Can I start woodworking with very little money?
Yes. But that is a qualified “yes”.
You can, and should, start out by purposely limiting yourself to small and simple projects that you try to do perfectly. And by doing so you can, at first, limit yourself to hand tools and limit the number of tools you need.
Can I start woodworking with very little money? |
But you cannot buy cheap tools. You need to initially buy the best woodworking tools you can find. Not the most complicated, but the best made, purchased from woodworking supply houses such as Highland Hardware or Garrett Wade or Woodworkers’ Supply, NOT big box stores and NOT for god’s sake Walmart!
The reason for this is that you cannot learn anything while using cheap tools. You will spend your time fighting the tools rather than learning how to use them.
And I must warn you that, although by starting with (and maybe staying with) small object hand tool woodworking you will not have to spend tens of thousands of dollars, the initial total outlay for a basic hand too woodworking shop will be over $1K.
You will need:
- A solid woodworking bench with woodworking vices and bench dogs.
- High quality cross cut and rip hand saws and a brass backed jointing or dovetail saw.
- Hand planes: jack, smoothing, block, and rabbet.
- Layout and marking squares and tools.
- A full set of paring chisels.
- A set of sharpening stones and a honing guide.
- A mallet.
- Clamps. You can never own too many clamps!
- A drill and bits.
- A miter box.
You start by learning how to cut a straight square cut and plane the edge of a board true. Then you build a tool box, then a step stool, then a spice rack, then a breakfast-in-bed tray. Those sort of things. Then you build a table. With each project you will develop more skills. But you must be willing to try to do things perfectly and have the strength of character to throw away those parts that are not perfect. If you have any need for wood putty you have failed.
The advantage of starting woodworking without buying any power tools is that you will develop skills that are far superior to those of power tool woodworkers. Power tools are fast. But real precision work is done with hand tools. A real woodworker has the skills to build any project without using any power tool.
Eventually you might decide to build bigger projects and buy machinery.
At that point you will need real money. But you will also have the skills to justify spending it.