What to buy for $300?

[Mike Dowell]

So I've got $300(I know, not a lot) extra in my budget this month and I'm on the hunt for hand tools. I have very, very few hand tools for a woodworker and I'd like your opinions on my next purchase(s). Here are a few thoughts:

1) I have no hand planes - well, I have a $6 Home Depot 3" plane but it's worthless, so I'd say I have none.
2) I have a Buck Bros 4 piece chisel set (I know, weekend warrior grade). They work ok, but I'd like to have a more "professional" set
3) I don't have any curved chisels - If I need to make a piece of curvy, decorative molding for an antique chest, I've got nothing but a bandsaw and sandpaper to get it done. I'd love to have some sort of curved blade chisels in which to create the bevels and such which are found on decorative moldings. I also wondered if curved scrapers would be the best tool for this? For example, I just recently had a job which required me to craft a new molding for a blanket chest. The piece of molding was missing entirely - broken off from a move. 20141028_140720.jpg It is the upper left, curvy piece shown here - that's the one I made. I think if I had some sort of instruments other than sand paper, I could do better and faster.
4) I don't have ANY scrapers. NONE. I was considering a few card scrapers and then maybe something like this: http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/150...r-Set-(2).aspx


So, I know this question is extremely ambiguous, but.... What should I get?

Thanks in advance!

[Frederick Skelly]

Mike,
Are you doing work for other people, or are you a hobbyist? Because if youre doing it for a living, some of the answers may change.

Following assumes "hobbyist":
* If your Buck Brothers work for you, Id hesitate to replace them right away. But if youre bent on doing so, Narex makes a nice set of 7 for about $80. See Lee Valley.
* Buy a used #4 hand plane - they are plentiful and cheap (less than $40) and will do a wide variety of tasks. If you want new, buy the best you can afford. Woodcraft makes nice stuff at the low end, Lie Nielsen is very nice at the higher end, and Veritas is very nice in the middle of both.
* There is no point in having chisels or planes if you cannot sharpen them. If you dont know how, buy a good book (Garrett Hack, etc) and learn. That book is about $25 and well worth it. If money is available, buy sharpening stones. But you can start with sandpaper abrasives and save some money.
* Buy a sharpening jig that holds chisels and plane irons. Many choices exist and the price varies. I have a veritas mk II and it cost me about $70.
* I have to defer to others on curved chisels - dont know anything about them.
* woodcraft makes good enough scapers. Get a handle.

Beyond that, I think we'll need more info on projects you want to build.

Fred

[paul cottingham]

Seriously consider the 4 piece Narex chisel set they are a terrific set of tools for the money ($50.00.) If you want a hand saw or 2 the Lee Valley carcass saws are also terrific value, and very usable for a huge variety of tasks. Sharpening is important, get an eclipse guide (you may need to do a bit of work on it with a file, but its a great unit for the money. Lie-Nielsen has a great article off their site on how to file it to work better. You can sharpen on sandpaper for now, or get a dual use water stone, or a couple steel plates, and diamond paste. Sharp makes everything better. Buy a used pre war Stanley #4 or preferably a #5, it can do a lot of different tasks.
You might be surprised how much you can do with this simple set of tools.

[Mike Dowell]

Fred, I do this for a living. Thanks for the clear advice! What changes since I'm not a hobbyist?

I really appreciate your input.

Mike

[Don Jarvie]

If you do it for a living you need to consider getting quality tools. The Narex chisels are nice but Lie Nielsen or the PV-11 will hold their edge better so you don't need to sharpen then as often.

As for planes. You can get old Stanleys and fix them up and they will work fine. Its worth buying a new blade for them.

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Mike

You need to be able to sharpen as well. You are doing it for money so bite the bullet and get the good stones to spend less time sharpening. The name escapes me but they are the ones George Wilson recommends and started a thread about a while back.

For a plane go to the recommended used tool dealers that have already tuned planes for sale. This will save you a lot of time and aggravation or go to Veritas or Lie Nielsen.

Lee Valley does have the free shipping offer at the moment as well.

[Chris Hachet]

Seriously consider the 4 piece Narex chisel set they are a terrific set of tools for the money ($50.00.) If you want a hand saw or 2 the Lee Valley carcass saws are also terrific value, and very usable for a huge variety of tasks. Sharpening is important, get an eclipse guide (you may need to do a bit of work on it with a file, but its a great unit for the money. Lie-Nielsen has a great article off their site on how to file it to work better. You can sharpen on sandpaper for now, or get a dual use water stone, or a couple steel plates, and diamond paste. Sharp makes everything better. Buy a used pre war Stanley #4 or preferably a #5, it can do a lot of different tasks.
You might be surprised how much you can do with this simple set of tools.

I worked for years with not much more. Also, the Narex chisels are nice. I have Japanese chisels and Lie Nielson, but still find myself reaching for the Narex at times. Methinks you will like them.

To me, a useable premium small block plane (mine came from Lie Nielson) did more for my woodworking than anything else. It's less frustrating toa djust, and seems to hold a better edge than my old Stanley's.

I would buy sharpening stones, a premium small block plane, and a couple of Narex chisels-1/4" and 3/8" should be a good start. Should be able to be had for $300.

[Sean Hughto]

Your question is both personal and broad. Personal in that what to get depends on what you do, and broad in that it covers every potential handtool. I recommend these items to inform your decision:


Handplane Essentials (Christopher Schwarz)
Hand Tools - Their Ways and Workings (Aldren A Watson)
Country Furniture (Aldren A Watson)
The Naked Woodworker (Mike Siemsen, Lost Art Press)

Etc. Etc.

