If you can't make the tool,

[Mike Davis]

how can you expect to build a violin?

That was the answer to a question asked by a visitor at a friends shop back in the 80s. He often answered a question with a question as if he thought you already knew the answer or should know.

I still don't know the answer to that question. Even after watching DickProenneke (.com - "Alone in the Wilderness") build a cabin with only a backpack full of hand tools.

So, I guess my question is....

What would you consider the very smallest set of tools that would allow you to make rudimentary furniture and build more advanced tools in time. I know they are really two different sets of tools and you could list them that way if inclined.

I'm not talking CNC milling machines here. More like drill bits and make a brace. Saw blades and make the handles.

Let's say you can take a suitcase to the Amazon and nothing else is available except wood and scrap metal.

 

[jdulaney]

Hammer, some sort of tongs, anvil. I wouldn't mind a forge, too, but I could redneck something together from local materials.

I wouldn't mind an axe, because then I could build a shelter for the forge a little quicker.

 

[richlife]

Hmm, I didn't see Mike's actual question as being about blacksmithing, but the original title question certainly suggests that. Anyway, John has the right approach, but at my age, I'm focusing more on how to make the tools with the metal available.

I think Roy Underhill, The Woodwright, is the ideal source for recommendations, but he already has a shop full of tools. So omitting the axe and froe for making your lumber from trees, my recommendations are to make a couple of good planes, a marking gauge, chisel handles (for those key bench chisels, gouges, and mortise chisels), mallets, one or more spokeshaves, a bowsaw, a shaving horse and a drawknife.

From there it's all easy. :wconfused:

Rich

 

[Mike Davis]

Actually there's no right or wrong answer here, just something to jog the mind and make you think outside the tool box.

 

[CrealBilly]

An assortment of knifes - I can do a lot with a knifes and a anvil and hammer to make other tools...

 

[Gotcha6]

2 items :
Machete
Good sharpening stone.

1. Use machete to make good bow, also to chop firewood.
2. Use bow to kill large game animal.
3. Use skin from animal to make bellows.
4. Use bellows to make iron that is poured into sand molds to make hammer, anvils, oh, you get the picture.
5. Use sharpening stone to get a good edge on tools once they are forged out.

Get everyone off the island except Ginger & Mary Ann. :rotflm:

 

[Gofor]

I would add a saw (blade). One tool that is hard to make. Altho you can get by without one, it would make life a whole lot easier.

In reality, if you are in an area with igneous rocks, sharp cutting edges (i.e flint, obsidian, etc) are relatively easy to come by. With rivers and streams come the rounded stones good for hammering, as well as for fletching out the harder ones for cutting. A rain forest would definitely be a challenge, as would a sandy prairie.

JMTCW

Go

 

[bob vaughan]

addressing primitive furniture making

Gauging
stainless vernier caliber
framing and combo square
tape measure
short level (combo square level may substitute)
Tool support
whet stones
files
leatherman
striking - hammer
struck - chisels
cutting - hand saws/bow saw, spoke shave, #3 plane,
drilling - brace and bits
holding - a couple of clamps, ropes and knowing the packer's knot