Buying Hand Tools - The Introduction

To give myself a rest from emotive topics, I'd like to share with you what tools you should be looking to buy and in what sequence. This sounds prescriptive and do feel free to completely ignore me. I base these recommendations on what I'd like to see our apprentices at work invest in. I'll be honest though, most apprentices don't steadily invest in their tools, but that's another story.

These recommendations or guide of sorts should also suit the home woodworkers that looks around the void of a garage, shed or whatever space they have and want to make a start. If you're in the fortunate situation to set up a shop that would shame most small custom joinery or cabinet shops you can ignore this list, that is unless you want some actual reward in your journey.

I'll also put forward that this is aimed at people who want to take progressive steps. For instance, make a simple and sturdy bench that's easy to build and should you want it to be, a partner for life. You also won't need machinery for a while and when you do it’s very limited and I’ll make it as affordable as possible.

While I am fascinated and inspired by the superb work of our ancestors, I don't think it's always helpful to strictly overlay protocols of the past. Sure, 90% if not more of older text is still relevant, but I intend to tweak things just a touch.

At the end of this journey we will hopefully have a map you can dismiss or choose to follow, perhaps you'll cherry pick a few bits, who knows? So let's find out what comes first…