Index of tools mentioned on the bench

This is a list of every tool and material named in an entry on the bench, with a line on what each one is for and a way through to the job it appears in. It is arranged the way a drawer is arranged rather than alphabetically: things that get picked up together are listed together, because that is how you look for them.

Nothing on this page is a recommendation of a make. Where a particular kind of tool matters rather than a particular brand, such as a white aluminium oxide grinding wheel or vegetable tanned leather for a strop, the property doing the work is named instead. The reasoning behind that, along with the conventions used for grits, measurements and dates, is set out in about the bench.

Edge tools

Tool or material	What it does, and where it is used
Bevel edge chisel	The general purpose chisel for hinge recesses and paring joints. Its whole method is in sharpening a chisel on water stones.
Old chisel, ground square	Kept as a scraper for hardened glue on tenon cheeks in the chair reglue, so the good chisels are not used on abrasive residue.
Bench plane, number 4	The smoother, and the tool most worth buying secondhand. What to look at first is in buying an old hand plane.
Block plane, low angle	One handed, for end grain and chamfers. It arrives needing forty minutes, which is setting up a new block plane.
Spokeshave	Shapes the tongue and the grip of a new handle a shaving at a time, as in rehandling a hammer.
Card scraper	Levels a repair flush across two different timbers without dishing the softer one, used in filling a split in a table top.
Marking knife	Cuts the shoulder line a butterfly key is pared back to, which is why the key is marked round rather than drawn.
Rip saw and crosscut saw	Both are filed at home with one file and two offcuts, in sharpening a hand saw.

Sharpening kit

Tool or material	What it does, and where it is used
1000 grit water stone	Cuts the bevel back and raises the burr. The soft one, so it needs flattening before every session.
6000 grit water stone	Polishes both surfaces so the edge is a clean line rather than a ragged one. Wears far more slowly than the 1000.
Oilstone	The system that needs no soaking, no flattening and survives a shed below freezing. Compared honestly in oilstones or water stones.
Coarse diamond plate	Flattens every other stone in the drawer and never needs flattening itself, which is why it earns its place twice.
Leather strop and green compound	Removes the wire burr instead of moving it to the other side, in stropping and the last burr.
Bench grinder, white wheel	For chips and reshaping only. The wheel matters more than the machine, as set out in grinding a new bevel.
Wheel dresser	Trues a glazed wheel. A glazed wheel rubs rather than cuts, and rubbing is what burns the steel.
Triangular saw file	Sharpens saw teeth. Chosen so its face is a little more than twice the depth of the gullet.
Flat mill file	Joints a tooth line to one straight line before any gullet is filed, held square in a slotted block.
Saw set plier	Bends alternate teeth sideways to open the kerf. Used before filing, never after.
Pine offcut	The strop substitute. Drawing an edge once through its end grain pulls the last burr off cleanly.

Striking, holding and clamping

Tool or material	What it does, and where it is used
Claw hammer, 20 oz	The head outlasts several handles, and fitting a new one takes twenty minutes in rehandling a hammer.
Wooden mallet	Drives chisels and knocks joints apart without bruising, always with a softwood block between it and the work.
Engineer vice with soft jaws	Holds a hammer head, a saw blade or a door edge. Where it goes on the bench is argued in a bench for a garage.
Sash clamps	Close a glue line across a panel or a table top repair. Four is the useful minimum.
Cord and a short stick	The tourniquet that pulls a chair frame square, and the clamp that cannot be over tightened.
Two plywood offcuts	Clamped either side of a blade in the vice, they make a saw vice that grips the full length.

Measuring and marking

Tool or material	What it does, and where it is used
Short steel rule	Stood on edge, it finds daylight under a plane sole in the two minutes you get at a stall.
Sliding bevel	Sets a grinder rest to 25 or 30 degrees, then the rest is left alone for the whole job.
Feeler gauge	Measures a split in a table top twice, a fortnight apart, which is what decides the repair.
Soft pencil	Draws the grid on a water stone that shows exactly where the surface is low.
Permanent marker	Blackens a bevel or a plane sole so you can see precisely where the abrasive is touching.
Masking tape	Numbers every joint of a frame before it is knocked apart, and carries the pencilled measurement.
Strip of paper	Finds where a door actually rubs, at fifteen points round the frame, in a door that binds in August.

Boring, driving and plumbing

Tool or material	What it does, and where it is used
Cordless drill	Pilot holes, clearance holes and wall fixings. Held square to the wall and pulled straight out.
Twist drill bits	Two sizes per screw: pilot for the core, clearance for the shank, as in choosing screw gauge and length.
Countersink bit	Cut after both holes and only just deep enough for the head to finish level with the surface.
Masonry bit	Sized to the plug exactly. Half a millimetre oversize is most of the grip, per the entry on wall plugs.
Slotted screwdrivers, three sizes	A driver that fills the slot in width and thickness. Brass screws are ruined by anything else.
Adjustable spanner	Wound down tight on a tap headgear nut, in a dripping tap, washer by washer.
PTFE tape	Two or three turns on a headgear thread in the direction the nut tightens.

Materials kept within reach

Tool or material	What it does, and where it is used
Liquid hide glue	Reversible with heat and water, which is why a chair joint gets it. Compared in which joint gets which glue.
PVA, D3 rated	The default for carcase work and anything that will be painted. Ruined by freezing in a cold garage.
Boiled linseed oil	Three coats on a bare ash handle, wiped off each time, per what actually cures.
Beeswax or a candle end	Halves the driving torque on a brass screw, and silences a drawer runner once it fits.
Wet and dry paper, 120 and 240	On float glass, it laps a plane sole or flattens a stone for the price of a sheet.
Oily rag	Ten seconds over a rack of tools at the end of a session, which is most of what keeps rust off in an unheated garage.

If you have arrived here with a tool in your hand and no idea what state it should be in, the two entries that come up most often are sharpening a chisel on water stones and setting up a new block plane. Between them they cover flat backs, bevel angles, burrs and mouths, which is most of what any edge tool asks for.