Or if you are ever near Chevy Chase ....

[Frederick Skelly]

Fred, I do this for a living. Thanks for the clear advice! What changes since I'm not a hobbyist?

I really appreciate your input.

Mike

Hi Mike,
Please know that Im a hobbyist with a lot of power tool experience, but only a couple years with hand tools. I think I have a good feel for what a newbie hobbyist needs, but less for a pro. So take this as a well intended effort and filter it according to the other advice you'll receive here, OK?

If I were going pro -
1) I'd buy the best tool I could afford at the time I needed it. Good tools require less set up, are often easier to use and should last a long time. As a hobbyist, I dont use mine every day and can stretch "lesser" tools like those Buck Brothers chisels a long time.

2) Id look hard at what part of my work would benefit from hand tools and start buying there. Example - if you own a good tablesaw, you could probably delay buying hand saws, because you already have a way to cut wood accurately. But if you are going to do a lot of restoration or repair (like the molding you mentioned), it could make sense to buy a partial set of "hollows and rounds" and Matt Bickfords book on how to use them. Or carving chisels, or just molding planes - they all help shape moldings in different circumstances. For me, it was hand planes - I was having trouble fitting a drawer and found a cheap little 2" plane in a drawer that solved my problem. i realized that a plane could do things for me that my power tools couldnt do as well/easily. So I went that way first.

2) If planes or chisels are what you can make the most of right now, Id buy a good set of sharpening stones and a good honing guide. Theres no point buying edged tools if you cant sharpen them, right? Here again, you can spend a TON on stones (DAMHIKT). I chose DMT diamond stones and a Veritas Mk-Ii guide. Search on sharpening here and you'll find a ton of advice there.

3) Old restored tools can be just as good as lovely modern tools - especially if you aren't a gazillionaire yet. From what Ive gathered, pre-war used tools are usually better than post-war. Buy good ones from reputable dealers.

4) Like I said, buy the best you can afford at the time. If you have $300 to spend and need a set of chisels, you might not want a full set of Lie Neilsen if you also have to buy sharpening stones. Plus, as you use your hand tools, you'll get a sense of whether you NEED to upgrade to the next level of quality. (Power tool example - I use my tablesaw enough that it made sense to upgrade to a Forrest blade @ $100+ and its been well worth it. Not so necessary yet with my bench chisels.) If the tool you originally bought is quality, you will get a reasonable resale price for them.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful. Let us know what you end up buying!
Fred

[Derek Cohen]

3) I don't have any curved chisels - If I need to make a piece of curvy, decorative molding for an antique chest, I've got nothing but a bandsaw and sandpaper to get it done. I'd love to have some sort of curved blade chisels in which to create the bevels and such which are found on decorative moldings. I also wondered if curved scrapers would be the best tool for this? For example, I just recently had a job which required me to craft a new molding for a blanket chest. The piece of molding was missing entirely - broken off from a move. It is the upper left, curvy piece shown here - that's the one I made. I think if I had some sort of instruments other than sand paper, I could do better and faster.
4) I don't have ANY scrapers. NONE. I was considering a few card scrapers

Hi Mike

There are essentially three ways to do these mouldings:

1. Use a power router and appropriate bit. Of course you have to find a perfect match, which is unlikely .... hence where hand tools come in.

2. Planes: either a dedicated moulding plane that will replicate the moulding, or shape the moulding with a couple of hollows & rounds planes. I fear that the former may be hard to come by (in the same way as the router plane bits will not match closely enough), and the latter take some practice to work the way you would like.

3. The simplest route is to shape some scrapers to the desired shape (I use chainsaw files to do this) and then sharpen the scrapers. These scrapers can either be held and used freehand on in a holder, such as a scratch stock. A scraper in a scratch stock is a powerful handtool, however this will only work well with hardwood. Softwoods are best shaped with a plane.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Sean Hughto]

Funny, I though he was talking about the applied moldings on the face of the drawer? I'm confused. Assuming it was the face work, I think those essentially require carving.

[Steve Voigt]

I won't try to tell you how to spend the whole $300. But just on the plane front, if you are really trying to watch your cash, I would do 2 things:
1) email Josh Clark at hyperkitten.com and see if he can hook you up with an old stanley no.5 in good shape. You could also try Patrick Leach, prices are a little higher. If that doesn't work, shop carefully on eBay.
2) take advantage of LV free shipping right now (until the 13th, IIRC) and get an aftermarket blade for the no.5, even if you don't have the plane yet.

You should be able to get these two things for under $100, and you can do virtually any bench planing task with them. Camber the stock blade to use as a jack plane. Use the aftermarket blade for smoothing, trying, and jointing. The 5 is a little short for trying and jointing, and a little long for smoothing, but you can make it work. Later, when you have more $$$, you can diversify.

[Frederick Skelly]

http://lostartpress.com/collections/...ked-woodworker

http://www.amazon.com/Hand-Tools-The.../dp/0393322769.

Thanks Sean! I hadnt come across these two before. I'll add them to my book list.
Fred

[paul cottingham]

Honestly, for a block plane, the LNs are fantastic, and if we're to buy one all over again, it would be the LN rather than the large LV blocks. That being said, I have aN LV apron plane, and I don't think you can beat it for value. Love mine. I don't find the lack of adjustable mouth to be a problem at all.

[Brian Holcombe]

Since you have zero planes I'd probably start there.

If you work with mostly machines I would want;

Set of planes, 4, 5 &7. I personally feel that small parts cannot be safely worked by machine tools, so I would want to be able to dimension them entirely by hand with exception to sawing.

Good set of bench chisels and paring chisels.

Spokeshave

Scrapers.