Woodworking tools: every type, with pictures and uses

Sharpening is the skill, not the tools

Nothing else in woodworking matters as much. A cheap chisel that is genuinely sharp will outperform an expensive one that is not, and every complaint about hand tools being hard work is really a complaint about a dull edge. Planes tear instead of slicing, chisels crush fibres instead of cutting them, and saws wander.

It is also the reason beginners give up. They buy a plane, it does not work, and they conclude hand tools are for other people. The plane was fine. So if you buy one hand tool, buy a stone at the same time and spend the first evening learning to use it rather than trying to make something.

One stone and a guide is enough to start

A combination waterstone or a diamond plate, plus a cheap honing guide to hold the angle. That will keep chisels and plane irons sharper than most workshops manage.

Sharpen before you think you need to

Thirty seconds every few cuts, rather than a grinding session once the edge is wrecked. You will also work more safely, because a sharp edge goes where you point it.

Learn to feel the burr

Run a thumb across the back of the edge. When you can feel a fine wire edge along its whole length, the bevel is done and you only need to remove it.

Flatten the back once, properly

A new chisel or plane iron usually has a slightly hollow back. Flatten the first inch of it once and you never need to again.

Hand tools or machines?

This is treated as a philosophical question and it is really a practical one. Machines are better at removing a lot of material to a repeatable dimension. Hand tools are better at the last fraction of a millimetre and at anything a machine cannot be set up for.

Most working shops use both, and the split falls in a predictable place: machines take a board from rough to square and to size, hand tools fit the joint and prepare the surface. Trying to do all of it either way is possible and slower.

Machines for dimensioning

Ripping to width, planing to thickness, cutting to length. Repetitive, dimensional work where accuracy comes from a fence rather than from your hands.

Hand tools for fitting

Paring a tenon to fit, trimming a proud edge, easing a drawer. Removing a shaving is a hand tool job because you can stop at exactly the right point.

Hand tools for the surface

A planed or scraped surface reflects light in a way a sanded one does not, because sanding tears the fibres rather than cutting them.

Space and noise decide more than purity

A table saw needs room around it and hearing protection. A hand plane needs a bench. In a shared garage or a flat, that is the actual constraint.

Wood moves, and it will beat you if you ignore it

Timber takes up and gives off moisture with the seasons, and it changes size across the grain while barely changing along it. That single fact explains most furniture that has cracked, warped, or jammed shut in winter. No tool on this page prevents it.

What you do about it is design for it, and let boards acclimatise in the room they will live in before you cut joints. A moisture meter is the cheapest tool here and the one that saves the most work.

Let timber settle before you work it

A week or two indoors, stacked with air around it. Machining a wet board square guarantees it will not be square later.

Never fix a wide panel rigidly at both ends

It has to be free to expand across its width. Buttons, slotted screw holes or a floating panel in a frame are the standard answers.

Watch the grain direction when planing

Planing against the grain tears it out. If a surface starts to look furry, turn the board round and go the other way.

Match the movement of joined pieces

Gluing a board across the grain of another is how tops split. The joint will win and the wood will crack.

What to buy first, in order

Stage one: a bench and an edge

A solid bench with a vice, a sharpening stone and honing guide, four bench chisels, a block plane, a marking knife and a combination square. A tenon saw and a dovetail saw. You can build real furniture with only this, slowly.

Stage two: the machines that save the most time

A bandsaw before a table saw, because it is safer, needs less room and resaws. A random orbit sander. A plunge router, which does more jobs than any other single machine here. Clamps, and then more clamps.

Stage three: dimensioning and specialising

A planer thicknesser once buying rough sawn timber makes sense. A table saw if you work in sheet goods. A lathe if turning appeals, since nothing else does that job. A mortiser or a domino only if you are making the same joint repeatedly.

Mistakes that cost money

Buying a plane before a stone

The plane will not work, and you will blame the plane. This is the single most common way people decide hand tools are not for them.

A table saw before a bandsaw

A table saw is the most dangerous machine in a home workshop and needs space on all four sides. A bandsaw does more of a beginner's work in less room.

