Wood is a wonderful medium to work on and one of the best ways to express one's creativity with it is to indulge in woodworking. It does require expertise and training but one of the foremost requisites is the ability to handle tools which are involved in this activity. There are a number of tools which facilitate woodworking and these can be broadly categorized as hand tools and power tools depending on whether they require electricity for being operated.

A strong recommendation to anyone who wishes to embark on a woodworking project is to be cognizant of the various hand working tools as the familiarity would come in handy during the work. Some of the commonly used hand working tools are listed as follows:

• One of the most essential woodworking hand tools is a utility knife because cutting is the very essence of woodworking. An added advantage would be the presence of disposable razor blades as this would infinitely increase the versatility of the knife. Junior Hacksaw

• A claw hammer with a smooth and rounded finish head is a versatile hand tool which could prove to be very useful while woodworking. Such a hammer should be selected by feeling its grip and also its heaviness and a perfect specimen would be the one which has a comfortable grip and does not weigh much either. Twist Knot Cup Brush

• It is imperative for a woodworker to have a retractable tape measure while working and some of its basic features should be standard and metric markings, a locking mechanism and a loose hook at the end of the tape to assist while taking internal and external measurements.

• To clean out the waste from the joints and mortises, a sharpened chisel should be used and to have a collection of bevel-edged chisels of different widths within reach is always advantageous.

• In order to judge whether the stock is perfectly aligned horizontally or vertically, a level should be used and it is advisable to keep a long as well as a short level. Heavy duty hacksaw

• As common as a claw hammer, screwdrivers of different types and varying sizes need to be a part of the woodworking kit and more importantly the onus is on the user to be aware of the type of screwdriver to be used for a particular purpose.

• Being the most invaluable, quickest and easiest tool while woodworking, a layout square is a definite inclusion and should be present at all times to facilitate marking a square line, an angle or a certain cut-off length. Slip Joint Pliers

• The sliding bevel is like a layout square only with more number of functions like being adjusted to any angle, locked in place with a locking mechanism and while duplicating an angle.

• Nail sets of different sizes come in handy during woodworking to fulfill and variety of reasons and hence form an integral part of a woodworker's toolkit.