Woodworking Hand Tool Basics: Saws, Planes, Chisels and Sharpening

Saws, planes and chisels are the core hand tools of woodworking. Power tools have taken over much of the heavy work, but these three still do jobs that machines do slowly, awkwardly or not at all: trimming a joint to a perfect fit, smoothing a surface, cleaning out a corner. All three depend on a sharp edge, so sharpening is part of using them.

This post covers the main types of hand saw, plane and chisel, what each does and how to use it, how to sharpen, and where hand tools save time and add value in a small woodworking business. For the full starter kit and projects to build with it, see hand tool woodworking projects.

Why Hand Tools Still Matter

• Speed on small jobs. Trimming a tenon, easing an edge or cleaning a corner is often quicker by hand than setting up a machine.
• Finish. A sharp, well-set hand plane leaves a smooth, clean surface that many woodworkers prefer to a sanded one.
• Control. You can stop, check and adjust after every stroke, which suits fine fitting.
• Low cost and little space. A good set of hand tools costs far less than a single large machine and fits in a small shop or apartment.
• Value to buyers. Hand-cut joints and hand-planed surfaces are part of what some buyers pay for in handmade work.

Hand tools also take practice. It takes longer to learn to use a hand saw or plane well than to learn to run a table saw. Practise on scrap, keep edges sharp, and use a solid bench that does not move.

Hand Saws

How Hand Saws Differ

Hand saws differ mainly in their teeth:

• Tooth count. Measured as teeth per inch (TPI) or points per inch (PPI). Fewer, larger teeth cut fast but rough; more, smaller teeth cut slowly but clean.
• Tooth shape. Rip teeth are shaped like small chisels to cut along the grain. Crosscut teeth are shaped like knives to sever fibers across the grain.
• Set. The teeth are bent slightly outwards, alternately left and right, so the cut (the kerf) is a little wider than the blade and the saw does not bind.
• Kerf. The width of wood the saw removes. Thin blades remove less wood and take less effort.

The space between teeth is the gullet, which carries sawdust out of the cut.

Types of Hand Saw

• Rip saw: large teeth, as few as about 5 per inch, for cutting along the grain quickly.
• Crosscut saw: smaller, sharper teeth for cutting across the grain without tearing the fibers.
• Panel saw: a shorter saw with finer teeth, used for cutting sheet goods such as plywood cleanly.
• Backsaw: a short saw with a stiff spine along the top, which keeps the thin blade straight for precise cuts such as joints. Dovetail saws and tenon saws are backsaws. The spine limits the depth of cut.
• Coping saw: a very thin blade held in a C-shaped frame, for cutting curves. The blade can be turned in the frame to change direction.
• Frame saw: a blade held under tension in a wooden or metal frame. Different blades turn one frame into a rip, crosscut or curve saw.
• Japanese pull saws: thin blades that cut on the pull stroke, which keeps the blade straight and the kerf narrow. A ryoba has rip teeth on one edge and crosscut teeth on the other; a dozuki is a backsaw for fine joinery. They take a little getting used to but cut very cleanly.

Using the wrong saw makes cutting hard work. A rip saw struggles across the grain and a crosscut saw struggles along it, which is often why a saw seems to be useless when it is simply the wrong one for the cut.

How to Use a Hand Saw

• Clamp the work so it cannot move. Support both sides of the cut so the offcut does not tear away before you finish.
• Hold the saw with your index finger pointing along the handle towards the blade. This steadies the blade and helps you steer.
• Start the cut with a few light strokes, guiding the blade against the thumb of your other hand, kept well above the teeth.
• Stand with your shoulder behind the saw and use long, even strokes. Let the saw do the work.
• Cut on the waste side of the line, so the finished piece keeps its size.

For measuring, marking and sawing to a line, see how to measure, mark and cut wood.

Hand Planes

A hand plane holds a sharp blade at a fixed angle in a flat sole. Pushed along the wood, it takes off a thin shaving. Planes flatten, straighten, smooth, trim and shape wood.

