visual guide and the detailed write up, I like your sensible approach to buying only the basics and growing from there. I also believe this approach leaves room for each person develop their own woodworking style. Thanks Diogo, I think when you try to learn everything at once it all goes pear shaped, when you take the time to learn the basics, you know what you need to learn next.

Solid, heavy, side and head vice, dog holes everywhere, sliding deadman the lot and yes very very pretty. But built to be used as a bench and with some visiting clients a showpiece!

But more than anything because I could. No matter how many I buy, the 5 still gets used 10x as much as all the others put together. Another thing I noticed was that — in the early days — a sharpening jig made my time go a lot further. I sharpen freehand now but if I had tried that from the start I would have been very frustrated. New to your site RIchard, and very much enjoying your simple and no-nonsense approach! Do you have a link for a new Stanley No 5 plane or should I be buying an old one off eBay?

I read a Paul Sellers comment that said the modern Stanley stuff is a load of junk and best to look for s and older. If it needs refurbishing, how easy is that to do?

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You probably know that I Minimalist Woodworking Tool Set Join like to use minimal tools throughout my woodworking. Several years on and it seems those essentials really are all you need.

But I also believe that using less tools is a great way to learn. What I needed was for someone to understand my needs, and tell me what to get. Your Bench Plane A No. It will teach you so much, and you may never need anything more A Stanley No. Using a hammer for nailing pieces of wood together can be quite stressful and time consuming.

With a good framing nailer however, you can cut that time to the barest minimum and save yourself a lot of energy that would have been spent swinging a hammer. Using a framing nailer also increases the accuracy at which you place nails on your stock.

A brad nailer allows you to nail tiny 18 gauge brad nails easily. Dish the mallet and chisels and get a lock mortiser like this one from Porter Cable, and mortising doors for door lock installations will never become a tedious task for you anymore.

Although people still mortise doors with basic tools, this lock mortiser puts that in the past by helping you create these mortises effortlessly. This one from Porter-Cable features a powerful 11 Amp motor capable of producing rpm of speed allowing you to drill into and create mortises even in the hardest of wooden doors.

This is a modern woodworking tool I think will definitely make the life of any woodworker, carpenter or cabinet maker way easier than it used to be. Cutting out mortises for your mortise and tenon joints can be quite difficult with basic woodworking tools. With this benchtop mortiser however, you have an automated way to cut out your mortises with ease and accuracy. The benchtop mortiser features a power motor connected with a chisel bit, and you operate it just like a drill press to cut mortises in your stock.

You can choose and switch to different types of chisel bits depending on the size of mortise you want to cut. All in all, the benchtop mortiser is a very useful tool for carrying out woodworking, furniture and cabinet making projects. These are quite expensive, but if you really want to sand down large wooden planks in one go, a drum sander is your best bet. This Porter-Cable dovetail cutting super jig is ideal for cutting dovetails for making different types of joinery for boxes, drawers and different types of furniture pieces.

A beam cutter allows you to cut thick beams or huge stocks of wood in one go. Cutting these huge beams and stocks of wood on any other saw such as a table saw or a miter saw is just impossible. That is why having this beam cutter is a necessity if you work with stocks of this size.

Talking about modern tools for woodworking, this beam cutter definitely makes the list. Just like a benchtop mortiser, a chain mortiser allows you to easily cut mortises in your wood stocks. With the chain mortiser however, you get to cut mortises in really thick stocks of wood, like beams for timber framing and logs for long home building.

Then you need a moisture meter. It can shrink, twist or even split. If you love turning wood into different shapes and objects, then you should be already familiar with the wood lathe.

You can turn any block of wood into decorative pieces if you know your way around the tool. Biscuit joints are one of my favorite woodworking joints, and creating them can only be done when you have a biscuit joiner in hand. Woodworking clamps are a necessity in any woodshop. You need them for clamping pieces together for gluing, drilling and several other activities.

Eyeballing it is not really advisable in many cases if you need maximum precision and want to do a quality job. The woodworking tool you need in this case is a center scriber. I look forward to ordering more in the near future.

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