Last week a long-time reader called to ask me about a bullnose plane I had reviewed favorably a few years back.

“What” he asked, “is this thing good for?”

I walked him through some of its uses, such as cleaning up stopped rabbets and leveling up dividers in assembled casework. Then he asked if I used the plane for those operations.

“Not much,” I replied. “I use a shoulder plane.”

After that, I could hear an edge of frustration in his voice. He had bought a tool on my recommendation that he didn’t really need (he had a couple shoulder planes). He only had so many dollars to spend on woodworking, and he wanted to spend them wisely so he could squeeze the maximum functions out of the fewest of tools.

And now he had a tool he didn’t need.

That conversation bummed me out for the whole weekend. There is a ton of equipment out there that is well-made and useful but that is unnecessary for certain types of woodworkers or people who already have such-and-such a tool. I try to add caveats to my reviews, but sometimes those aren’t as obvious as they should be in the text. Or sometimes, I hear from a reader who buys a tool after reading a review without any further research about the tool and its historical uses.

Now, I don’t have the space in the magazine to fully explain every gizmo that passes through our shop, but I can offer two suggestions:

1. If you are unfamiliar with a tool and its uses, do some legwork before you click “Buy It Now.” You might already have a tool that does the same task faster and more accurately.

2. Download and check out my personal tool inventory (two links are below). This is a list I compiled this weekend of the machines, power hand tools and hand tools that I use for about 90 percent of my work. I have a lot more tools than are listed here (as my kids are fond of reminding me), but these are the tools that are within arm’s reach, are always in tune and never put into storage. My woodworking might be different than your woodworking, but this list reflects a good blend of hand and power operations.

I’m sure I’ll update this list in the coming months. Meanwhile, take a look at the tools I have in my shop and see how this core set compares to yours.

Microsoft Word document:
Workshop_Inventory.doc (50 KB)

Same document in html format:
Workshop_Inventory.htm (11.3 KB)

— Christopher Schwarz