The Tools Worth Investing In To Start Woodworking At Home

It's always a little painful for accomplished woodworkers to try and make lists of essential tools for beginners, and it's likely they'll have to leave out tools that they would struggle to be without. How on earth are you going to do woodworking without a block plane or any chisels? However, a beginner is unlikely to be fine-tuning mortise-and-tenon joints, cutting dovetails, or planing their own boards. On the other hand, it's possible to swing in the other direction, over-simplify things, and inadvertently leave people with a set of tools so basic they can't accomplish basic woodworking tasks. A couple of TikToks have been making the rounds with good lists of critical tools for beginners: Shara McCuiston of Woodshop Diaries and Nick Starrett, who we've featured before for his genius IKEA furniture assembling hack. Their lists are similar, and both strike the balance between a broad range of skills and enabling you to complete the basics.

These lists often assume that, if you enjoy woodworking, you will quickly graduate to a more complete set of tools tailored to your specific interests and trajectory in the hobby. But if you're disappointed in your inability to perform basic woodworking tasks, you'll likely never make it to the next stage, and this can be mostly blamed on a poor starter kit of tools. So we've tweaked McCuiston's and Starrett's lists a little and come up with a set of essential woodworking starter hand and power tools, from a measuring tape to a table saw. 

Shara McCuiston and Nick Starrett mostly talk about power tools, but both mention three hand tools as baseline necessities: a measuring tape, a hammer, and a speed square. You can measure without a ruler or a measuring tape in a pinch with a dollar bill, but for about $25 you can buy a very good measuring tape (Klein Tools 25 ft. Tape Measure with Magnetic Double-Hook, $24.97 at the time of writing), which you simply can't do carpentry or woodworking without. There's not much you'll get done without a hammer (Pittsburgh Pro 20 oz. Steel Antishock Rip Hammer, $14.99), but we're upgrading the speed square to a combination square (Klein Tools Electrician's Combination Square, 12-inch, $29.98). Like a speed square, a combination square hooks on the edge of a board to quickly and accurately mark 45 and 90-degree angles. But it can also be adjusted to work like a marking gauge and a depth gauge, includes a straight edge, and usually has a built-in bubble level.

Instead of McCuiston's pocket hole jig recommendation, we're going to add a different hand tool to the kit: a Japanese-style Dozuki "Z" saw (Z-Saw H-150 Dozuki Saw, $29.99, or Portland Saw 10 in. Japanese Style Double-Edge Saw, $10.99). Beginners often find traditional Western handsaws exhausting, difficult, and sometimes over-specialized. A good Dozuki is competent at both crosscutting and ripping and, most importantly, cuts on the pull stroke. It's easier to start a cut on the pull, and then it's quicker and less likely to bind.

The TikTok lists from Shara McCuiston and Nick Starrett cover most of the indispensable power tools, though we did snub McCuiston's jigsaw and Starrett's sander. Sanders are very important, but they require sanding and we're trying not to scare new woodworkers away. Jigsaws cut straight lines and can stand in for a scroll saw or bandsaw for curved lines, but those aren't critical tools for beginners.

But it's telling that no one with a miter saw or table saw will ever opt to cut a straight line with a jigsaw. Miter saws (SKIL 10-in Dual Bevel Sliding Compound Miter Saw, $249.00, or DeWalt 12 in. Compound Single Bevel Miter Saw and Heavy-Duty Work Stand, $279.00) and table saws are irreplaceable. We can't imagine doing carpentry or woodworking without the miter saw's abilities to instantly cut accurate 90-degree angles and to make other arbitrary angles easily repeatable. And the table saw (SKIL 10-in 15-Amp Portable Jobsite Table Saw with Folding Stand, $299.00) is the heart of the woodshop. It can accurately make crosscut, rip, miter, bevel, and dado cuts. A drill (Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless 1/2 in. Drill/Driver Kit with (2) 1.5 Ah Batteries and Charger, $79.00) is important for the obvious reasons of making holes and installing fasteners, and an 18-gauge brad nailer (Ryobi ONE+ 18V 18-Gauge Cordless AirStrike Brad Nailer, $99.00, if you have batteries from the drill kit above) both attaches trim and holds pieces together while wood glue dries.