You don't even need a slick or a plane. A sharp 2 inch framing chisel will do you well. The mallet you use is important to, to prevent fatigue. I don't think any book will really give you what you need to get going in timberframeing. I'd advise you to take an intro course. There are a number of schools. I attended the Foxmaple.com school and it was great. I learned alot. It was worth the cost for sure. It gave me the confidence to know I could design and build my own timberframe. A class also allows you to ask questions as they come up as you are building a frame in the workshop. You can also get on the spot demos for technique etc. The instructor told us that that we got in that one class what took him 25 years to learn (as there were no classes and few timberframers when he started in the early 70's). Books help more after the class as reference material and you'll then have a better understanding and perspective for what's in the books.
