Basic Tools for Furniture and Wood Working

Listed below are the basic tools for furniture and wood working projects. Your primary selection for the most basic of work should include scrapers, a hammer, a hacksaw, screwdrivers, a utility knife, a craft knife, and three sizes of clamps.

Scrapers: Putty knife, pull scraper, pull scraper blade, smooth-cut file, rubber spatula.

A stiff-bladed putty knife can be used as a scraper and it is useful when applying wood filler. A pull scraper removes old finish fast--right down to the bare wood. . Be sure you keep the scrapers sharp at all times with a smooth-cut file.

Hammers: 13-ounce claw hammer, ball-peen hammer, rubber or wooden mallet

A 13-ounce claw hammer is easier to swing than a standard 16-ounce hammer. A ball-peen hammer is designed for metalwork; one end of the hammerhead is rounded for flattening rivets. The soft faces of a rubber or wooden mallet are designed for driving chisels, and you will also need them to tap wooden furniture components into position.

Measuring Tools: Combination square, steel ruler (24 inches long), 25-foot tape measure, friction-point calipers, bradawl or ice pick, utility knife with blade assortment.

Most furniture components are fairly small, so you don't need a large carpenters' square for marking and checking square cuts. A combination square with a removable blade is the best tool -- use it for a depth gauge, for angles, as a ruler, and as a straightedge with the blade removed from the handle. A steel ruler is needed for a straightedge more than for measuring. Friction-point calipers are used to determine sizes of rounds (dowels and turnings), and they will save you plenty of time trying to match components.

The bradawl (or ice pick) and utility knife are used to mark cuts on furniture. Do not use a pencil; the pencil point quickly wears flat, resulting in inaccuracy. You can easily see a light knife cut or scratch line from the point of a bradawl, and you get accuracy in the bargain.

A 25-foot flexible steel tape measure with a wide blade is tops for general measurements (rough materials, for example). The wide blade is stiff so you can pull out a fairly long length of tape without it bending and/or drooping.

Saws: Hacksaw, backsaw or cabinet saw, coping saw or fretsaw.

Although a hacksaw is designed for metal, it can accurately cut small pieces of wood. The thin blade makes a narrow saw kerf -- a big advantage. And a hacksaw can be used for enlarging screw slots (or making new screw slots) and for cutting spring wire, bolts, nails, screws, and other metal parts.

A backsaw or cabinet saw is especially designed for cabinetmaking. It's the tool to use for making wood joints, cutting miters, and other fine, accurate work. Buy a backsaw or cabinet saw with 14 to 16 teeth per inch; the saw should be from 10 to 12 inches long. Both saws are designed for cutting across the grain of wood. However, they may be used for "ripping" (cutting with the grain), since most furniture pieces are not large enough for a ripsaw, the standard ripping tool.

For scrolls, holes, and other intricate cuts, the best tool is a coping saw. You can buy a variety of blades for this saw: rough, medium, and fine blades and blades for metal and plastic. By adjusting pins in the saw frame, you can change the angle of the blade to cut 90-degree corners without removing the saw from the material. Its power tool counterpart is a saber saw or portable electric jigsaw.

Chisels: Assortment of butt chisels, firmer chisel, in-cannelled and out-cannelled gouges. For all-around use, an assortment of butt chisels (1/8-, 1/4-, 1/2-, and 3/4-inch-wide blades) is the best buy. You should also have one firmer chisel with a 1/2-inch beveled edge. This tool goes into corners that a butt chisel can't reach. In- and out-cannelled gouges are really chisels; they're called gouges because they're rounded in cross-section. You'll use these gouges for smoothing and hollowing inside and outside curves.

Any chisel should be driven with the butt of your hand, a rubber hammer, or a wooden mallet. Never use a metal hammer to drive a chisel; a metal hammer will smash the chisel handle.

Planes: Smoothing plane, block plane. A smoothing plane is best used for smoothing and squaring wood with the grain. You'll need this tool to match and cut furniture joints. A block plane is designed to cut and smooth across the wood grain, such as the end of a board.

Screwdrivers: A four-piece assortment of standard slot screwdrivers and Phillips-head screwdrivers will handle most screw driving and drawing jobs furniture repairers/refinishers will need.

Drills: Hand-crank drill and/or variable-speed electric drill; assortment of drill bits and countersinks; screwdriver attachment.

Since most holes in furniture are small, you won't need a regular ratchet hand brace. A hand-crank drill provides plenty of capacity (usually) for most furniture jobs. Drill bits should range in size from 1/16 inch up to 1/4 inch. You should also have small and medium-size countersinks for flathead screws. Counterboring dowel plugs can be done with a drill bit.

If your budget permits, buy a variable-speed electric drill and drill assortment in addition to the hand-crank drill. The variable speed lets you start drilling slowly and then increase the drill RPMs as the drill catches in the wood or other material. With an attachment, you can drive and draw screws -- a great tool if you have lots of drawing and/or driving to do.

Clamps: Several sizes of C-clamps, strap clamp, bar clamps.

C-clamps look like large letter C's with a turnscrew at the bottom, hence the name. You can buy them in lightweight aluminum or heavier steel. To start out, buy six C-clamps, two of each size you choose.

A strap clamp is a strap with a buckle device on the end. You can use this clamp to hold irregular surfaces together. Rope may be substituted for a strap clamp, but you can't get pressure from rope unless you wedge a stick between two strands of the rope, twisting the rope tight. This isn't always possible in a restricted work area.

Bar clamps are steel bars with clamping devices on each end. It's more economical to buy bar clamp fixtures that fit on the ends of standard galvanized steel water pipe. The length of the clamp is determined by the length of the pipe.

Sanding Tools: Padded sanding blocks, foam blocks

On most surfaces, use a block of scrap wood padded with a piece of thick felt; on curved surfaces, wrap the sandpaper around a thick piece of foam. Commercial rubber sanding blocks are made with metal teeth to hold the paper in position and may be easier to use. There are also flexible sanding blocks with rough exteriors that are suitable.

For concave curves purchase sanding cord to slide in and out of concave surfaces. The rotary sanding attachment of an electric drill can be used on hard-to-get-at areas; it uses thin strips of sandpaper to smooth rough spots without flattening the wood. Do not use a wire brush or sanding disc attachment.

Glue Injector: The glue injector, used to force glue into loose furniture joints, looks and works like a hypodermic syringe. It can save a lot of time and trouble when making joint repairs.

Doweling Jig or Dowel Center Points: These tools are also used for repairs and for doweling joints and flat components. The doweling jig is a clamplike device that fits against the edge of a part; it has an adjustable sleeve to accept a drill bit. The doweling jig is used where dowel holes must be drilled into both joining parts. Dowel center points, small points used to mark the drilling location, can also be used, but they do not guide the drill bit; it's much harder to align the dowel holes. A doweling jig is more expensive, but if you'll be doing much repair work, it's worth the price.

Paintbrushes: For applying paint and varnish remover, throwaway brushes are fine, but for finish application, use only good-quality natural-bristle brushes. Use a different brush for each type of finish. The same brush should not be used for both varnish and shellac. Brush requirements will vary from project to project, but for most pieces of furniture, a 2- to 3-inch brush is best. Discard brushes if they become damaged or deteriorated, or use them as throwaways.

Lint Pickers: Varnish and enamel finishes dry slowly, giving lint and dust a chance to settle in the finish. To remove, make a lint picker using a long fireplace match without the head. Melt rosin -- either music or baseball -- roll it into a ball, and stick it onto the end of the matchstick. Use the lint picker by touching the ball of rosin carefully to pick up the lint.