Thread: Tool advice for a beginner

I think everyone here will tell you to buy the best that you can afford.

Buying tools is pretty much a continuous process. You buy a few things, learn how to use them and it is only then that you discover the shortcomings of what you bought. Then come the upgrades.

If you can, find yourself a woodworking club or Men's Shed in your area where you can share the knowledge of some experienced people first hand. Men's Sheds aren't necessarily for old blokes.

Good luck and welcome to the madness.

Originally Posted by Avery

I think everyone here will tell you to buy the best that you can afford.

Buying tools is pretty much a continuous process. You buy a few things, learn how to use them and it is only then that you discover the shortcomings of what you bought. Then come the upgrades.

If you can, find yourself a woodworking club or Men's Shed in your area where you can share the knowledge of some experienced people first hand. Men's Sheds aren't necessarily for old blokes.

Good luck and welcome to the madness.

Thanks Avery.

Can I assume that a tool's quality will reliably be reflected by its price tag, though? I thought there may be some brands with a particularly good/bad reputation, relative to price. Or perhaps a 'sweet spot' price point for certain tools.

If I can assume that anything I find in a reputable store will be fit for purpose and roughly as good as it costs, though, that makes things nice and simple.

$20 for 3 chisels and a stone? I'd get that. They probably aren't very good chisels but they will come in handy. I bought three nondescript chisels from Bunnings ten years ago for $15 and I'm still using them. They're "guilt free" chisels. I can use them for anything and they were the first chisels that I learned how to sharpen. Very handy skill. So, get the cheap chisels and buy better ones when you can but keep the cheapies for 'harsh' use.

Don't know about the saws. Check to see if they've got hardened teeth. If they have and they look straight, get them, use them, throw them away (or use them as raw material for other projects) when they're blunt.
Good (expensive) Western style saws have non-hardened teeth and a resharpen-able. See if Bunnys have any Stanley saws on sale.....that's how I got mine...which I still use....because I'm still waiting to set up and learn to sharpen all of the secondhand saws I've scrounged up.

Originally Posted by vaclav

.....Can I assume that a tool's quality will reliably be reflected by its price tag, though? ....

Unfortunately, & as a general rule, yes.

Originally Posted by vaclav

..... I thought there may be some brands with a particularly good/bad reputation, relative to price. Or perhaps a 'sweet spot' price point for certain tools.

Indeed there are plenty of tools that are quite good and won't bankrupt you. If you have the time to browse the web (this forum & lots of other sources), you will find lots of recommendations & suggestions for tools that are decent, & don't cost an arm & a leg. You will find a preponderance of recommendations for top-end tools, but keep in mind the "law of diminishing returns". This means you pay more for smaller improvements as you go up the scale. Don't forget the 2nd hand & flea-market avenue - there are still lots of decent tools to be found in unlikely places.

Starting out from scratch is fun but can be difficult, because you don't yet know how to evaluate a tool. If you can possibly join a woodworking group, you will at least have people to discuss pros & cons with, and better still, see what they produce with the tools they advocate - you should soon figure out who has sage advice.....

My advice is as always, buy what you think you need to make whatever it is you want to make. Get stuck into it. and give it your best shot - ask for help here if you hit problems. You shouldn't expect to produce something that will win prizes straight off (though it has been done!), but each time you complete a project it will be better than the last, and you will have learned much about the shortcomings or strengths of the tols & your abilities...

Cheers,

Good evening vaclav,

I am a beginner myself. I started with Bunnings Stanley FatMax box of three for $70.00. I am still using them.

The handle is a plastic composite, so it is heavier than normal wooden handles. I am using the Veritas MkII sharpening jig, and I found that the heavy handles can cause one side of the blade to be cut more than the other side, and it is hard to correct later on. And I just could not lap their backs!

If I knew this, I would have chosen wooden handles in the first place. But with practice, we can get better.

Also "Hand Tools..." forum, some other members have posted questions on new Stanley chisels with wooden handles, look much better than mine.

I also have a pair of Narex skew chisels, wooden handles. I do not use them very often. They are not very expensive, I found them okay. We have to spend times lapping the back though. Lighter handles, so this was very easy. The machine lines on those chisels are as visible as Stanley FatMax.

Enjoy your search And best regards.

...behai.

I made my first few projects with a set of 4 Trojan chisels, a laminate saw (!), [and a Ryobi cordless jigsaw and drill/driver - but shhh! Don't mention electrons in the Neanderthal forum!] - all from from Bunnies.
The pieces produced were, tbh, fairly laughable, but were great fun to make and gave me an idea of what sort of tools I would want for my next project.
That was an outdoor bench seat-cum-storage type jobbie, which was made with the addition of a crappy flushcut saw (also from Bunnies) and a carcass saw and low-angle adjustable mouth block plane, both from LN. The difference using the LN saw is phenomenal, even to my untrained hand.

A quick digression: LN (Lie-Nielsen) is one of the 'high-end' tool manufacturers you will probably hear a lot about (along with Lee Valley/Veritas, Bridge City, etc etc), and there is huge debate amongst proponents of each marque as to which is the best quality/value for money (I have seen an argument that Bridge City Toolworks planes are massively UNDERPRICED - google them and see what you think!). There is also some disagreement as to "how good" a woodworker you need to be to take advantage of these higher-end tools. My 2c is that I'm a pretty crappy beginner, but I get pleasure from a tool that is both aesthetically pleasing and extremely well-made, and when I screw things up at least I can't blame the instrument

I'm able to go above the super-budget price range if necessary, but ideally I would like to save my money for later on when I have a better idea of exactly what I need

Spot-on, vaclav! I was very happy to start out with the crappy Big Green Shed versions of things as it gave me a chance to play around and see if this woodworking lark was even something I was prepared to spend money on! Plus, as mentioned above, having (e.g.) a set of chisels you can use to get paint lids off/scrape glue with etc is never going to be a waste.

Slightly off-topic (but re: handtools at Bunnings): I would probably avoid buying any of the handplanes you can get at Bunnies, from memory they are either Trojan (and suspiciously, if not worryingly cheap) or Stanley (and really quite expensive, as according to those who know, they are poorly machined, not flat soles/square sides etc). By buying online you can buy planes for not much more than the Stanleys that are considerably better (again, I'm hardly an expert). Try searching for Jim Davey (he's a member on here as well), he sells planes from Woodriver (a Chinese company that has a pretty good repuation), Lee Valley and refettled old Stanley planes (mostly pre-WWII vintage)... Carbatec also carries an extensive range of Veritas/LV planes, although I imagine they won't be ready "out the box" as they are with Jim...
Another digression: chisels and planes are the tools that you should not expect to be ready to use OTB, they will require some preparation. This has been amply covered elsewhere, I just thought I should mention it in case you get your $30 chisels home and wonder why they're so much hard work to use!
Or as IanW suggested, fleamarkets/estate sales/car boot sales etc are a good place to pick bargains up; however, you kind of have to know what you are looking for.
Good luck!

The trouble with cheap tools is that you often need experience to realise which are the good ones.
However, see the thread, "chisels on the cheap" I started. Four chisels from Aldi and the quality surprised me.
cheers,
Jim