Tools, Equipment and Their Safe Use
Measuring and marking
Steel rule for sizes; try square for 90° and 45° checks; sliding bevel for any angle; marking gauge for lines parallel to a face; mortise gauge with two pins to set mortise width; dividers, awl, marking knife. Always work from a face side and face edge.
Sawing, planing, chiselling
Saws: rip (5–7 tpi, filed chisel-like, cuts along the grain), crosscut (8–10 tpi), tenon/back saw (12–14 tpi, fine joinery), coping/fret saw for curves. Planes: jack for stock removal, smoothing for finish, rebate and plough for rebates and grooves. Chisels: firmer, bevel-edge, mortise (thick, square-sided). Sharpening: grind the primary bevel at 25°, hone a 30° micro-bevel on the oilstone, keep the back flat. A dull iron bruises fibres and follows the grain instead of cutting cleanly. Boring: brace and bit, hand drill, gimlet. Holding: bench vice, G-cramp, F-clamp, sash cramp. Striking: wooden mallet on chisels, claw hammer on nails.
Safe use
Carry saws blade-down; clamp all work; cut away from the body with both hands behind the edge; never test an edge with a finger; keep tools back from the bench edge; check leads and use an RCD/ELCB on portable machines; guard and dust-extract every cutter.
Worked example
Cutting a tenon: mark with the mortise gauge, saw shoulders and cheeks with a tenon saw, then pare to the line with a bevel-edge chisel laid flat on the cheek. The tenon saw is chosen for its fine teeth and stiff back, which control depth; the bevel-edge chisel reaches into the corner.
Traps
Rip teeth in a crosscut saw; using 25° as the honing angle; a marking gauge used to check squareness; a chisel used as a lever; gloves worn at a drill press.