This is the toolkit that Barnsley recommends,
-Tape measure
-300mm adjustable square
-Marking gauge
-Sliding Bevel
-Callipers
-Marking knife
-2B Pencil
-07 Bench Plane
-Low angle block plane
-Shoulder plane
-Spokeshaves, flat and round bottomed
-Dovetail saw
-Coping saw
-Chisels, 1.5mm, 6mm, 19mm, 25mm
-Mallet
-Hammer
-Scratch stock
-Shooting board
In reality most apprentices go a bit further,
1. You quickly discover that all layout tools are not born equal and most apprentices eventually bite the bullet and get brand new Starrett adjustable squares, at least one of the tiny little ones (100mm?), one 300mm, and one 600mm. The 600mm gets used constantly as a straight edge as well as for layout work. Workshop Heaven seems to have a good range at a (relatively) reasonable price, and in the unlikely event that there's a problem they'll see you right in double quick time. One layout tool that everyone really lusts after is the Vesper Double Square,
https://www.vespertools.com.au/index.ph ... &Itemid=34
You need to be able to check your joints, and needle pattern dovetails are difficult to check without a tool like this, there's an old Moore & Wright tool that does something similar but it's not quite as versatile for furniture work. Another critical bit of layout tool learning is that you can't trust adjustable bevels to hold a setting, so for anything with important angles you cut templates in MDF for each angle then repeatedly reset your bevel to that precise angle. I haven't mentioned winding sticks, you need them multiple times during every single job, but you make them yourself. As an apprentice you make fancy extravagant versions from expensive timber, which then gather dust while you carry on with aluminium extrusions or lengths of MDF.
2. Subtle curves and chamfers are a signature Barnsley motif, so you get pushed hard with respect to your spokeshave skills. On the apprentice syllabus is a fiendish octagonal lamp that is basically a spokeshave exercise.
http://barnsley-furniture.co.uk/smaller/table-lamp
The ex musical instrument guys breeze through this, but the rest of us were left with swollen thumbs and a desperate urge to keep buying new spokeshaves in the hope that one might hold the key to delivering chatter free, impossibly tight concave curves! Eventually you realise it's all just down to practise, but along the way you tend to pick up one of the really small Lie Nielsen or Vertas planes that are modelled on old Preston designs, plus a wooden low angle spokeshave.
3. You tend to add a cross cut carcass saw to your saw armoury, if you're feeling wealthy you might also get a rip tenon saw. But Western saws are pointless if you're not prepared to learn saw sharpening and setting, in which case Japanese saws have a lot to offer.
4. There are a couple of additional chisels that come in handy, something around 5/16" lets you make many furniture sized dovetails that bit faster. Not many chisel makers offer chisels in 1/16" increments, which is a shame as 3/16", 5/16", and 7/16" tend to fit dovetail layouts better than 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2". You also want smallish lands on the chisel sides and you'll probably hunt around for a couple of old 3/8" chisels to grind into skews. A heavier chisel around 3/8" is useful for morticing, some people keep a wide butt chisel on the bench as a sort of general purpose knife come cutting tool.
5. The shooting board quickly becomes two or three different sized shooting boards, including a whopper for veneer edges, plus a sticking board. Personally I've stopped trying make shooting boards super accurate and now focus on making them simple and adjustable, that seems to me a better approach for the rough and tumble of a workshop, but if you can get reliable and lasting accuracy then go for it.
6. Two tools not on the list that almost everyone gets are a router plane (more usually two) and a Stanley 80 scraper. Barnsley advocate making scrapers out of huge industrial HSS hacksaw blades, which is why there's no card scraper on the list. Good as the HSS scrapers are it's a better man than me that would tackle a three square metre veneered dining table with one. I've tried the fancy Lie Nielsen scraping plane and it's lovely and exceptionally pretty, but blade preparation just takes too long, and anything that tempts you into using a scraper past when it's due for re-sharpening is a bad idea. Consequently the Stanley 80, with a couple of cheap spare blades sharpened on both ends, lets you tackle any job from beginning to end without stopping. The router plane is just invaluable and I'm astonished they're not more widely used. I use router planes to finesse rebates and tenons, make sliding dovetails, and loads of other tasks.
7. Scratch stocks are like shooting boards in that you tend to make a new one every year, but having a few is really useful. You can leave them set up for repetitive jobs, and you'll frequently find yourself using a scratch stock near the end of a job, when you've already sunk many hours into a piece, so you need to feel confident that it won't skid off and ruin all your work. I've been playing around with the Garrett Hack style of scratch stock recently and I like the comfort of the longer fence and most of all the ability to angle the cutting iron for really gentle initial cuts.
http://www.halfinchshy.com/2011/12/stuf ... -hack.html
And that's about it. Chuck in a couple of drills, some cramps, a file or two, and maybe a used rebate/grooving plane and there's a surprising amount of furniture you can make with just those. Far better to have only these tools, but all in great shape and with the knowledge to sharpen and use them, than a workshop full of rubbish, gimmicks, and boot sale bargains that prevent you actually making things and moving your skills forward.
