The Complete Guide to Starting Woodworking: What You Actually Need and What You Don’t
I built my first piece of furniture—a bookshelf for my oldest daughter’s room—with six tools and three free plans I downloaded from different woodworking sites. The plans disagreed on almost everything: which joints to use, what tools were “essential,” and whether a beginner should even attempt drawer slides. One plan assumed I owned a table saw and router. Another insisted hand tools were the only way to learn properly. The third suggested buying a Kreg Jig and calling it joinery.
Here’s what actually happened: I printed all three plans, bought the tools that appeared on at least two of the lists, and started cutting. The bookshelf worked. It’s still holding books six years later. But the process exposed something most woodworking guides won’t tell you—the tool lists, technique primers, and project recommendations you find online are written by people selling you an idealized version of woodworking, not the actual path most people walk to their first completed project.
This guide documents that actual path. Not the romantic version where you apprentice with a master craftsman or invest $5,000 in workshop equipment before making your first cut. The version where you have a garage, a weekend, a real need for furniture, and a genuine question: what do I actually need to start?
For more on this topic, see successful woodworking projects.
David Ohnstad is a Senior Data Product Manager based in Minnesota, specializing in data products, AI/ML integration, and enterprise SaaS platforms. Connect on LinkedIn or read more at davidohnstad.com.
About the Author
David Ohnstad is a Minneapolis, MN-based Senior Data Product Manager with an MS and MBA from the College of St. Scholastica. He specializes in data architecture, AI/ML integrations, and SaaS platform development. Outside work, he builds furniture and explores the Minnesota outdoors. Find his work at davidohnstad.com and github.com/davidohnstad40-netizen.
