Essential neander tools

[Kees Heiden]

Today I happened to have some essential neander tools on my bench. I decide to take a picture.


IMG_3922.jpg

What you see are mostly meassuring tools, without them, how could I bring my joinery together? The straightedge conforming to DIN 874 to check the boards, nothing less will do. Machinist squares. A calipers to meassure board thickness, tenon offsets and size, dovetail spacing etc. The micrometer to measure shaving thickness, Mitutoyo of course. A diamond plate to make all tools and sharpening supplies dead flat, without which any work at all is impossible.

The other tools are there for decoration only. I never really use them.

This is about sharing and learning. Please post similar essential stuff.

[Patrick Chase]

Wikipedia says that Neander tools include hammered-stone spear-points and axes. No hunting tools -> starving Neander!

Seriously, it's noteworthy that a significant percentage of your measurement/marking tools as well as the diamond plate would not have been available to a historic neander woodworker. While I use all of those, and wouldn't want to part with them, I think that history therefore tells us that they're not truly "essential" to first-rate neander work.

I agree with the two planes you chose. I note the omission of saws and chisels with interest.

[ken hatch]

LMAO,

Thanks,

ken

[Derek Cohen]

Kees, some of your tools are mentioned tongue-in-cheek I reckon. Still, it is interesting to see what might be on someone's bench during an actual build (we do build furniture, don't we?). I could have grabbed any one of several photos of a past build. They would have shown different tools used for different needs. This one - lingerie chest, planing stopped rebates - has a range of commonly used tools ...



Moving fillester, plough plane, router plane, paring chisels, mortice chisel, bench chisels, dozuki saw (for detail work), awl, marking knife, double square, hold down, pencil, sliding bevel, mallet, smoother and bench in use.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Kurt Owens]

For me, a good square, saw, chisel and mallet, plane, and knife

Measuring tools are quite helpful, but I don't know if I would say essential. I have been skipping exact measurements in favor of just take the fit off the piece.

[Frederick Skelly]

For me, a good square, saw, chisel and mallet, plane, and knife.

+1. Add measuring tools for my list, whether true neander or not - at least one good rule and good marking gauge.

[Patrick Chase]

Wikipedia says that Neander tools include hammered-stone spear-points and axes. No hunting tools -> starving Neander!

Seriously, it's noteworthy that a significant percentage of your measurement/marking tools as well as the diamond plate would not have been available to a historic neander woodworker. While I use all of those, and wouldn't want to part with them, I think that history therefore tells us that they're not truly "essential" to first-rate neander work.

I agree with the two planes you chose. I note the omission of saws and chisels with interest.

EDIT: Err, I appear to have missed the forest for the trees. Well-played and subtle humor, Kees.

But... how can you cut joinery without a BCTW JointMaker Pro?

[Bill Houghton]

What?? No wood-burning laser measurement tools? How can you call yourself a Neanderworker?

[Steve Kang]

I gave this question a lot of thought while building my cabinetmaker's toolchest (Tom Fidgen's design).

Not including measuring and marking tools, I landed on the following:

Dovetail saw
Crosscut saw
Coping saw

Bevel-up jack
No.4 Bevel down plane
Plough plane
Router plane
Apron plane

7 Japanese yama-air oire nomi chisels
2 skew chisels
Gennou hammer

toolchest saws.jpg
toolchest contents.jpg
toolchest packed.jpg

Additional pictures can be found on my website https://www.wakenedhands.com/blog/20...kers-toolchest

[ken hatch]

Some of the posts are almost as good as the OP's. Not sure they are intentional but.....

ken

[steven c newman]

Depends on the job being done..
tools 2.JPG
Better view
tools1.JPG
Joinery work...
Some of the "Usual Suspects"
jack plane.JPG
Might need a couple of these...
panel saw.JPG
Maybe a decent handsaw or two?

Don't forget, you might need a bench to work on, too....

[Kees Heiden]

Don't forget the Iphone! Where would I be without my "shaving thickness app"?

[Patrick Chase]

Don't forget the Iphone! Where would I be without my "shaving thickness app"?

Is that sort of like "Strava for woodworkers"?

Not sure if you're familiar with road-cycling culture, but Strava is an app/community that basically enables people to brag about their exploits and compete virtually. A few "enthusiastic" users have managed to infamously cull themselves from the herd by competing for "fastest descent" titles.

EDIT: And then there was this charming incident. It makes you long for the days when cyclists were famous for doing stuff that mostly hurt themselves.

[Kees Heiden]

There was a Dutch woodworker lately who wrote on the UK forum with pictures from other Dutch woodworkers which he got from the Dutch forum.

That's a model I could use.

[Graham Haydon]

Very funny post, Kees. I personally value my planeometer app (shaving thickness app is soooo last week), it lets me know when I've passed the minimum amount of plane strokes for the day.