Recommended Woodworking Tools

This is a list of tools recommended for the beginning woodworker contemplating an extended course at the Errington School of Woodwork and Design.

It is likely that you will learn how to use all these tools in the first ten sessions or so.

Because all these tools are made available to the student at the school, it is not necessary for the student to acquire a personal tool kit before starting work with us. However, it is expected that students committed to learning the craft of woodwork thoroughly, will begin to collect tools for their own use from the very beginning.

Two bench planes are assigned to the care of each student for the duration of their course with us.

These planes are:

• Number 5 Jack Plane
• Number 3 or 4 or 4 1/2 Smoothing Plane

Sharpening and adjusting of these planes forms the basis of the first practical work at the school.

The following list suggests the kind of tools that would prove most useful for the student. Advice on sources and the supply of tools is available from the instructor. Sometimes tools may be purchased from the school at reasonable prices.

List of Recommended Tools

Remember, this list is not a Must Have List. Rather this list is a list of desirable tools to keep a look out for, at garage sales and at flea markets, in fact anywhere such valuable tools might show up.

• Bench Plane Cutting Irons: 2 inches wide, 2 3/8 inches wide – Hock (California U.S.A.)
• Bevel Edge Chisels: a range of sizes from 1/4 inch to 11/2 inches
  Marples, Stormont-Archer, Toga, Stanley
• Block Plane: Stanley No. 9 1/2 with adjustable mouth – circa 1965
• Cabinet Scraper: high carbon steel – Sandvik, Stanley
• C-Clamp: forged iron – 4 inch, 6 inch, 8 inch – Record, Armstrong, Trojan
• Convex Spokeshave: iron body – adjustable – Stanley No. 151 or Record
• Coping Saw: complete with coarse and fine tooth blades – Disston, Eclipse
• Dovetail Saw: brass back – 8 inch or 10 inch – 18 teeth per inch
  Tyzack and Turner, Freud, Disston – pre 1970
• Flat Spokeshave: iron body – adjustable – Stanley No. 151 or Record
• Half Round Bastard File: 10 inch or 12 inch – Nicholson, Stubs
• Jack Plane: No. 5 or No. 5 1/2 - Stanley or Record – pre 1965
• Mallet: Marples, Beechwood
• Marking Gauge: Marples, Clay
• Marking Knife: thin carbon steel blade
• Mill Bastard File: 10 inch – Nicholson, Stubs
• Oil Stones: 8 inch minimum – medium, fine, extra fine – Norton India
• Sliding Bevel: Stanley, Marples
• Smoothing Plane: No. 3 or No. 4 or No. 4 1/2 - Stanley or Record – pre 1965
• Steel Rule: 12 inch – Rabone, Starrett, Chesterman, Moore and Wright, Mitutoyo
• Tenon Saw: brass back – 12 inch or 14 inch – 14 teeth per inch – Tyzack & Turner, Freud
• Tool Box
• Try Square: all steel – 3 inch or 4 inch – Engineer’s type
• Cabinet Square: brass bound hardwood and steel – 6 inch or 12 inch – Marples

The Errington School of Woodwork and Design has a course devoted to Toolmaking. Items made in the course include: chisel handle, marking knife, dovetail template, mallet, sawing hook, bench-stop, vice-cheeks, scrapers of various kinds, marking and cutting gauges.