Bench Planes

Bench planes are the main family of planes. Their blades sit bevel-down at about 45 degrees, with a chip breaker on top that curls the shaving and reduces tearing. They are numbered by size in a system dating from the 1800s:

• Smoothing planes (No. 1 to 4 1/2): the shortest. Used last, to smooth a surface before finishing. The No. 4 is the most common and a good first plane.
• Jack planes (No. 5, 5 1/2 and 6): medium length. Used to remove wood quickly and to flatten shorter boards.
• Jointer planes (No. 6, 7 and 8): the longest, typically 22 to 30 inches. The long sole rides over high spots to flatten long boards and straighten edges for gluing boards together.

Block Planes

Block planes are small, one-handed planes with the blade set bevel-up at a low angle, around 20 degrees, or about 12 degrees on low-angle models. The low angle suits end grain. Block planes are used for:

• trimming end grain and fitting parts;
• chamfering and easing edges;
• removing saw marks;
• trimming solid wood edging flush with plywood;
• leveling joints where two parts meet.

A block plane is often the first plane woodworkers buy, and the one they reach for most.

Low-Angle and Bevel-Up Planes

Some smoothing and jack planes use the block plane’s bevel-up design at a larger size. The cutting angle can be changed by sharpening the blade at a different angle, which helps with difficult grain and end grain.

Shoulder, Rabbet and Bullnose Planes

These planes have a blade that runs the full width of the sole, so they can cut right into a corner.

• Shoulder planes trim the cheeks and shoulders of tenons for a perfect fit, a few strokes at a time, checking between strokes. This is often quicker and more accurate than readjusting a table saw or router.
• Rabbet planes cut and clean up rabbets.
• Bullnose planes have the blade near the front, so they reach into stopped corners and tight spots.

Plow and Molding Planes

Plow planes cut grooves, and molding planes cut decorative profiles. Routers have largely replaced them, but some woodworkers still use them for quiet, dust-free work.

Buying Planes

Premium planes from makers such as Lie-Nielsen, Veritas and WoodRiver usually work well out of the box. Lower-priced planes often need tuning first: flattening the sole, adjusting the frog (the part that holds the blade) and sharpening the blade. With that work, many cheaper planes and restored older Stanley planes perform well. Search for “No. 4 smoothing plane” and “low angle block plane” to start.

How to Use a Plane

• Sharpen the blade first. A dull blade tears the wood and needs much more force.
• Set the blade to take a thin shaving, and check that it projects evenly across the sole.
• Clamp the work, or use a bench hook or planing stop, on a solid bench. A bench that moves makes planing difficult.
• Plane with the grain. If the surface tears, turn the board around.
• Skew the plane slightly to the direction of travel for a slicing cut, which often leaves a cleaner surface.
• On end grain and edges, work from the outside towards the middle, or clamp a scrap block at the end, to stop the far corner splitting off.
• Stand behind the plane and use your legs and body, not just your arms. Apply even pressure, more at the front at the start of the stroke and more at the back at the end.

Tip for trimming edging flush: scribble pencil lines across the joint on the plywood face. Plane the edging until you just start to remove the pencil marks, then stop, so you do not plane through the thin veneer.

Planing Rough Lumber by Hand

Rough lumber is cheaper but has saw marks, may be warped, and needs flattening and thicknessing. A jack plane removes wood quickly, a jointer plane flattens and straightens, and a smoothing plane finishes the surface. It is hard work, and some wood is lost, so decide whether the saving on lumber is worth your time. See where to buy lumber.

Chisels

Chisels cut joints, clean out corners, pare surfaces flush, and trim parts to fit. Routers now do much of the joint-cutting that was once done by chisel, but chisels remain essential for fitting and clean-up.

Types of Chisel

• Bench chisels: the general-purpose chisel, with beveled sides that reach into corners. Strong enough to strike with a mallet. A set of four or five, from about 1/4 inch to 1 inch, covers most work and is the right first purchase.
• Butt chisels: short bench chisels, handy in tight spaces such as hinge recesses.
• Paring chisels: long, thin chisels for fine slicing cuts by hand pressure. They are not made for mallet work.
• Mortise chisels: thick, strong chisels for chopping deep mortises with a mallet.

Strike chisels with a wooden or soft-faced mallet, never a steel hammer, which damages the handle. Search for “bench chisel set” and choose hardened steel that holds an edge, with handles that can take mallet blows.

