Woodwork Tools

Tools for Woodwork

The process of building products using wood as the primary material is called wood-working. This may also include the process of carving something from wood.

Wood was one of the first materials to be used by our ancestors. Along with mud, stone and parts from animals, wood were turned into tools. As civilizations develop, so did their tools. This is proportional to the degree of skills involved by the people of the civilization.


Wooden tools created by our primitive ancestors were located in Lehringen. Some spears were found in Germany. Wooden weapons for hunting and flint tools for carving show that primitive people were already knowledgeable on how to create materials that would help them obtain their needs.

There are two ancient civilizations that are often mentioned when woodworking is the subject matter. These are the Egyptians and the Chinese. This is because woodworking has been shown in their ancient sketches and drawings.

Also, a vast amount of Egyptian furniture like chairs, tables, beds, stools and chests have been encased in tombs. Preservation of such materials shows that the ancient Egyptian people were inclined to use wood. Coffins that were located in the tomb were also out of wood.

Egyptians used metal for their woodwork. Copper and bronze were the main tools for woodworking. These were turned into adzes, pull saws, axes, chisels and bow drills.

Ancient Egyptians were the first civilization to do veneering. They were also the first to use varnish, therefore resulting to what is now termed as “finishes.” They used native acacias and the wood from the sycamore and tamarisk trees.

As for the Chinese, wood working was said to have started when Lu Ban and his wife Lady Yun brought plane and chalkline to China. This was during the Spring and Autumn period. From them on, Lu Ban’s teachings were said to have been recoreded in the book “Lu Band Jing” or “Manuscript of Lu Ban.”

This was written 1500 years after he died. The book is complete with elaborate descriptions of the necessary dimensions in building different kinds of furniture like tables, altars and flower pots.

In the modern times, these are the tools a woodworker must possess :

* Measuring and Marking tools

_ protractor, tape measures, rules
- scratch awls, marking knives, marking gauges
- plane gauges in order to figure out how flat the surface it
- hygrometers in order to figure out how much water the wood has
- levels
- winding sticks
- combination squares, try squares, straightedges

* Cutting tools

- hands saws like the rip saw, cross cut saw, keyhole saw, bow saw, coping saw, tenon saw, gent’s saw and dowtail saw
- power saws like the chainsaw, radial arm saw, miter saw, band saw, scroll saw, hole saw, table saw and circular saw.

* Shaping tools

- hand planes like the smoothing plane, shoulder plane, spear plane, rabbet plane, scrub plane, block plane and jointer plane.
- jointer and thickness planer
- router
- rotary tools
- gouge and chisel
- drill press and chisel mortiser
- knifer
- rasp
- lathe
- other hand shaping tools like the adze, axe, froe, drawknife and spokeshave

* Assembly tools

- screwdriver
- mallet and hammer
- hand or power drills
- clamps like the F-clamp, G-clamp, C-clamp, miter clamp, bar clamp, band clamp and sash clamp

* Finishing tools

- sandpaper that can be used alone. It can be used with power sanders like belt sander, palm sander, orbit sander, disc sander or sanding blocks
- steel wool or bronze wool for polishing and applying stain
- file
- scraper
- spray guns used to apply lacquer
- brushes for applying varnish

* Accessory tools and furniture

- workbench or the bench or table where one sits or stands. This is where the woodworking process takes place
Kinds of workbench
1. dog hole or a round or square hole that allows clamping and holding devices to be attached
2. bench dog or a peg that is inserted into a dog hole that lets in the clamp pressure
3. hold fast or the rod that is bent when put into the dog hole. It is used to put boards into position
4. vise or a clamping apparatus that holds wood in various positions during woodworking
5. bench hook that is laid against the wood that can be pushed during woodworking.
- Sawhorse is the four legged stand that often comes in pairs. It supports long boards, sheets and panels.