The kit

Tools

Everything here fits on one wall and under one bench. Most of it is older than I am.

The core kit

• Record No. 5 jack plane. The plane I reach for first. Iron cambered fairly heavily for taking boards down to thickness, then flattening.
• Stanley No. 4 smoother. The one in the restoration write-up. Chipbreaker set close for final surfaces.
• Low-angle block plane. Bought new. End grain, chamfers, and the shooting board in a pinch.
• Router plane. A Stanley No. 71. Housings, hinge mortises, anywhere a flat bottom at a set depth matters.
• Small plough plane. A Record 043, which takes irons up to ¼ inch. Box bottoms and drawer grooves.
• Saws. A 15 tpi rip dovetail saw, a 13 tpi crosscut carcase saw, and a 10 tpi crosscut panel saw for breaking down boards.
• Chisels. Bevel-edged, ¼, 3/8, ½ and ¾ inch. Four do almost everything.
• Marking. A cutting gauge, a marking knife, a 6 inch engineer's square and a sliding bevel.
• Sharpening. Described in the sharpening routine.

Bought second-hand

The jack, the smoother, the router plane and the plough all came from car-boot sales and a tool dealer at a county show, for between twelve and forty pounds each. Old Record and Stanley planes are common, well made and need nothing more than cleaning, lapping and a sharp iron. The panel saw was a junk-shop find that I resharpened myself, which taught me more about saw teeth than any book.

I avoid second-hand chisels with pitted backs. The pitting has to come off before the edge is any good, and that can mean an hour on the diamond plate per chisel.

A waste of money

• A cheap new block plane with a mouth that would not close and a sole that was hollow by a sixteenth. I gave up flattening it.
• A twelve-piece chisel set. Four of them get used.
• A powered wet grinder. It ground beautifully and I used it twice; the diamond plate does the same job in a shed with no room for it.
• A set of carving gouges bought on a whim, still in the roll.