Tools

[Daniel]

What would be a good kit of small tools to own for building?
Screwdrivers and all.
What I have is not doing the job.

[Stoner creek]

What are you building?
What do have now?
This little tool set works well for me.

[Daniel]

I am building a poor boy fowler. Southern influences.
What I have are old and for mechanical work. I have a cheap set of carving knives.
I need good screwdrivers too

[577SXS]

Small chisels, files, rasps, drills and on and on. I use a Wheeler gunsmith screw driver set as it has many sizes of bits. You add tools as you see a need for them. Chisels are the hardest ones to know what to get. Don't go cheap on them and I wouldn't buy a large set just pick a few to start with. Left and right Skew, a flat and a few gouges. I make most of my chisels from 1095 flat stock.

[borderdogs]

Stoner,
I love the picture of your bench! Mine looks like that too!
Rob

[dogcatcher]

Chisels, but you first have to learn how to sharpen them.  Spend your free time watching Youtube videos and reading.  I use the "scary sharp system" that uses various grades of sandpaper.  Cheap and available everywhere.  Quality sandpaper, not that cheap stuff.  Sharpening igs?  Know what you want and how it works and make your own. 

Almost 50 years ago an old man told me, it is not the amount of tools that makes a craftsman, it is the knowledge to use to what you have that makes you a craftsman. I did not listen very well, I have bought a lot of tools that I wanted but did not need. Sure I used them, but I did not need them.   

Check out garage and estate sales, even some pawn shops used have tools at reasonable prices.  Some will be imported trash, after a while you will start to recognize the good from the bad.  Consider the "bad as an investment in knowledge". 

[Stoner creek]

A trip to the local Woodcraft store will be helpful. Only take what you can afford to spend. The folks there are very helpful though. Be sure to include a good aggressive rasp in your purchase.

[tecum-tha]

Rasps: I prefer the Microplane rasps for quick and efficient wood removal. Will scratch your surfaces way less than regular rasps.
https://www.microplane.com/microplane-woodworking-tools

As an example: It takes you 1/2 the time to work down an Osage Orange bow with a microplane in comparison with a farriers rasp and you can work closer to the finish line.

Flat, half round and the shorter rounds are great for shaping.

From there, sandpaper. or sandpaper wrapped around different diameter dowels/pieces of wood blocks.
Belt sander belts work great for the larger diameters and are very tough.

These chisels come in very handy:
https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/morinomiharpoonchisel.aspx
Great for scraping to deepen a mortise and along interior mortise edges.

https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/iyoroi-kama-nomi-sickle-chisel.aspx

https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/iyoroi-mortise-chisel.aspx

3mm and 6mm are essential imho, 9mm nice to have.

[Bob Roller]

There is no such thing as "Too many tools".Once you start you will accumulate tools you
don't really need but simply like them and buy them.I have a number of precision measuring
tools that i did not and do not now need but I liked them and bought them.I have a small but
good quality group of wood working tools but they have been dormant since 2008.
Power tools can be purpose bought.Mine are 4 lathes,one milling machine*,one vertical and one
horizontal metal cutting band saw,two drill presses and three bench grinders,modified with
extensions to add to their normal capabilities.Also have spare bits and pieces like Jacobs chucks
and backup grinder wheels with different grits.Metal working files in cuts from very coarse to
so fine they can be used for polishing and in every possible configuration known to exist.
If you decide to specialize as I did then being able to adapt tools to various jobs is a needed skill set.
Simple wood working scrapers are easy to make like a round one by case hardening threaded rods
of different diameters.The list is endless and I will leave now.
Bob Roller
*Cuttiers for the milling machine are another nearly endless list of the possibles available now,
 

[Craig Wilcox]

Too many tools is about like having too much money - except you don't have to pay income tax on them.

They WILL keep you busy either working on a project with them, or sharpening them.  DO get quality tools, as in the end they save you money or they save you time.  Both, to a dedicated person in any avocation, is well worth the money/time that you save in the long run.

And there is something magical about slicing down endgrain in a tight piece of maple or walnut with an ultra-sharp tool.

[Eric Krewson]

When I build a gun I mostly use a 1/8" chisel, an 1/8" skew chisel,  a 1/4" chisel, a few gouges, a 49 and 50 Nicholson and a half round file.

[tecum-tha]

Pretty much hits my list Eric,lol.

[mikeyfirelock]

I am in the same camp as Eric and Tecum-tha, except I would add a surform file with both flat and  curved section blades, and the smaller round surform.  A spokeshave is also very handy at times.    Good sharpening stones are a must, don’t have to be new, just pretty flat.
I like hitting the home sales, and the antique shops and junk places………a lot of old tools can be resurrected to almost new functioning with a lot of elbow grease and TLC.

[Karl Kunkel]

https://www.americanlongrifles.com/WorkShop_recommended_tools.htm

[borderdogs]

The big question Eric is what tools do you use to build a bow?
Rob