If you’re new to woodworking DIY, the first question is usually:
“Which tools should I buy first?”
Drawing on more than 15 years of DIY as a hobby, this article focuses on the tools I actually reach for the most and breaks them into:
・7 tools to get first
・6 tools that are nice to have
Hopefully this helps when you’re putting together your first toolkit.
Tool Matrix: Need vs. Skill Required
I plotted the tools commonly used in DIY against two axes — “how necessary” and “how hard to use”:
If you’re a DIY beginner, the smart move is to start with the tools that are high-need and low-skill (the dotted region in the upper-left of the chart).
Of course, what’s “necessary” depends on what you’re building. I assumed something like a basic shelf as the typical first project.
7 Tools to Get First
Starting with the upper-left of the chart — high-need, low-skill.
All of these are useful, easy to handle, and beginner-friendly.
Among these, only two are power tools:
② Cordless drill/driver
④ Jigsaw
If you’re a beginner thinking about your first power tool, start with one of these.
① Screwdriver
First up: a screwdriver.
Almost every DIY project involves driving screws somewhere.
For now you really just need:
・Phillips #1
・Phillips #2
Those two cover most screws you’ll meet.
“#1” and “#2” refer to the tip size: #1 fits screw shank diameters of 2–2.9 mm, #2 fits 3–5 mm.
Flat-head (slot) drivers don’t come up much in woodworking, so I’d just buy one if/when you actually need it.
Personally I like the cushion-grip “electrician’s screwdriver” style — they’re really comfortable to hold (electrician’s drivers work fine for woodworking too).
② Cordless Drill/Driver
One tool that drills holes and drives screws — basically essential for woodworking.
Swap the bit and the same tool becomes a drill or a driver.
You can drill pilot holes before driving screws, then power-drive the screws themselves.
You’ll use this constantly — it’s the obvious first power tool to buy.
You’ll keep it for years. For your very first power tool, I think a cordless drill/driver is the right call.
And buy a battery-powered (cordless) one — the corded ones are a hassle. Cordless is the only sensible choice today.
③ Hand Saw
Next, the classic: a hand saw.
You can have the home improvement store cut the wood for you when you buy it, but that requires you to have a perfectly finalized design ahead of time.
That’s fine for something simple like a desktop where you only need one panel. But anything more complex — like a shelf — and you’ll inevitably hit moments of “actually I want to recut this piece a little shorter.” A hand saw is good to have around for those.
For Japanese pull saws, the “Z-Saw” brand is the well-known go-to and seems hard to go wrong with.
(Full disclosure: I don’t own a Z-Saw myself, so I’m passing along what I’ve read. The Japanese DIY YouTuber Kamiya-sensei recommends them, and I trust his recommendations.)
④ Jigsaw
Compared with the hand saw in ③, a jigsaw makes cutting dramatically easier.
For a beginner’s mental model, a jigsaw is basically “a power-tool version of a hand saw.”
(Real woodworkers will yell at me for that comparison, but for a quick mental picture, it works.)
Compared with a circular saw — which is the other obvious cutting power tool — a jigsaw is much safer and more beginner-friendly.
It also has one feature that a circular saw doesn’t: it can cut curves.
The jigsaw can’t match the speed and straight-line precision of a circular saw, but as a starting power tool it’s a great pick.
For a how-to guide on the jigsaw, see this article (Japanese version).
⑤ Carpenter’s Square (Sashigane)
Often called the “king of carpentry tools” in Japan, the carpenter’s square is an L-shaped ruler.
You’ll use it constantly to mark cut lines on lumber.
By registering it against the edge of the wood, you get a line that’s exactly 90° to that edge.
Hard to imagine doing DIY without one — that’s how often you’ll use it.
Indispensable if you want to cut to spec.
⑥ Sandpaper (#120, #240, #400)
Maybe sandpaper isn’t really a “tool”, but you absolutely want some on hand for any DIY project, so it makes the list.
