How Important Is It To Have a Versatile Set of Tools?

It is incredible how specialized the tools we use have become. There’s a tool out there that was specifically designed and built for each and every use you can encounter in your daily life. This becomes even more apparent if you’re a handyman, or if you’re working in maintenance. There are special plumbing tools, special electrician’s tools, and special tools for HVAC repair, just to name a few. But for the average Joe, who wants to be able to do some work around the house without trying to become a certified repair or maintenance professional, the incredible number of different tools isn’t only unnecessary, it’s confusing. For most of us, the best thing to have in our toolboxes is simplicity and versatility.

Just think about what you might want to use your tools for in your home. Probably some minor repairs, like fixing a toilet cistern, fixing a leaky faucet, oiling a squeaky door, unclogging a drain or toilet. Also, drilling holes into the wall to mount pictures, TV sets, or even furniture is something that you can do on your own in your home. You can also fix some minor electrical issues, like changing a light switch, if you know a thing or two about how to keep yourself safe while working with electricity.

These aren’t major repairs. For those, most people would likely call a professional, who would show up with a set of tools specialized for their trade. An electrician would show up with the tools for his trade, plumber will show up with the tool he uses, a carpenter would show up with a completely different set of tools than the other two. But you, who want to be a jack-of-all-trades, able to fix a little bit of everything in your home without knowing how to fix the really big things, don’t need a specialized set of tools. You need a versatile set of tools. You need a set of tools that can be packed in a nice and sturdy toolbox, and you need a single toolbox with all the tools you’ll need to do everything you want to do on your own.

Versatile and flexible toolsets, like the Wilson & Miller one, are designed and manufactured with the homeowner in mind. They contain all the tools you’ll need for most of the things you’d be able to do around your house. They are highly mobile so that you can carry everything with you easily to any part of the house where work needs to be done. They are made to have everything you need in one place, so that you know exactly where to look for a tool when in a hurry.

Most importantly, a versatile set of tools is important because it allows you a certain degree of self-sufficiency. Sure, you will have to learn how to use these tools, but the feeling you get when you know you’ll be able to tackle some of the common malfunctions in your home is very much worth the effort.

Better Way to Plane Chair Seats

For many years I’ve used the following trick to plane irregular-shaped objects: Screw a square block to the underside of the piece and then clamp that block in my face vise.

So today I am planing up a seat blank and fetched my little block of wood and two drywall screws. I tossed the block on the underside of the seat blank. The block landed near the front of the seat and I froze for a second.

Usually I screw the block to the dead center of the seat. But I just then realized there’s a better way. Screw the block to the front edge (or back edge) and you can get most of the seat supported by the benchtop.

Chair seats don’t flex much when you plane them. But the extra support is noticeable.

It’s a small detail. But it helps.

If you need some good hand and power tools, check this out.

Wired for Beauty

I recently had the opportunity to explore a concept that has been rattling around the dark recesses of my cranium for almost three decades. It was inspired first by a spectacular pair of curly juniper boards (also known as aromatic red cedar) I bought way back when “just because” that were still awaiting their final purpose, and a cheesy Anglo-Indian carved teak box I use to hold my favorite “fussy” tools used for inlaying, engraving and marquetry.

The idea? Inlay wire into the presentation surface to enhance the already eye-catching beauty of the swirling grain pattern. The beauty of the technique is that it can be used for just about any kind of metal wire that fits the project – copper, brass, silver, pewter, aluminum, steel and even gold – and employed for any type of artistic expression, whether linear accents, scrollwork or free-form.

The use of inlaid wire has long historical precedence, perhaps nowhere more noteworthy than in the filigree inlays of exquisite antique firearms such as elegant dueling pistols and hunting long guns from centuries past. While the delicate accents of these artifacts were achieved through a skill developed during a long period of trial and error, by following the steps here, you can be up and running quickly because the scale and materials are more suited to both the modern shop and the task of furniture making.

How to Properly Maintain Your Tools

If you’ve spent time and money assembling your set of tools, it’s only natural you’ll want to keep using them as long as possible. You might also like how your tools looked right out of the box, and you want to keep that look for as long as possible. But esthetic preferences are a subjective matter, and proper functioning is not. There’s no use in having tools if they don’t work well. And for them to work well, they need to be properly maintained.

