Reddit mentions of Johnson Level & Tool 400EM-S 12-Inch Metal Combination Square

Woodworking with power tools revolves around the table saw. If you go that path, get the best one you possibly can. But used so your money goes father.

Woodworking with hand tools needs a few things:

• A saw. A $30 Japanese saw with crosscut blade on one side and rip cut on the other is a great way to start if you aren't already an experienced sawyer. If you want to buy local, don't buy the crappy ones from Home Depot or Lowe's. You can get a good one from Woodcraft.
  
• Chisels. Even the $10 six pack of chisels from Harbor Freight will work great. You have to sharpen a little more often, but it's much easier to get a keen edge.
  
• A pounder. This can be a rubber mallet, a nylon mallet, or a stick. My first project was making a wooden mallet. I used a rubber mallet I already owned while making it.
  
• A smoother. The best option is a bench plane (a used #4 Stanley, Record, or other pre-WWII plane is ideal; you can get fully restored planes on eBay for $75-90; you can buy a new Wood River at Woodcraft for under $150; or you can restore one (only do this if that process interests you). Stay away from new planes under $100). A secondary option is sandpaper. You will never match a plane's finish with sandpaper (literally glass-like), and some tasks, like stock removal, will be much more difficult or even impossible, but it is pretty cheap to get started.
  
• A sharpener. On the cheap, you can use the "Scary Sharp" system using sandpaper and some thick glass to get started (I use a glass shelf I bought at Home Depot when I want to sharpen with sandpaper). For more money up front but less over time, you can use whetstones (water or oil) or diamond plates (I have a cheap $3 eBay-special 150 and 400 grit diamond plates to flatten my water stones and for major material removal, and I have two two-sided waterstones with 400/1000 and 4000/8000 grit for most sharpening). A $15 honing guide can make things much easier if you have coordination like me, but you probably want to spend a few minutes tweaking it to get best results.
  
• Some marking/measuring tools. A marking gauge, a combination square (you will want to check and, if necessary, adjust it), a marking knife (a small pocket knife or utility knife works), and, maybe, a small tape measure. The tape measure gets used the least; most measurements are relative measurements made using the marking gauge.
  
  I'm a big believer in starting small and cheap and working my way up. With a few hand tools, you can get started for under $200 and have everything you need to make good quality stuff. The skills you learn with those tools will transfer to every project in the future, no matter how big. Fine joinery is the same, whether the boards are cut with a hand saw or a table saw, and you will never learn to read wood with a power jointer, planer and table saw like you will with a handsaw and bench plane.
  
  As you reach competency with these tools, you can decide how you want to expand your tools to achieve more. That may be more hand tools like a dovetail saw, additional planes, cabinet scrapers, etc, or it may be power tools with a table saw, band saw, dust collector, etc. Or it may be somewhere in the middle.
  
  Personally, I do this for relaxation, so a quiet shop and a face free of respirators and face shields is much better to me. Since I am in no hurry to finish projects, I use primarily hands tools (I have a few power tools from a previous life that I'll pull out on very rare occasions. I think often about selling them).
  
  If getting stuff done drives you, though, power tools are a great way to do that. It changes woodworking a little because it becomes a skill of setting machines up correctly (not a trivial skill!) to get the correct cut.
  
  The Wood Whisperer, who coined the phrase and, literally, wrote the book, Hybrid Woodworking, does a pretty good job blending hand and power tools. If I cared more about getting things done (and had the space and money to devote to it), that would be the path I would follow.