In Chris Schwarz’s The Anarchist’s Tool Chest, a list is provided of the forty or so tools required to build just about any piece of fine furniture. Here’s the list, and how I filled it out.
Handplanes
- Jack plane
- Filled this one twice. An antique Stanley #5 with a replacement iron and breaker and a Veritas Low Angle Jack
- Plow plane
- Veritas small plow plane
- Rabbet/shoulder plane
- Filled twice. Lie-Nielsen rabbeting block plane and a Lie-Nielsen large shoulder plane
- Router plane
- Veritas large router plane
- Block plane
- Lie-Nielsen low angle block plane
Marking & Measuring
- Cutting gauge(s)
- Veritas wheel gauge x 2, one with microadjust. Dual-beam gauge from Lee Valley.
- Panel gauge
- unfilled, but we’re making one in the Hand Tool School
- 6″ Combination square
- Starrett 6″ combo
- 6″ Rule
- Bridge City Toolworks 6″ non-glare rule
- 24″ folding rule or 24″ steel rule
- no-name 24″ rule from staples
- 12″ tape measure
- Stanley LeverLock
- Marking knife
- Utilitas striking knife from Lee Valley, Blue Spruce marking knife
- Wooden winding Sticks
- Shop made, from some CVG doug fir. Will remake in cherry or mahogany
- 36″ wooden straightedge
- unfilled, will make myself
- Wooden try square, 12″ blade
- unfilled, will make myself
- Sliding bevel
- Starrett second and a crappy Lowes special
- Dividers, two to four pair
- Have two pair, need some more
- Trammel points
- unfilled
Essential Cutting Tools
- Bevel-edge chisels 1/8″, 1/4″, 3/8″, 1/2″, 3/4″ and 1-1/4″
- Ashley Iles MK2 1/8″, 1/4″, 3/8″, 1/2″, 3/4″, 1″, and 1 1/2″
- Mortise chisels, 1/4″ or 5/16″
- Ray Iles 1/4″
- Spokeshave
- Stanley #81 shave, antique. Mouth is way too big, really need a finer one.
Would like the Boggs flat bottom shave from Lie-Nielsen. - Cabinet, modeling and rattail rasp
- Auriou rasps for each
- Card scrapers
- Lie-Nielsen scrapers
Striking & Fastening Tools
- Chisel mallet
- Marples carpenter’s mallet. Would love to get a nice round carver’s mallet.
- Cross-peen hammer
- Lee Valley, which is junk. Would like a good one.
- 13 oz. to 16 oz. claw hammer
- Lowe’s
- Deadblow mallet
- Lee Valley stock
- Nailsets
- Big Box special
- Nail pincers
- unfilled
- Set of slotted screwdrivers
- missing, have replaceable tip sets
- Screw tips for drill/drivers
- assorted, Lowe’s
- Sawnut drivers
- unfilled
- Countersinks & counterbores
- #6, #8, #10 in power. Good enough.
- 10″ brace
- Stanley Yankee and Grandfather’s unmarked
- Hand drill
- Old Miller’s Falls
- Set of 13 auger bits
- Russell Jennings set & an old Irwin set
- Brad points 1/8″, 3/16″, 1/4″, 5/16″, 3/8″, 7/16″ and 1/2″
- Lee Valley set, missing 7/16″ and 1/2″
- Birdcage awl
- unfilled, this would be nice.
- Dowel plate
- Lie-Nielsen imperial dowel plate
Saws
- Dovetail saw
- Lie-Nielsen thin plate
- Carcase saw
- Lie-Nielsen crosscut
- Tenon saw
- Lie-Nielsen 16″ tenon
- Panel saws (rip saw, crosscut saw, fine crosscut saw)
- Disston D8 8PPI XCut
Disston D8 5.5 PPI Rip - Wenzloff & Sons 9PPI XCut
- Disston D-something 10PPI XCut
- Flush cut saw
- unfilled, cheap is fine
- Coping saw
- Tools for Working Wood
Sharpening
- Sharpening stones (honing and polishing)
- Japanese “Super-Stones” by Naniwa
- Strop
- Strop from Tools for Working Wood
- Grinder
- 70’s Craftsman Bench Grinder and a coarse diamond stone
- Oilcan or plant mister
- seriously, you need a source?
- Burnisher
- Hock burnisher, need to make a handle
Appliances
- Bench hook
- shop made
- Sawbenches
- shop made
- Miter box
- making one for the HTS
- End-grain shooting board
- shop made
- Long-grain shooting board
- none, use my bench and battens
- Cork-backed sanding block
- none, use rubber backed
- Workbench
- shop made, based on the Nicholson bench
Good-to-have Tools
- Dial caliper
- have crappy digital, a Mitutoyo would be nice
- 12″ combination square
- Starrett
- Dovetail marker
- unfilled, making one in the HTS
- Jointer plane
- Stanley Bedrock 608, corrugated base. Would like to get a Lie-Nielsen #7.
- Smooth plane
- Stanley Bailey #4, and a Lie-Nielsen Bronze #4 with the 55° frog
- Large shoulder plane
- Lie-Nielsen large shoulder plane
- Carpenter’s hatchet
- unfilled
- Drawknife
- unfilled
- No. 80 cabinet scraper
- unfilled
- Beading plane
- unfilled
- Small complex moulder, such as an ogee or square ovolo
- unfilled
- Half-set of hollows & rounds
- none, would love bickford’s
- 1-1/2″-wide paring chisel
- have the 1-1/2″ Ashley Isles
- Fishtail chisel
- none
- Drawer-lock chisel
- none
- Mortise float
- none, would love the Lie-Nielsen versions
- Expansive bit
- none
- Drawbore pins
- none, have pins for shop made
- 12″ bowsaw
- Gramercy 12″ bowsaw
- Sawfiles
- Full set from Lee Valley
- Mill file
- Various. I like Grobet’s.
- Saw Vise
- Gramercy Saw Vise
- Saw Set
- Tools for Working Wood
- Side-clamp honing guide
- Eclipse-style from Lie-Nielsen. Also use the MKII from Lee Valley
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