As I finished up building my tool chest for “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” I struggled with the idea of installing a lock on the lid.
Most tool chests have locks. The lock – and the sheer weight of the chest – are an ingenious pre-Industrial Revolution security system.
But I don’t like locks. Never have.
Growing up in Arkansas, we rarely locked our houses or cars. Our neighborhood was definitely a mixed-income ZIP code, with everyone from janitors to doctors. Factory workers at Whirlpool. The owner of the local roller rink – Golden Wheels.
So why didn’t we bolt our doors? Well what if your neighbor needed a cup of sugar? Or there was a fire and someone needed to save your dog? What if you didn’t have a key? Plus, in our family of six there was almost always someone home.
In fact, I’d have to say that the biggest difference of opinion between me and my wife is our locking habits. She always locks everything. She does it so automatically that she regularly locks me out of the house when I go for a run or walk to the store.
Or perhaps she is trying to send me a message….
In any case, I didn’t want to put a lock on my chest, both for psychological and symbolic reasons. I’ve always tried to be as open as possible when it comes to sharing my tools and what I know about the craft. Putting a lock on the chest seemed to send the wrong message.
I skipped the lock, painted the chest and called it done. But the next morning when I came into the shop and looked at the completed project it looked wrong. So I installed the lock and the escutcheon and am now pleased with the way it looks – except for the too-shiny key.
Skip forward a few months and I’m giving a presentation on tool chest design to a woodworking club and bring up the topic of the lock. One of the attendees raises his hand and makes a wry observation: The lockset I’d selected uses a generic key. In other words, thousands (maybe millions) of woodworkers have a key that can open my chest so they can root around in it.
That fact gave me comfort.
— Christopher Schwarz
Let them root around with that plow plane (I’ve received the DVD, thanks)? Wouldn’t want it to “turn up missin’,” as we say up heah (here). Maybe a hidden drawer is in there after all?
My family back in Georgia still doesn’t lock the doors to the house. My parents and brother not only leave their cars unlocked, but also leave the keys in the ignition. “That way, I won’t loose them,” my mother says. Ah…rural life.
Personally, I could care less about locking the house here…but my shop?..no way. That sucker is double bolted. Strange how priorities shift. However, like you, Chris, I loan my tools out pretty often, and I sort of lament having to lock it. There is just something about showing someone how a tool is supposed to perform. The gleam in the eye that says, “I’m hooked” is just too much to pass up by being stingy with tools. They do get damaged sometimes. But, rarely beyond repair. It’s just plain worth it. In addition, I usually don’t sell my tools when I’ve outgrown them. I bequeath them to a budding woodworker. Not so good for my pocketbook, but good for my soul!
I’m from Arkansas and have been to such small towns up north where nobody locks anything. I’m wondering what town you’re from because down south where I lived, we locked things up.
We lived in Fort Smith. Our farm was outside Hackett.
One reason to skip locks is to minimize damage.
In The Thief of Paris (1967 situated in 1900) the ‘hero’ says something like “I do a dirty job but I have an excuse: I do it dirtily.” while forcing his way through top level furniture. Small pleasures of the sixties.
My dad says that locks are for honest people. If someone really wants to break into something, a lock is not going to stop them.
I grew up in Detroit and we hardly ever locked the doors. We slept on the porch, shared with neighbors and trusted our fellow man (and woman). It wasn’t till we moved to the burbs (my Dad was transfered to a smaller town.turned.burb near Metro Airport. 24 square miles of hardly anything, did we start to lock our doors. The “Riots” in Detroit started us locking the doors at night.
I live in a small city in Michigan now and we have left things unlocked. My shop i.e. back part of a 2 1/2 car garage is often open (with me there, I might add). I haven’t put locks on my tool chest or my cabinets either.
By and large, locks on tool chests and cabinets were meant to keep the wandering hands of the apprentice out of the owner’s tools. And to keep other workers from borrowing a tool, neglecting to return it and for the owner to find it missing just when reaching for the tool. During shipping, the same problem arose. The owner didn’t want anyone to dip into the stash. Most locks I’ve seen are fairly light duty. But… leaving off the lock makes the chest look unbalanced and more like a simply blanket chest. Ok, so it’s just habit but it looks right. It would be like building a replica chest of drawers and leaving off the drawer locks. That would look weird.
Then again, the old tool chests in my basement all have non-functioning locks. But they look nice.
Gotta love locks–what better way to signify the presence of valuable things. 😉
Where I grew up, not only would things be unlocked, you might very well come home to find a group of neighbors or family sitting around your table chewing the rag.
We only recently started locking our doors after my chainsaw disappeared from our garage, but I always lock most of my hand tools in a cabinet because finding nails, screws, and hammers spread by my two, six, and seven year old boys is one thing; finding my chisels, etc. is a completely different story.
I also unplug all the power tools even though the boys could get around that if they really wanted to. My two year old is a whiz with the cordless drill and refers to it as “my drill” whenever he sees it.
Wow, I’m also from Arkansas, and I think my Dad still doesn’t lock his house or cars. We never did when I was growing up. I’m not sure anyone had an actual working house key anyway. Now, I lock up for security due to the difference in location, but my wife is also on a different level. She locks everything and it drives me insane. She’s constantly locking me _in_ the car. I hate it. If the locks are automatic, fine, but don’t lock the damned doors when I’m driving from the house to the local grocery store.
Also, I plan to install a lock on my chest to keep my still-very-young kids safe more than anything. If anyone gets to the chest when I’m not around, 1″ thick pine isn’t going to really keep them out of the chest if they want in it that badly.