Woodworking means different things to different folks. Many woodworkers create useful and long-lasting pieces to relieve stress and exercise their creative muscles.
They’re hobbyists who know sawdust is good for the soul. Others turn professional. They’re handsomely compensated for skills in building coveted furniture. But no matter if you’re a master craftsperson or a rank amateur, you need the must-have tools for woodworking.
Many beginning woodworkers feel overwhelmed with the vast array of tools available on the market. It’s easy for you to rack up thousands of dollars’ worth of expensive woodworking tools in your shop.
Most tools for beginner woodworkers don’t have to be elaborate and costly, though. Beginners’ woodworking tools should start with the basics so you can get the feel of simplicity that’s the core of great work.
There are five classes of basic woodworking tools. Those are tools to cut, finish, assemble, measure and hold wooden parts while transforming raw materials into completed projects.
These tool groups cover everything a starting woodworker needs for building simple to complex items. To help prioritize what should go in your basic toolbox, here’s a beginner’s guide to must-have tools for woodworking.
Beginner-Friendly Woodworking Tools
1. Circular Saw
If there’s one power-activated saw belonging in every beginner’s box, it’s a circular saw. There are endless brands available, but they all have a common feature. That’s a round or circular blade full of sharp teeth that tear through wood.
All circular saws are electric, although they come in various power ratings. Most are corded tools running on household current, but there have been great advances in cordless circular saws.
Some view circular saws as more ideal for rough carpentry than for fine woodworking. That’s not true at all. In the right hands, circular saws cut straight, clean lines. A lot depends on the blade you use.
Circular saw blades come in three types:
- Ripping Blades: Cut material lengthwise along or with the grain
- Crosscut Blades: For sawing across the grain
- Combination Blades: Designed for both ripping and crosscutting
The difference between blades is their teeth design. Ripping blades have evenly spaced teeth, while crosscuts have staggered ones. Combination blades have both tooth layouts.
If budget is your concern, it’s best to invest in one good combination blade fitted with carbide teeth. It’s also necessary to understand blade diameters. Circular blades start at 7 ½”, though 10” blades are common, and 12” diameters are available for large dimensional woodcutting.
Circular saws are available in two distinct designs. One is a direct drive where the blade is mounted 90 degrees to the motor and directly on the arbor.
Direct drives are the most common circular saw and the least expensive. Worn drive circular saws are made for heavy work. They still have the same blade designs, but the blade is gear-driven ahead of the motor.
2. Planes
Planes are cutting tools rather than abrasive, sanding devices. All types of planes use a fixed blade to shave off wood fibers, letting them take shape and become progressively smoother. Blade size and depth are the key variables in how much material can be removed at a time.
You’ll hear several plane names that sound somewhat foreign, if not amusing. Rabbet planes and jack planes both shave wood, but they have considerably different applications. You’ll also hear terms like jointers, blocks and spokeshaves.
As well, you’ll hear them referred to by numbers. They’re all types of hand planes that beginning woodworkers should investigate. These are the range of hand planes you might want:
- Jack Plane: These tools remove a lot of material in a pass. It’s a “jack-of-all-trades” tool because there are both curved edge and straight edge types available — for smoothing or jointing, respectively.
- Block Planes: These planes are smaller and stout. They’re best for tight work where very smooth joints are necessary.
- Joining Planes: Like jack planes, except they’re designed to smooth edges and join pieces together. Typically, jointers have long frames.
- Rabbet Planes: Used for cutting right angle grooves along board edge grain. These joints are called rabbets, which differ from inside grooves termed dadoes.
- Scraper Planes: Made to scrape fine fibers off wood surfaces for super-smooth finishes. These planes are sometimes called cabinet scrapers.
- Spokeshaves: Hand planes designed for curved surfaces. Originally, they were for wagon wheel spokes, but they found their useful way to all woodworkers.
3. Orbital Sander
If you’re going to buy one electric wood-finishing tool, it should be an orbital sander.
These fast-action machines take all the strain out of hand sanding and do it a lot quicker. Orbital sanders differ from inline tools like belt sanders. They use sandpaper pads revolving in a circular or orbital pattern.
Regular orbital sanders take a circular abrasive sandpaper disk and spin it in a circle. Although they remove material fast, they tend to leave swirl marks that are hard to remove.
A random orbital sander is your best buy. They don’t circulate. Rather, they oscillate in a random manner leaving the wood surface silky smooth and mark-free.
4. Hand Files
Often, there’s no better tool than a hand file to shape and smooth wood. Hand files are inexpensive and last a long time if you buy ones made with quality steel. Once dull, hand files are best replaced rather than trying to sharpen them. Here are your main hand file choices:
- Rasps are rough-edged tools with coarse teeth. They’re used to remove large amounts of wood for general shaping, then allow finer files to take over.
- Half-round files have a flat surface on one side and a curved face on the other. This lets them be worked on straight and curved surfaces.
- Mill files are flat on both faces. They usually have coarse teeth on one side and fine on the reverse. Mill files also have toothed edges for tight spaces.
