shopping cart contents and new properties to the products

Ok I have found the thread on add new properties to your products and also found the thread on thread new product fields.

I have add a new table and have added a new field within the products table. but have not successfully gotten either to work. there is alot of coding and I think I am confused between the two.

In another thread I am discussing how to add addititonal discriptions to the item line of the checout cart. one of those discriptions I will have to add 'products_skilltype' which is what I will have to create.

I have created and additional table named
'products_skill_type' and the field 'products_skilltype'within products.

Now to go in the direction I would like and add this property to my cart item line along with manf and model number and name.

Do I need to go with the additional table or the field within the products table? this will depend on what thread I need to concentrate on.
TIA I hope this is not too confusing. Oh i will be eventually adding up to about 700 items one at a time- not in a massive group. If that makes any difference.