I gave your suggestion a lot of thought. Woodworking is a big place, and there are so many ways to take it. Telling people what a basic set of tools is so hard, because tools are very use specific and scale to the task. People have so many ways they can approach. this. It seemed most fair to show people what is out there, and let them decide what fits their personal working style.

I could say hammer, saw, square, screwdriver, but it isn’t helpful really. Without layout tools up front, you got nothing. But you do have to start somewhere. It could cost you $200 to rehab a plane and build a shooting board. That still won’t make a jewelry box, yet it is an important part of the process.

If a fella has a sweetheart, or a mother with a birthday, I say take the $200, and buy her something feminine or personal, and take her to dinner. You are not getting tooled up to make a quality jewelry box for $200, but you can make the sweetheart happy.

That same $200 should be spent as woodworker, on books about joinery, box making, and using tools. and some good quality layout tools, you really need them first. Then the woodworker can decide what, why, how… Yet still make nothing.

You see, I love the question, but I don’t have a $200 answer.

Bests,

Rob

Great list, duly noted, copied and pasted into “woodworking ideas” folder. Thanks for the head’sup on some surely needed items.

That said… care to mark (bold, italicize, underline, bulletpoint, seperate) a list of essential minimal tools to get started?

Consider a fella with, say, $200 to spend and wants to make his sweetheart a jewelry box or his mother a birthday gift. Assume he has a screwdriver and wrench… but no hammer. Maybe he has a (poorly suited) utility bench.

Just a thought.

Bruce