The way of properly maintaining tools depends mostly on what are they used for. But first thing’s first – the most important thing in tool maintenance is to keep them clean. Usually, a simple rag will suffice to clean any dirt that might be present on a tool. In some cases, when the rag doesn’t suffice, you’ll need to try another method. A dirty shovel, for example, cannot be simply rubbed down. It first needs to be hosed down to remove all the dirt, and then rubbed clean and dry with a rag. If the tools came in contact with glue, which often happens in woodworking, applying a solution that will make it easier to remove the glue would be a better idea than to try to remove it by sheer force, as that might needlessly damage the tool. Keeping tools clean is important, but so is not ruining them in the process.

Once the tools are clean, you should check their condition. For some tools, this isn’t as important, as they are less prone to wear. But some, like knives and chisels, need to be regularly sharpened so that they are able to maintain their performance. So make sure you keep the things that need to be sharp sharpened, and make sure to notice if some of the tools have dented or chipped.

To prevent your tools from rusting, you should use machine oil by applying a very thin layer of it on the metal parts of your tools. You don’t need to get it slippery, just oily enough so that there’s something between the metal and the air. What’s exactly the best brand of machine oil for the purpose is something that’s widely debated, but pretty much any oil that prevents oxidization will do.

At the end, you need to keep your tools properly stored. There are several ways you can store your tools – in a toolbox, on racks, in bins, in tool chests or cabinets, in tool workbenches. Storing your tools on racks is a good way of storing them only if the room where the rack is placed has very low humidity. If that’s not the case, and if you can’t do anything to lower the humidity, than a closed container might be a better option because it’s much easier to control humidity in them. Of course, if the tools you buy come with their own toolbox, like the tools you can get from Wilson & Miller do, you’ll probably want to store them there.

5 Tools Every Toolbox Should Have

A good, fully stocked toolbox should always contain more than just five tools. That’s a rule that can’t be overlooked. A toolbox with five or less tools can never be a complete toolbox, and it will leave you wanting for the tool you need too many times. However, just as every toolbox needs to have more than five tools, there are roughly five tools that simply have to be included in every toolbox. These are the essential tools that every versatile toolset, like the one made by Wilson & Miller, must contain, because without them you wouldn’t be able to do even the basic DIY stuff around the house.

1. The Hammer

And not any hammer, for that matter, but a claw hammer. The claw hammer is used to, as it name says, hammer nails into surfaces by using one of its sides, or to remove the nails from a surface by using the other side. When buying a hammer, it’s important to keep in mind the work you’ll need it for. Small hammers are used for hammering small nails, and the bigger the nail, the bigger the hammer needed for it. An average hammer should weigh around one pound, and have a 16-inch long handle. Make sure that it fits your hand nicely, and that you’re able to maintain a firm grip while swinging it, because you don’t want the hammer flying out of your hand while you’re trying to hammer a nail.

2. Set of Screwdrivers

There’s no such thing as a universal screwdriver. They come in different sizes, and in two very different types – flathead and Philips head. When looking for those, you want to look for a set which contains both flathead and Philips head screwdrivers in a range of sizes. Alternatively, you can get two separate sets, one with flathead screwdrivers and one with Philips head screwdrivers. If you can get only one set with only one type of screwdrivers, aim for flathead, because they can be used with Philips head screws, although they will cause uneven wear of the head of the screw eventually. The important thing is that a toolbox without tools to handle screws is not a very good toolbox, so make sure yours has some screwdrivers.

3. Crescent Wrench

An adjustable wrench is the best thing you can have in your toolbox if it doesn’t already have a full set of wrenches. And if it would have a full set of wrenches, you’d still need an adjustable one. No fastener head, be it a bolt or a nut, no matter what size it might be, can resist being loosened or tightened with a crescent wrench. Plus, because it’s a tool that performs a function of many tools of different sizes, a crescent wrench is very practical – it can save space in your toolbox, and it can be worn on a tool belt.