How to Hold and Use a Chisel

Horizontal paring. Hold the handle with one hand, index finger along the side, and press down near the tip with the thumb or fingers of the other hand to guide the blade. Push forward by leaning into the chisel. Keep both hands behind the cutting edge.

Vertical paring and chopping. Hold the chisel upright with your thumb on top of the handle and press down with your body weight, using your other hand to guide the blade. When chopping with a mallet, hold the handle well below the top, keep your fingers clear, and strike squarely.

• When cutting to a line, put the flat back of the chisel towards the line and the bevel towards the waste.
• Take small bites. Large cuts split the wood beyond the line.
• Clamp the work so both hands are free for the chisel.
• If you need to pound hard or push hard, the chisel is dull. Sharpen it before continuing; a dull chisel is more likely to slip and cause an injury.

Sharpening

Sharp tools cut cleanly, need less force and are safer, because a blunt tool is more likely to slip. Hone little and often: a few strokes on a fine stone after each use keeps an edge from ever becoming badly blunt.

Sharpening Media

• Water stones: man-made stones used with water. They cut fast and give a very fine edge. They wear unevenly and need flattening regularly.
• Oil stones: natural or man-made stones used with a light oil. Slower than water stones and messier, but long-lasting and still used by many woodworkers.
• Diamond plates: steel plates coated with diamond grit. Fine Woodworking’s Brian Boggs notes they cut fast, need virtually no maintenance, and handle hard steels that softer stones struggle with. They cost more at first. Diamond plates are also used to flatten water stones.
• Sandpaper on a flat surface: a low-cost way to start, using wet-and-dry paper on glass or a flat stone tile.
• Slip stones: shaped stones for curved carving tools and gouges.

Sharpening media come in grits. A coarse grit repairs chips and reshapes a bevel, a medium grit sharpens, and a fine grit polishes the edge. If a tool is only slightly dull, start on the medium or fine grit. If you start coarse, always finish on medium and fine. Search for “whetstone set 1000 6000” or “diamond sharpening plate set”, and a “honing guide”.

How to Sharpen a Chisel or Plane Blade

1. Prepare the stone: soak or wet a water stone, oil an oil stone, or wet a diamond plate, as the maker recommends.
2. Flatten the back of a new chisel or blade near the edge, on the stone, so the back is flat and polished. You only need to do this once.
3. Set the blade in a honing guide, or hold it by hand, with the bevel flat on the stone. A honing guide holds the angle steady, which helps beginners get consistent results.
4. Rub the bevel along the stone with steady, light pressure, keeping the angle constant. Let the stone do the work.
5. Keep going until you can feel a small burr, a rough lip of metal, along the back of the edge.
6. Move to finer grits and repeat.
7. Lay the back of the blade flat on the finest stone and rub a few strokes to remove the burr.

Take care not to round the bevel by rocking the blade, and not to change the angle between strokes. Keep the corners of a chisel square.

Hand Tools in a Woodworking Business

• Use machines for rough cutting, milling and repeated cuts, and hand tools for fitting, trimming and final surfaces.
• A block plane, a shoulder plane and a sharp set of chisels cut fitting time on joints and reduce remakes.
• Hand-planed surfaces and hand-cut joints can be part of your product’s appeal. Show them in photos and mention them in listings.
• Price hand work for the time it takes. Choose products where buyers value the hand work, and use machines where they do not.
• Hand tools let you work quietly at any hour, which helps in a basement or apartment shop.

For what to make and sell with hand tools, see hand tool woodworking projects. For a full beginner’s tool list, see woodworking tools for beginners.

Practical Tips

• Start with a pull saw, a backsaw, a block plane, a No. 4 smoothing plane and a set of bench chisels.
• Learn to sharpen before anything else. Every hand tool depends on it.
• Practise each tool on scrap of the same wood as your project.
• Work on a solid, heavy bench, and clamp the work.
• Store edges so they cannot touch other tools.

Sources

• Burgard, 2014, What’s the Difference: Bench Planes and Block Planes, Fine Homebuilding
• Highland Woodworking, n.d., Hand Plane Basics, Highland Woodworking
• Boggs, 2014, Get Sharp the Diamond Way, Fine Woodworking