Essential Hand Tools according to Garrett Hack
SUPPLY LIST for
Precision with Hand Tools ~ August 14 - 18, 2023
Garrett Hack
A Note from Garrett
Dear Precision with Hand Tools Class,
Welcome. The response I get again and again is that this class makes planes and other hand tools understandable, accessible, and FUN! I consider it a core class to ramp up your hand tool skills.
An ideal means to practice those skills is to build a sweet little table that has lots of design possibilities too. We’ll flatten surfaces, cut straight and curved edges, cut end grain and long grain to a smoothness you won’t believe, joint edges in preparation for gluing them (tabletops), cut bevels, work to a pattern, and precisely fit joints with a shoulder plane. And, of course, we’ll talk about sharpening and tuning your tools so they work as effortlessly and accurately as possible.
You’ll get a great little table out of the deal, one you will be proud of and make again I have no doubt.
Complete instructions on choosing wood for your table and preparing it are included with this letter. Some milling is necessary because we have to share the machine room, plus we will get building faster. If you need wood or are traveling from afar and don’t want to send it, let me or CFC know and we can get you some wood. I have a lot of air-dried natives.
For now, gather and sharpen your tools as best you can. This list of tools is only the essentials, the ones you’ll need to do any woodworking, and specifically the ones you’ll need for this class. The Center has some of these for you to try, but you are still better off with your own tools.
Garrett Hack
Please bring:
· #4 Bench plane - You might like a heftier #4-1/2, a slightly longer #5, or a smaller #3, but get one good plane of this size. Lie Nielsen or Lee Valley are good choices, as is an older Stanley. For the Stanley, you might buy a replacement iron (Hock or Lie Nielsen). If you were to bring 2 planes, a #5 size would be useful. Both Lie Nielsen and Lee Valley make very nice low-angle planes in this size (LN #62).
· Block Plane - I think very highly of the Lie Nielsen #60-1/2 low-angle block plane. They also make a #102 that is nice. Lee Valley makes several, all good tools. Most of the older Stanleys or Records will work, but not as sweetly.
· Chisels - A range of sizes is nice. Most any will do if the steel is halfway decent and the handles suit you. Inexpensive and good are the Ashley Iles bench chisels; more expensive and very good are the LV and LN chisels. Flea market chisels are fine, and Japanese chisels are also worth trying if they interest you.
· 5/16” chisel (7 mm.) - will be very useful if you can find one. 1/4” will suffice.
· Mallet - round or square for driving your chisels or a brass hammer if you prefer.
· Square - A 6” or 12” is fine. If you are going to buy a good square only once, a Starrett is hard to beat.
· Bevel gauge - Most are okay, old or new, wood or iron. Older Stanleys and the Veritas (Lee Valley, with the lever lock) are good. A small bevel will work, but a 6” or longer blade is more useful. Most important is that the blade locks securely.
· Marking knife - Just a knife, and a pencil too.
· Mortising or marking gauge - Marking gauges have a single pin (best if honed to a tiny knife), mortising gauges two. Some gauges do both—the beam has two pins on one side (one adjustable) and one pin on the other. Brass wear plates or fancy rosewood aren’t as important as a gauge that feels good in your hand (balanced) with a fence that locks positively. CFC has plenty if you want to skip buying one.
· Shoulder rabbet plane - For refining tenons or small rabbets. You don’t need a very big plane for common furniture work. My favorite is the Clifton medium shoulder plane #410. Both LN and LV make some nice shoulder planes.
o A bullnose shoulder rabbet plane (such as the Stanley #90) with a very short sole ahead of the blade is a specialized tool and not the best choice for adjusting a tenon shoulder. The Lie-Nielsen rabbet block plane will also work, but not as well as a shoulder plane.
· Card scraper (or the #80 cabinet scraper if you prefer) - I like thicker scrapers over the very flexible thin ones. One should last nearly a lifetime. This is a tool you should know how to sharpen and use effectively.
· Fine toothed dovetail or small backsaw - There are so many saws to choose from, with different shapes of handle, # of teeth, etc. LN or LV make some nice ones. Buy a saw that feels good (balanced), that cuts smoothly and makes a fine kerf.
· Mill file and round chain saw file - We’ll use them to make scratch stocks. Any size is fine, but not worn-out.
· Sharpening Stones
o Bring what you use, whatever it is. There are some stones at the school for you to try or use too.
o Waterstones are what most of us are using today because they are effective, so many grits are available, and they are easy to maintain. You can get fairly inexpensive Norton stones, King, Shapton, and many other brands. In my experience they are all similar, although I love my Shaptons that come either as solid “colored” stones, or thinner stones laminated to plate glass (and less expensive too). I use 1500, 2000, 5000, and 8000.
o You need stones roughly in this range of grits:
§ a coarse stone 320-1000 grit (can be a diamond “stone”, useful for other sharpening as well)
§ a medium stone 1000 - 1500 grit
§ a fine stone 4000 grit
§ and a very fine stone 8000 grit or higher
o For flattening and maintaining any of your stones, buy an extra-coarse diamond plate (1/4” steel) from DMT or a similar quality manufacturer. These last a very long time and are flat. The “polka-dot” diamond stones are not flat, but will work in a pinch. Less expensive is to lay a sheet of wet and dry sandpaper (220) on a thick glass or granite surface and work your stones on that. Even better is PSA diamond sheet (metal and paper?), 400 grit, on plate glass. I found it on Alibaba. A fraction of the cost of flattening plates and lasts as long.