4. Pliers

There’s more type of pliers than just one. Pliers are a gripping tool, although some come with a section that can be used for cutting. Because they are usually serrated, whatever you use the pliers with will be damaged if not properly protected. Just how fine of a thing you need to grip with the pliers will determine what type of plier you need. If you plan to work with electronics, you’ll need the needle-nose pliers. If you want something that will be able to grip plumbing pipes, you can use water-pump pliers. If you want the most versatile option, you should go with linesman’s pliers, which can both grip and cut.

5. Electric Drill

Because drilling by hand can be tiring and very time consuming, an electric drill should be a part of every toolbox. It doesn’t have to be a big power drill if you don’t plan to do some heavy construction work or drill through concrete walls, but it has to have enough power to be useful around the house. The best thing about electric drills is that they come with many different attachments, called bits, so they can be used instead of screwdrivers in certain circumstances, they can sand and grind materials, or even be used for stirring paint. They come in cordless and corded varieties, with the former being more expensive and portable, and the latter being less expensive and cheaper to maintain.

An Experiment: Changing Smoothing Planes for a Year

I’m the weirdo who counts the number of steps and hand motions it takes me to brew a cup of coffee. And I’m always looking for ways to shave away a few minutes here and there from my routine activities (for example, brushing my teeth while simultaneously fetching my clothes for the day).

So it’s no surprise that I also do this in the shop. During the last couple years I’ve noticed how much I use my block plane for smoothing large panels. Its small sole helps me get into the hollows on tabletops and case sides, shaving off lots of time to get a finished panel.
The only problem with using a block plane as a smoothing plane is you don’t have a cap iron (a handy thing to have when you face nasty grain), and getting the iron curved just right for the tool’s low bed is more difficult than it is on a traditional bench plane.

So last week I decided to switch to a No. 2 bench plane for a year and put my No. 4 on the shelf. So I purchased (at full retail) a bronze Lie-Nielsen No. 2.

The No. 2 is just a wee bit longer (7-1/2”) than my block plane (6-1/4”). And its blade is 1-5/8” wide, which is just 1/4” wider than my block plane’s. And the No. 2 has a few things my block plane doesn’t, including a cap iron, a lateral-adjust lever and a blade adjustment wheel that is easier to reach while my hands are pushing the tool.
This afternoon I set up the No. 2 by sharpening the iron and tuning up the cap iron so it could be used for the most difficult woods. Tomorrow I’ll post a video that shows how I go about tuning and setting the cap iron – I’ll also show the grip I’m using on the tool right now.

What Hand Tools Do I Really Need?

I hear from a lot of woodworkers (or woodworkers-to-be) who are so excited to start using hand tools. Either in that same correspondence or a few minutes later I get another message from the same woodworker who has just been sticker shocked by how much this hand tool thing is going to cost them. One could make a case that the hand tool route is cheaper than going with power tools, but I think quickly that case would get very thin. Woodworking is expensive and this is before you even head to the lumber yard!

Yes, yes, I know one can save a bundle by buying vintage hand tools. But even those have gone up in price a lot and with them comes a lot of time spent restoring a tool that you may not actually know how it should perform. In other words, even buying all antique tools can result in a pretty hefty sum of money.


Usually I spend several minutes talking them back from the ledge and helping them understand that not every tool is needed right away and that beginner hand tool lists are something to strive towards, not a prerequisite. This immediately begs the question,

“So what tools do I actually need right now?”

This question is answered very differently depending on whether the asker is starting with no tools at all or if they are like me, a power tool user converted to “the light”. The list of tools also depends heavily on what it is the woodworker wants to make. This “it depends” answer is why everyone has a different list of “must have” tools. It is also why so many people get frustrated and often spend lot of money on tools they don’t need or tools that end up stunting their skill growth.
The Beginning Hand Tool List
Underhill Tool ToteSo here it is folks, the actual list of hand tools you need to get starting building stuff by hand.
Jack plane
Hand Saw (backless saw ~26″ in length)
1/4, 3/8, and 1″ chisels
Back Saw
Coping Saw
Marking Gauge
Square
Some kind of sharpening set up (stones, sandpaper, whatever)