I came across an interesting question the other day. The poster said he had no woodworking experience but wanted suggestions about what tools were needed to build a project he had in mind.

Replies were numerous and offered with an obvious intent to be helpful. Suggestions included a table saw and band saw, routers, jointers and many other tools commonly found in even the most basic woodshop.

The thing that gave me pause was the total lack of any mention of basic woodworking tools, such as hand saws and planes, or anything to do with sharpening. It also wasn’t suggested that the poster try to find a shop or school where they could learn some basic woodworking skills before investing in a lot of power tools.

We are sorely lacking in the basic skills. A woodworker who knows how to shove a board through a table saw but has no idea of how to square an edge with a properly tuned and sharpened hand plane is going to be severely limited in what they can accomplish.