Rotary cutters are like hand files, except they’re designed as electric drill bits. You place them in your drill chuck and let the rotary abrasive action remove material. Rotary files are available in different patterns and cutting grits.
Hand files are also used to sharpen your other woodworking blades and bits. Metal files typically have extremely fine teeth and are composed of high-grade steel. As with any tool, you usually get what you pay for, and it’s worth investing in high-grade hand files.
5. Marking Gauge
Marking gauges have been a staple of woodworking tool boxes for centuries. Along with a simple combination square, it forms the basis for any kind of joinery work — fine or rough.
What’s great about marking gauges is not just how useful they are for both basic and advanced joinery, but also how easy they are to use.
You will need one for mortise and tenon joints, dovetails, rabbets, thicknessing, and countless other tasks. It’s such an essential woodworking tool for beginners to learn the basics of joinery that it should be one of the very first tools you buy.
Plus, they’re super cheap.
Experienced woodworkers will likely want several marking gauges, but the best option for beginners is a quality combination gauge. It does the job of both a mortise gauge and a standard marking gauge.
6. Combination Square
The next tool on the list is another layout tool, and it’s even more essential than the first. What makes the combination square an ideal choice over other types of squares is its ease of use and versatility.
Like a marking gauge, a good combination square is a must-have tool for woodworking beginners. It allows you to mark and cut at both 90 and 45 degrees, which are the most important angles in woodworking.
Everything from cutting a board to length to joining edges to making mortise and tenon joints requires perfect 90-degree angles, and 45-degree angles are equally important for corner joints and countless other cuts.
Even if you plan on going the power tool route, a good combination square is a must.
Virtually all combination squares look identical, but don’t let that fool you into thinking they were all created equal. If your combination square is off by just 1 or 2 degrees it can cause absolute chaos in finer woodworking tasks!
The first option linked below is a cheaper model that should get the job done, but there is some variance in quality between products so make sure yours is square when you open the box.
Just register it up to a straight edge, mark a line, flip it over, and mark another line. If the two match up, it’s square! If not, try to adjust it or exchange it for another model.
If this sounds like too much of a hassle, the second choice might be better for you. It’s expensive, but it’s also a professional-grade combination square that will last for decades.
Ask any woodworker and they’ll tell you that you can never have enough of them. When you’re just getting started however, there is a minimum you’ll need to get work done.
When you first start woodworking, you need clamps for everything. Holding your work, gluing panels, final assembly, a third hand you always seem to need… the list goes on and on.
But before you go buy a set of 24 or more clamps from the nearest big box store, you should know that as a beginner you can get by with about eight specific clamps.
Your main workhorses will be pipe clamps, which are sold in sets of fixtures. These fixtures are attached to standard sizes of galvanized pipe that you can buy in any home improvement store.
This also means you can swap out the pipes for longer or shorter lengths, making them useful in just about any situation in woodworking.
That said, pipe clamps are large and heavy, which is why a few quality bar clamps should be your next purchase. These will cover most daily tasks in the woodshop, especially until you have a decent workbench and vise.
8. Mallet
A mallet is one of those woodworking tools that makes a great beginner project, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still buy one early on.
You probably have a standard claw hammer somewhere in your house, and you might be tempted to use it instead of a more suitable woodworking mallet. Please don’t do this if you have any love for your tools and want them to last.
Keep your claw hammer for hammering nails and pick up a nice nylon head mallet for everything else in the woodshop.
Whether tapping joinery into its final position during assembly or smashing chisels into hardwood, a good mallet is immensely satisfying to use. Both the tactile feedback and sound will leave you addicted after first use.
While not all woodworkers agree with the use of nylon head mallets for chisels, they’re a great purchase for beginners needing versatility. There are several other options that are lighter or have a different handle to suit your exact needs, but the 900g model is my first choice.
For those of you who must have a wooden mallet (and don’t have the time or means to make one), my second pick is an inexpensive 4.5-inch model from Crown. It’s made of European hardwood (beech), but it may need a bit of sanding before it’s ready for use.
9. Chisels
If there’s one beginner’s woodworking tool that’s worth putting some thought into before buying, it’s chisels. There are just so many junk chisels on the market (even from reputable brands!) that can make your early woodworking experience an absolute nightmare.
Buying a good set of six chisels and learning how to use and sharpen them will dramatically improve the quality of your work. They can be used for joinery, shaping, paring, carving, and more.
10. Sharpening Stones
A quality plane and chisel will work well out of the box, but you’ll need something to keep them sharp as you use them over the years.
All cutting tools, no matter how well you treat them, will lose their edge over time. Fortunately, quality tools like the ones recommended so far are simple to sharpen with the right sharpening stones.
There are two main types to consider for woodworking: water stones (or whetstones) and diamond plates.
Water stones come in a variety of grits and require only water to sharpen your tools. However, as you use them they will naturally develop a concave in the center of the stone, so you’ll need to flatten them.
The best tool for flattening water stones is a diamond plate. These are more expensive but they can also be used on your tools themselves and last for decades without any maintenance.
