Woodworkers: Start with basic hand tools

LITTLE ROCK — Tools are a very important part of a woodworker’s trade. So much so that acquiring the ones needed to build furniture can make it difficult for would-be woodworkers to set up their own shops, according to Mia Hall, who teaches the craft at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

“There’s so much equipment needed,” she says.

“Most people can buy a few things and set up a jewelry shop in their home and make jewelry, but it’s really, really hard to set up a woodworking shop.” Furniture builders who choose to work with electric tools will be shopping for table saws and routers (among other devices) and then trying to find the space to use and store them. Hand builders will seek handsaws and chisels.

Many use both types, but each woodworker tends to have his own preferred type of tools.

Here are the tools that some local woodworkers recommend for beginners.

“I tell all my students to buy a good set of chisels, a right-angle square, a good saw and a low-angle block plane,” Hall says.

“You have that plus a good drill and drill-bit set and you can do a lot of things.” Hall also stresses the importance of learning to do things by hand to her students. “We have a really nice shop here [at UALR] and, in your garage, you’re not going to have a lot of the tools we have.”Lewis Neidhardt of Sherwood prefers to use just a basic table saw and router. The latter is used to cut patterns that traditional woodworkers often make with hand tools. But, Neidhardt sees the positives of hand tools as well. “What I have recommended to people who want to take up woodworking and don’t have a lot of space is to learn to use hand tools,” he says.

Joe Doster of Harrison recommends starting out with hand tools. “Purchase good quality hand tools,” he says. “Buy a chisel set and hone it ’til it shaves; a quality combination square; a small hand plane; and a quality backsaw. You will probably have to order it from a quality tool supplier.Learning to ‘read’ wood with hand tools will make you a superior power-tool woodworker. You will be better able to anticipate what will happen when you feed your material into a power tool, having experienced a similar operation in a more controlled hand-tool operation.”

Doster also recommends waiting until you’ve needed a tool at least three times before buying it.

Doug Stowe of Eureka Springs says each woodworker should choose his own tools. “I’m always hesitant to tell students what tools they need, but most of my teaching centers around the safe use of a table saw and a router,” he says.