Must-Have Tools for Your New Furniture Renovation Business

Starting a business is a thrilling thing, but a shrewd move at the moment – and especially so if you work in a trade. Skilled work is in high demand, and starting out as self-employed in a trade can help you corner the market and find new customers. Furniture renovation is a particularly vogue corner of woodworking, appealing to the sustainability sensibilities of the moment. But what tools would you need to start such a business?

Wood Planes and Chisels

Furniture renovation encompasses a number of different skills, but is largely an exercise in carpentry; wood needs to be reshaped, reconditioned, reconstituted and refinished in order to return furniture to its former glory. Perhaps the most important tools in the carpenter’s arsenal are wood planes and chisels.

Wood planes are used to shave thin slivers from wood, and have a variety of specific uses within renovation work. They can be used to broadly remove the top layer of batons and tabletops, including old finishes. Chisels can make smaller, more precise shavings; they are also used to make dowel joints and other repairs flush with the original material.

Files and Rasps

Files and rasps are destructive tools with a similar purpose to wood planes; rasps are used to roughly abrade wood from smaller areas, while files are used for further refinement. Chisels are more specifically used for detail work, helping to re-define ornamental features and finish off edges. Chisels come with different levels of coarseness, enabling you to work on a finer and finer scale.

Angle Grinder

For larger furniture projects, larger power tools are necessary to make lighter work of the process. Angle grinders can be indispensable for the sanding-down of large-scale furniture items. With abrasive attachments, old finishes and top layers ingrained with dirt can be worn away, or re-shaped material can be sanded smooth before finishing. Cordless angle grinders are particularly useful in active workshops, reducing hazards and enabling ease of access to difficult areas.

Drill

Speaking of power tools, another incredibly important one to add to your arsenal is the power drill. Drills are particularly useful for the deconstruction of older, rickety furniture, through the drilling-out of old joints and fixtures. They can also be used to re-route decorative patterns into material, and eventually facilitate reconstruction efforts through driving screws, re-drilling dowel holes and milling out areas for reconditioned jointing.

Clamps

Lastly, clamps are severely underrated tools in any workshop, and especially vital for furniture renovation. Wood glues are commonly used for a variety of purposes, including sticking veneers and binding joints. Clamps ensure that any surfaces you’re attempting to adhere do not move during the drying process. You will need vastly more of these than you would think.