Reader Tom Haley sent me this fascinating list of tools an apprentice carpenter should obtain circa 1970, with recommended brand names and model numbers. The list was a faded mimeograph that was almost unreadable. Through the power of Photoshop, I made it almost legible. I’ve decided to reproduce the entire list here exactly as written, typos and all. It’s simply too awesome to mess with.
Haley (in the photo above) completed his apprenticeship on Jan. 22, 1981, and has certificates of completion from The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America and from The United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training.
Haley was a member of Local 512 in Washtenaw County, Mich. He was a business agent for Local 512 and a Field Representative for the Michigan State Carpenters Council.
— Christopher Schwarz
TOOLS
The following is a list of tools in the approximate order in which they should be purchased. You should get in the habit of purchasing one tool per week even if it is a nail set. You will find this a very profitable habit simply because your trade will be no better than the tools you have in your tool box. It is a well known fact, tools are one of the best investments that can be made, however, you must remember a poor grade of tool can be very costly to you. You will soon learn that a cheap tool quite often becomes the most expensive, not only in more labor that will be used, but also in the repurchasing of the tool.
It is a poor policy to wait until the demand presents itself before you buy a specific tool. Always remember that for a man to become a success in life is to be ready for the opportunity when it presents itself.
During your 1st. 6 month period you should purchase:
Jack knife (good pencil sharpener)
Hammer (Champion “Our Pride”)
Zig Zag rule (Stanley No. 106 Finside)
Nail set (Miller Malls 1/32 and 3/32)
8 point saw (Disston straight back D-23 26”)
Ripping Bar or wrecking bar (Stanley)
Cold chisel (Stanley No. 74 5/8” x 7”)
Combination square (Stanley No. 122 12”)
Screw driver (Stanley No. 1006-8”)
Stanley chisels #60 (1/2” and 3/4” for now however, if you can afford it get set #69
During your 2nd. 6 month period you should purchase:
Hatchet (Stanley Broad Hatchet No. 32)
Steel square (Nichols No. 100-A)
Level (24” Sands) or (Stanley No. 313 24”)
Do not get a level with adjustable bubbles.
Auger bit brace (Stanley No. 923 10” sweep)
Screw driver bit (Stanley No. 26 1/4” and 1/2”)
Auger bits (Russel Jennings No. 100 double thread) No. 8 No. 10 No. 15 bits for now. If you can afford it, get set No. 32 1/2 Qtrs. (13 bits)
It is best to get No. Bx-D 32 1/2 includes box
During your 3rd. 6 month period you should purchase:
Block plane (Stanley No. 60-1/2)
11 point saw (Disston D-23 Straight back 26”)
Compass saw (Disston)
Saw set (Stanley No. 42)
Saw horse vise
Coping saw (Disston No. 10)
Hand drill (Stanley No. 624)
Index of drills (No. spec)
During your 4th. 6 month period you should purchase:
Hack saw (Disston No. 36 1/2)
Jack plane (Stanley No. 5C)
Celotex knife (Stanley No. 199)
Countersink (Stanley No. 139)
Scratch Awl (Stanley No. 7)
If not already complete, complete your chisel set.
Bevel (Stanley No. 18, 8”)
Yankee Push drill (No. 41)
During your 5th. 6 month period you should purchase:
Smooth plane (Stanley No. 4C)
Wing dividers (Stanley No. 58, 8”)
If not complete, complete your bit set.
Ripping chisel (Stanley No. 818)
10 point saw (Disston D-23 Straight back 24”)
Yankee screw driver (No. 130A quick return)
Rabbit plane (Stanley No. 78)
During your 6th. 6 month period you should purchase:
Butt gauge (Stanley No. 95)
Expansive bit (Russell Jennings No. 71B)
Line level (Stanley No. 187)
Extension rule (Stanley No. 226)
Jointer plane (Stanley No. 8C)
During your 7th. 6 month period you should purchase:
Trammel points (Stanley No. 4)
Phillips screw driver (Stanley No. 2752)
Spoke shave (Stanley No. 151M)
Bit extension (Stanley No. 180, 18”)
During your last period you should purchase:
Cornering tool (Stanley No. 29)
Disston Dovetail saw (No. 68, 10”)
Screw driver (Stanley No. 1009 close quarter)
Yankee off set ratchet screwdriver (No. 3400)
Screw driver (Stanley No. 1008-8”)
Hand scraper (Stanley No. 0, 2 1/2” x 5”)
Burnisher (Stanley No. 185)
It will be to your advantage to add to this collection whenever possible.
Thank you
Brilliant! Really pleasing to see the trades of the more recent past getting some press.
Only thing missing from the list is Spackle to fill in the inevitable butt crack that will form during said apprenticeship.
Kidding aside, big thanks to Tom for sharing and you for the time and work to pass it on to us.
That is almost an exact list of my Dad’s tools, couple different brands, but the same contents. I am glad his are older and I have his Stanley 720 and 750 set not 60s!
Stanley pretty much had it nailed, except for the hammer.
A common question from new woodworkers is which order to buy bench planes. After much debate, the consensus generally seems to be block, jack, smooth, jointer.
