The Complete Timber Framing Tool Kit is a timber framing tool kit with everything in our Starter Kit plus a 2 in framing chisel, a slick, a ryoba saw and a block plane, so you can cut and fit a wider range of joinery by hand. It comes in four versions: an imperial or metric framing square, with a clamp lock or magnetic lock combination square.
You save over $150 with this kit as opposed to buying the tools individually.
Two MHG Messerschmidt Timber Framing Chisels (1-1/2 in and 2 in) and the Wood Is Good Mallet (30 oz) cut the mortise. The MHG chisels are German framing chisels with 7 in blades, 18 in overall, hardened to 61 HRC over the full working length, on oiled ash handles in steel sleeves. The 30 oz mallet has a lead-plugged urethane head that absorbs shock and will not split a chisel handle, and it is the mallet we recommend to nearly everyone driving framing chisels. The MHG Timber Framing Slick (2 in) pares wide surfaces flat. Its canted blade gives your knuckles clearance, it is made in true inch sizes, and like every slick it is pushed, never struck. The Stanley No. 60-1/2 Sweetheart Low Angle Block Plane trims and fits. It is 6-1/2 in long with a 1-5/8 in A2 iron bedded at 12 degrees, the low angle that suits end grain, and an adjustable mouth.
The Wood Owl Tri-Cut Auger Bit (18 x 3/4 in) bores the mortise, and the Centering Mirror helps you bore square without a drill press: sight the bit against its reflection, and when the two form one straight line you are at 90 degrees. Two Japanese pull saws cut the tenon. The Gyokucho Ryoba Saw (300 mm) has rip teeth on one edge and crosscut teeth on the other on an 11-3/4 in blade. The Z-Saw Universal Kataba Saw (300 mm) has no back spine, so it cuts to any depth, and its teeth handle rip, crosscut and angled cuts.
The Shinwa Japanese Framing Square (16 x 24 in, imperial or metric) lays out the joints. It is stainless steel with deeply etched graduations and carries the rafter table, brace table and octagon scale, and we put it in our kits because it is truer than the common hardware store square. The Kapro Combination Square (12 in) checks square and sets depths. The clamp lock version (Kapro 352) locks the blade with a traditional clamp, and the magnetic lock version (Kapro 325) holds it with magnets so it stays where you set it. A Stanley FatMax Tape Measure (35 ft, 1-1/4 in blade), a Lutz 357 Utility Knife for scoring lines, and three black Shelter Institute carpenter pencils finish the layout tools.
For sharpening, the kit includes our Shelter Sharpening Kit, the setup we teach in the Purely Post & Beam Online Course and our in-person courses: a glass plate with sandpaper, a Veritas Mk.II Standard Honing Guide to hold the bevel angle, and a leather strop. We add 12,000-grit aluminum oxide for the final polish and a cleaning rag. Kurobara Japanese Camellia Oil (245 ml) keeps rust off the chisels, slick, saws and other carbon steel, and it will not dry or gum. Everything packs into a Bucket Boss Extreme Big Daddy Tool Bag: 26 in long, 30 liters, with 25 pockets and a PVC-reinforced bottom. You will need a drill, or a hand brace with an adapter, to drive the auger bit's 7/16 in hex shank.
It pairs with our Purely Post & Beam Online Course. If you are just starting out, the Starter Timber Framing Tool Kit covers the core tools, and the Weekender Timber Framing Tool Kit suits a smaller first project like a sawhorse or a mailbox post. To go further, step up to the Pro Timber Framing Tool Kit.
Pat and Patsy Hennin founded Shelter Institute in Bath, Maine in 1974 to teach people to build their own homes. They built their early frames outside on their farm, and Pat recalls that their most important tool was the framing square: they used it to scrape the ice off the beams.