Not enough clamps

You will never regret more clamps. A glue up that needs six and has four is a glue up with an open joint in it.

Sanding instead of sharpening

Reaching for abrasive to fix tear out that a sharp plane would not have caused. It works, it takes far longer, and it rounds the crisp edges you wanted.

Ignoring dust

Fine wood dust is a sensitiser and hardwood dust is worse. Extraction and a proper respirator are not optional in a small enclosed workshop.

Buying a set of forty chisels

You will use four. A set is priced on count, and the four you use will be worse than four bought individually.

Keeping edges and machines true

Wax or oil bare cast iron

Plane soles and machine tables rust in a day in a damp garage, and rust on a sole drags. A wipe of wax is enough.

Store chisels so nothing touches the edge

A roll or a rack. Loose in a drawer, they chip each other and every chip is ten minutes of sharpening.

Check machine fences against a known square

A fence that has drifted makes every cut wrong the same way, which is the hardest error to spot in finished work.

Keep one reference straight edge

Without something known to be true, you cannot tell which of two disagreeing tools is the liar.

Change abrasives and blades early

Blunt abrasive burnishes rather than cuts, and a blunt blade burns the timber and loads the motor. Both are false economies.

Let steel come up to room temperature

A plane brought in from a cold van and used straight away sweats, and that moisture stays on the sole until it rusts.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between woodworking and carpentry tools?

Woodworking is workshop work where the finish and the joints show, so the tools lean towards planes, chisels, saws for joinery and machines that dimension timber accurately. Carpentry is structural and site work, so it leans towards power saws, nailers, levels and layout tools. There is overlap, but the emphasis is different.

What woodworking tools should a beginner buy first?

A bench with a vice, a sharpening stone and guide, four bench chisels, a block plane, a marking knife, a combination square, and a tenon and dovetail saw. That is enough to build real furniture. Add a bandsaw and a router before any other machine.

Do I need to learn sharpening?

Yes, and before anything else. A dull chisel or plane does not work properly at any price, and nearly every complaint about hand tools being hard is a complaint about a blunt edge. Buy a stone with your first hand tool.

Should I buy a table saw or a bandsaw first?

A bandsaw, in most home workshops. It needs far less space around it, it is much safer, and it resaws boards to thickness, which a table saw cannot. A table saw becomes worth it when you work in sheet goods regularly.

What is the difference between a jointer and a thicknesser?

A jointer, or surface planer, flattens one face and squares one edge. A thicknesser then takes the board to a consistent thickness parallel to that flat face. You need the flat reference first, which is why the order matters.

Why does my plane tear the wood instead of cutting it?

Usually a dull iron, or planing against the grain. Sharpen, then try planing the other direction along the board. If it still tears, close up the mouth or take a finer shaving, since tear out gets worse with depth of cut.

How many clamps do I need?

More than you have. Every glue up wants clamps roughly every 150 to 200mm along the joint, which adds up fast on a panel. Buy them in pairs and expect to keep buying them for years.

What is a cabinet scraper for?

Taking a very fine shaving off a surface, finer than sandpaper and without the dust or the swirl marks. It excels on figured timber where a plane would tear out, and it leaves a surface that reflects light rather than scattering it.

Is a router or a table saw more useful?

A router, for most people. It cuts grooves, shapes edges, trims, makes joints with a jig and works on pieces too small or awkward for a saw. A table saw is faster at ripping and does little else.

What wood moisture content should I work to?

Whatever matches where the piece will live, typically eight to twelve percent indoors. The number matters less than letting the timber sit in that room for a week or two first, because it will move to match it whether you allow for it or not.

Do I need dust extraction in a small workshop?

Yes, and more so in a small one, since the dust has nowhere to go. Fine wood dust is a respiratory sensitiser and hardwood dust is classed as more harmful. Extraction at the tool plus a rated respirator is the minimum.

Are Japanese saws better than Western ones?

Different, not better. Japanese saws cut on the pull stroke, so the blade can be thinner and the cut finer, and they are easier to start accurately. Western saws cut on the push, are stiffer and take more force but handle rougher work.