This happens to be the same order on this list. Looks like the answer is at least 43 years old!
Cool post!
Is there a 1970 price tag? If so, cost comparison in today’s adjustments?
What was the average carpenter’s yearly earnings? What would the percentages of income/career investment be?
My kit was a bit different and I began my non-union career in 1979, but a 22 oz. framing hammer was about $12 at the time. My take-home at the time was about $200 a week. Good times…not.
I can’t help but notice the list never recommends buying anything to sharpen your planes with. Also, that you don’t buy a Philips screwdriver until your 4th year. I’m pretty sure most people needed one long before that.
I doubt Roubo had a Philips screwdriver before his 4th year.
In the late 1970s, I wonder how many trade carpenters used Phillips screws. I guess it matters if you did trim or cabinets, but most trim carpenters even today don’t seem to use Phillips – even with trim screws they seem to use square drive.
Most wood screws back then were straight slotted.
Obviously owned stock in Stanley.
“During your 6th. 6 month period you should purchase:
Butt gauge ”
This is obviously a joke on the new apprentice. Can you imagine the look on his fellow apprentice’s face when he asked to borrow his butt gage?
I still have my left handed screwdriver and copper magnet.
As a child in the sixties and seventies the Stanley 95 was the shiny tool that I wanted so badly. I had no idea what it was for, much less how to use it. But it was this big chunk of shiny metal with rods and knobs, and it screamed “precision”. I don’t know how I managed not to buy one. Now I compensate by buying other shiny tools that I barely know how to use properly.
Not a joke. There is a Stanley 95 butt gauge.
Really? My wife says if I get one I better not bring it in the house!
Where exactly would I go to purchase a rabbit plane? Petsmart?
As I mentioned above the list, I decided to reproduce the list exactly, including the misspellings of “Russel Jennings,” “rabbit” and some others.
Also funny is that someone went to the Wikipedia page for rebate planes and changed all the rabbets to rebate – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebate_plane
The ‘butt’ gauge is used in the layout of hinges in wood doors. I completed my apprenticeship in 1979 in Chicago. During our initial classroom period we were ‘paid’ $5.50 per hour but received no cash. When the classroom period was complete, we were sent over to a local hardware store where we used our ‘pay’ for our initial tool purchases. The initial purchase included everything on this list.
You can’t fool me!
Although I was in a different union in a different place when I started in 1963, I’m pretty sure I was given the same list. I left after the 3rd 6 months for engineering college but I had made a good start on buying the tools however I bought mostly Millers Falls not Stanley. Some of the tools are gone, some are still in use such as the Stanley hammer and Millers Falls block plane, and others like my first Disston hang on the wall for the memories. Pretty sure I could fill out the list in my shop these days.
I find this extremely interesting as it comes from a time where carpenters were still expected to own, use, and sharpen handsaws as part of their daily toolkit.By the time I started in carpentry(1986) everyone was expected to furnish his own Skil 77 wormdrive. If you had a handsaw, it was of the short”toolbox” variety (and I never recall seeing one on site). All other cuts were completed by jigsaw (Bosch or nothing!) Drilling and screwdriving were now being done with cordless drills (makita stick battery or Panasonic). Hatchets were only seen in the hands of roofers or cedar shake specialists. Hammers were strictly “estwing”: 16 oz. leather handle for trimming, 32 oz. wafflehead ripping claw for framing. Nailguns appeared on the jobsite the next year. This was only 5 years after Tom Haley completed his apprenticeship. I didn’t learn how to use or sharpen handsaws until I went back to school for Furniture Design (R.I.T.) in 1991. Ask an employee to use a handsaw, much less sharpen one, and they’ll look at you like you have horns on your head. Amazing how quickly things changed in the early 80’s.
When I did my apprenticeship in western Colorado in the early 70s, the union contract provided for time to sharpen our tools. As the contractors would rather see us bent over and working, they sent our tools out regularly to be sharpened.
Even today, union carpenters generally are obliged only to furnish hand tools. Power tools are the contractor’s responsibility, although conditions are deteriorating in some parts of the country.
In the 60’s, by the time I turned out as aJourneyman Machinist the investment in tools was almost $3000.00. You could not get a job in union shop without this minimum set of tools! It was also required to join the local union(I had turned out in Arkansas), moved to California in 1965.
I entered the apprenticeship program almost eleven years ago and our list was waaaayyy shorter. The building trades, in my experience, are going towards specialities. Where you used to have a “house carpenter”, you now have a framer, roofer, drywall hanger, trim carpenter, concrete finisher ect. I was fortunate to work for a small company that did pretty much everything from the foundation to the final trim out. A lot of the guys I went through the program with weren’t as fortunate.
And, I should mention, that the school did it’s best to give us a good overview of all aspects of carpentry. I’d guess it’s the contractors who like to put guys into specialities.
I meant to make my own comment to this – Funny enough being from Texas, I’ve never actually met a carpenter’s apprentice. We have plenty of Electrical and Plumbing, but no others that I ever met when I worked in construction.