Optional items you might find helpful but not required:
· Longer Plane - This tool is useful for jointing long edges. It could be a #5, #6, #7, or #8. The school has several available for shared use.
· Smooth Plane - Eventually, if you are going to use planes a lot, you will want a dedicated smoothing plane. Some possibilities: Your #4 tuned as a smoother, a #4-1/2, a Lee Valley low angle smoother, an older wooden, coffin-shaped, smoother, or if you want to go really big time, a new smoother from a one-off maker.
· Spokeshave - I use many spokeshaves, mainly for shaping curves. The older Stanley #52 and #53 are my favorites. LN also makes some, as does Lee Valley. The heavier-bodied “Boggs” shaves are the best of these.
· Calipers - Machinist calipers or vernier calipers as some know them. They are useful for sizing parts. I often use an old Stanley rule with a caliper end.
Available for shared use (but please bring if you would like to have your own):
· Safety glasses
· Hearing protection
CUTLIST AND INFORMATION FOR YOUR TABLE:
The table and construction process we will follow relates to my Fine Woodworking article of Jan/Feb 2004. I would be glad to send it to you if you ask. Just be aware that the dimensions we will use might be different. You can make a higher or lower table, for example.
I’ll draw a table on the first day that you can follow, complete with dimensions and potential details. Or draw a table of your design beforehand, but please keep it small, say a top under 14" wide and 24" long. I suggest you splay the legs about 3°, or whatever looks best to you (looks better than square and is more stable). There are lots of places for playing with design, but don’t be put off that your table will be too simple; it won’t be.
About choosing materials
This table looks good in any wood, even combinations of compatible woods such as cherry for the aprons and top, and walnut for the legs. My only caution is to choose something friendly so that the work is less about dealing with a wood that is challenging to plane or chisel, and more about exploring design, details, and what your tools can do. Cherry, walnut, butternut, fir, birch, figured maple if you want a challenge—they’re all good choices, but please do not bring exotic species (many are allergenic and potentially toxic) or woods with high mineral content such as teak. Also, if you live outside of Maine, please do not bring green or air-dried wood, as it may harbor invasive species or diseases that could decimate Maine's forests.
On the bottom of the aprons, we are either going to cut beads into them or apply small cockbeads. Either looks great. If you choose cockbeads, I would use something hard and with a pleasing color contrast, such as walnut, or maple (1/8”-3/16” thick, by the length of each apron, by about 1" wide). I also like rosewood, but we don’t use it at CFC because of allergy dangers. Mill it beforehand.
About preparing materials
Some pre-milling is necessary.
· Plane the aprons to thickness, leaving them wide and long.
· Same for the top, allow some extra thickness and size, and if you are using two pieces, DON'T glue them together yet.
· Rough cut the leg blanks if you wish, and leave them long too. There are some advantages to waiting, as I explain below.
Legs:
· You can design your own leg, but I suggest tapering it as per my article. It’s much easier than you might think to work with a continuously tapered leg. We should talk if you want to try curved legs, which is certainly an option.
· The legs taper from 1-3/16" at the top, so your stock should be a minimum of 5/4 thick. A little thicker wouldn't hurt, but it's more expensive.
· If you want to get started on your legs but still have some design options during the class, rough them out and square and flatten 2 adjacent sides. Leave them 1/8” oversized in cross-section, and an inch or so longer. Cut them out at a taper for the most efficient use of your stock.
· The simplest would be to bring a rough milled blank (or two) 6" wide, 5/4 - 8/4 thick, and 28” or so long. Higher table = longer legs. I wouldn't go beyond 30”. An extra leg or two is a good idea.
· Look for a blank that's rift-sawn, i.e. the growth rings are at 45° to the surface. They won’t all be, but chose this over flat-sawn (parallel to the surface) or quartersawn (90° to the surface). I'll show you a fast and efficient way to cut legs on the band saw.
Aprons:
· 3/4” -13/16” thick, (2) 9" long, (2) 12" long (for the table I'll be building), 3-5/8” or so wide. These have angled cuts on their ends eventually, for the splayed joints. Leave them long; you can always cut them shorter later.
· Top: 12” x 18” is a nice proportion for a small side table. Same thickness as aprons is okay. If you make a larger top, then the aprons need to be that much longer as well, or you'll have a wider overhang. How much overhang do you like?
A top made from two pieces is usually more economical and gives us a chance to talk about the essential technique of edge jointing and gluing boards together. If you have a single-piece top, you can experience flattening it.
Hazardous materials
We comply with EPA and Maine DEP hazardous material use and waste disposal regulations. For this reason, we ask that you not bring any glues, finishes, or other chemicals with you.
Lunch:
We break for lunch from 12:00 - 1:00. Many workshop participants bring their lunch to the shop, where we have a refrigerator and microwave for your use. There are also several
