straight knife — everything else in the library
One good sloyd-style straight knife (kept sharp) and cut-resistant gloves are enough for the large majority of projects here — every animal, figure, and chess piece except the two spoons and the chess board.
hook knife — the two spoon projects
A curved hook knife is needed to scoop the bowl of a spoon; a straight knife alone can't reach that concave shape. Not required for anything else currently in the library — filter by "Gear needed" on the library page to see exactly which projects need one.
v-gouge, wood saw, paint — the chess board
The one flat-work project (the chess board) is the outlier: it needs a wood saw to size the board, a V-gouge to outline the squares, and paint to finish it — no whittling knife involved at all.