Essential Lutherie Tools

Here’s a list of hand tools that will get 99% of all luthier tasks complete:

• pencil
• 1 metre steel rule
• slab of float glass or granite countertop as a reference plane
• Steel carpenter’s square
• marking knife
• bench plane
• panel saw
• Coping saw / Fretting saw
• round gouge
• half-round rasp
• cabinet scraper and burnisher
• awl
• callipers
• needle files
• jack plane
• marking gauge
• chisels: 1 very narrow, 1 very wide, a couple of intermediate sizes; e.g. 3 mm, 6 mm, 12 mm, 30 mm
• Hand drill with an assortment of drill bits (optional clamp-in drill press)
• 1/4” or 1/2” palm/hand router with an assortment of bits (1/2” will do a whole body in one cut, 1/4” you have to flip and use the guide bit)
• Spokeshave to shape the neck and chamfers on body (alternatively a Shinto rasp and some good files)
• Wood adhesive (titebond) and Cyanoacrylate (CA) glue (superglue)
• An assortment of clamps: 4 medium G clamps, 4 speed clamps, and 2 long bar clamps.
• Masking tape to clamp your binding.
• Double sided tape to stick your templates and body to the table when you’re routing
• more sandpaper than sense: 80, 120, 240, 320, 400, 600, 800, 2000