Use it for surface finishing, prep before painting/staining, or minor shaping fixes.
※ I strongly prefer the white “non-loading” sandpaper over the brown kraft-paper kind ※
The white type has a coating that resists clogging, so it lasts much longer. (The brown kind wears out almost immediately.)
What sandpaper is for
Three main uses:
・Surface finishing
Just-cut wood often has rough edges that can cut your hands. Sandpaper smooths them out.
・Paint/stain prep
Sanding before applying finish gives you an even, professional-looking coat.
・Minor shape changes
With coarse grits you can do basic reshaping — rounding off square edges, for example.
Which grits should I buy?
Sandpaper grit is the coarseness number, written like “#NNN”.
Higher number = finer grit.
My recommended starter set:
#120
#240
#400
For reference:
Coarse #40–100 → aggressive shaping
Medium #120–240 → smoothing out a surface
Fine #280–800 → finish-coat prep, final polish
Extra-fine #1000+ → glass-smooth feel (rarely needed in woodworking)
⑦ Brushes / Rags
For applying finishes to your assembled piece.
Finishing is the step that takes a project from “okay” to “actually looks nice” — if you’ve avoided painting/staining so far, definitely give it a try.
I went from indifferent to a fan of finishing the first time I used oil stain.
I have a separate article on Watco oil-stain finishing in Japanese — well worth checking out if you read Japanese.
6 Nice-to-Have Tools
Now from the upper-left of the matrix toward the rest. These aren’t strictly required for starting out, but they level up your DIY substantially.
① Circular Saw
A power tool specialized for fast, accurate straight cuts.
Building a wood deck? You’ll burn through stacks of lumber, and a circular saw makes that doable.
It’s also key for furniture pieces where dimensional accuracy matters.
That said, the blade spins fast and can be dangerous, so handle with care.
I have a deeper article on circular saws (in Japanese — translation forthcoming).
② Trimmer / Palm Router
A trimmer (palm router) does edge profiling and groove cutting.
It’s a real level-up tool, but the high-speed bit makes it a little intimidating, and it takes some practice to handle confidently.
Not high on my “buy first” list — get it once you’ve got a project that needs it.
By swapping bits, you can get profiles like these (excerpt from the MTR-42 manual):
Here’s an example of a roundover profile:
The Ryobi (now Kyocera-branded in Japan) MTR-42 trimmer is genuinely good for the price:
I also have an article about a simple shop-built router table for these.
③ Impact Driver
An impact driver adds a hammering action to a regular cordless driver, letting it drive screws with much more torque.
“Why not just use a regular drill/driver?” — that’s what I thought for a long time.
The impact driver really earns its keep when you’re driving long screws or going into hard wood.
For those jobs it’s a game-changer.
I built my first wood deck with a regular drill/driver and my second with an impact driver — the difference in speed and (critically) wrist fatigue was night and day.
For deck builds and other projects with long screws into tough lumber, this is a tool you’ll genuinely want.
④ Power Sander
A power sander vibrates a sandpaper-loaded pad to make sanding much faster.
It removes material quickly and evenly, so it’s great for big surfaces. You’ll get a more uniform finish than by hand.
One real caveat:
these things are louder and shake more than you’d expect.
Worth thinking about if you’re using one in an apartment.
⑤ Clamps
Hold workpieces to a workbench, or apply pressure while glue cures.
They also stabilize a workpiece while you cut or rout, which makes work safer and more accurate.
⑥ Engineer’s Square
An engineer’s square (small machinist-style square) is purpose-built for two things: checking that an angle is exactly 90°, and marking square lines on a workpiece.
Square corners matter a lot to how the final piece looks, so this one earns its place in the toolbox.
(Side note: the Japanese word “sukoya” comes from the English word “square” — picked up phonetically.)
Wrap-up
That’s my list — 7 tools to start with, plus 6 nice-to-haves.
Hope it helps if you’re putting together your first DIY toolkit.
This site is all about hobby DIY.
Just pick something — anything — and try building it.
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