Few hand tools come with instruction manuals that give you enough information to use the tool. Same goes with workbenches. We are supposed to either know how to use the tool or get that information from somewhere else.
In “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” I should have included more information on how to actually use a traditional tool chest. Perhaps I was blinded a bit because I have been working out of a tool chest since 1997.
So I need to provide some critical information on this topic here on the blog until I can revise the book itself.
Several critics have mentioned that tool chests are terrible to work with. Here’s an excerpt from one comment on Lumberjocks. This comment was posted below a review of the book that you will enjoy reading if you dislike the book or my writing. Check it out here.
“They (tool chests) are miserable to work out of. Forever sliding tills back and forth to get to something that you cannot see down in the dark depths. Something shifts and sticks up and the tills don’t slide at all. Always sitting in the wrong place so you have to walk and work around them. If you replace a tool, you have to find one that fits.”
This comment nicely sums up a lot of woodworkers’ thoughts on tool chests. However, I strongly disagree with their assessment on every point. I started woodworking with a tool chest, then I tried building a wall cabinet, wall racks and a shelf solution instead. After trying all those, I kept coming back to my two tool chests – one at work and one at home.
Let’s take these objections one by one.
‘Forever sliding tills.’
If you are sliding around a lot of tills, then you are doing it wrong. Array the two or three tills so you can see every tool in the tills. Then you don’t have to move anything to get to the tills. And if you array them properly, you are only one hand motion away from any tool in the chest. I am going to post a video of how this works this week. I show it on the DVD, but apparently it’s not explicit enough.
‘Something shifts and sticks up and the tills don’t slide at all.’
This happens only in small tool chests. I’ve never had this happen in a 24”-high chest. If you are piling tools upon tools upon tools, you might have too many tools.
‘Always sitting in the wrong place so you have to walk and work around them.’
My chests and many others are on casters. So they are easily movable and can serve you as an assembly table, a sawbench, a place to sit at your bench.
‘If you replace a tool, you have to find one that fits.’
Traditional chests hold all the tools, even if you change them. The only time you are going to have problems upgrading your set is if you “French fit” all your tools. French fitting is where you create a tool-shaped compartment for each tool. This was rarely done in traditional chests. It’s more of a NASA thing than a woodworking thing. I use almost no dividers in my trays or on the chest floor. This gives me flexibility. And more space – dividers eat up space.
Tool chests aren’t good for people with bad backs.
This is something I did cover in the book. Use your off-hand to support yourself. Use your dominant hand to get the tool. Try it. My back ain’t great. Concrete floors are harder on your back than a tool chest.
Why a tool chest instead of shelves, wall cabinets or wall racks?
You can use both. And they aren’t mutually exclusive. When I start the day I’ll take my bench planes out of the chest and put them on the shelf below the benchtop. My common tools go in the rack behind my bench or in front of the window.
The reason I prefer a tool chest is that it does a better job of protecting tools from dust, which carries salts that absorb water. Dust has always been the enemy of hand tools, and old-school woodworkers went to some lengths to seal their chests from it.
Comparing a wall cabinet to a tool chest is more difficult. A well-designed wall cabinet could perform all the functions of a chest if properly designed. I just haven’t seen or built one that I like as much as my tool chests. That’s my failing as a designer.
So if you are still wondering why I like tool chests compared to other tool storage solutions, stay tuned to the blog.
— Christopher Schwarz
What’s the deal with the little door you have next to the saw till? I had a captured divider around there on my first chest to make for better dust prevention and decided it was stupidity. It looks like it impedes the bottom till rather a lot for relatively little gain.
Chris,
I second Graham’s question-is that an added shelf, a place to store those planes you know you are going to convince yourself that you need the second you see them at a tool meet? I had thought about adding a shelf as well, so please more info…
The small door shown in the top photo was a detail from a few old chests. I built it and added it. After working with it for a couple days, I hated it and removed it.
It impeded the travel of the trays and was an extra step to reach the bottom of the chest.
I do not know if you saw this Lumberjocks post or not….
$143 was spent to get the book to Denmark. It would be wonderful if you would make your books available electronically.
European customers can purchase the book from Dictum in Germany.
Everything we publish electronically is stolen and republished on bit torrent sites within days of its release.
What in the hell is going on with the writing in the review you linked, Chris? It’s barely discernible. Was it translated from another language, or just inept?
Ah. Never mind. I see that he is Danish. This explains the strange phrasing and misspellings.
Chris, I think that the reason I’m enjoying the books you’re involved with so much (First, “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker”, then “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest”) is precisely what can turn off some people. It’s not the perceived rudeness, though that’s what they’ll most often critique you on; nor the anecdotes, though they’ll think they’re too personal. The thing that they find distasteful and are loathe to admit is a “Hey! You got chocolate in my peanut butter!…YOU got peanut butter in my Chocolate!”, problem. You’re mixing memoir with how-to in a prototypically post-modern way. It’s jarring…and not because of the reasons they think.
I urge you (and I know you will) to keep writing these books and to give them more and more “Scharzness”. I don’t always agree with your opinions…I love my European style workbench, for instance. But that has never been the point, has it? What good would disciples be? Leaders who think for themselves seems to be what you’re after.
Dear Schwarz,
If the mountain will not come to you, you must go to the mountain, and so I did – smile.
I like the way you take my review you wonderful fox (meant positive), and honestly I think you are too clever not to know; that it is the book I don’t like, not you as a person, not all your writing, I respect you for a lot you have done and the fact you try by the job you have at the magazine to spread a good message about using the hands, but most of all using the hands with tools. You are welcome here in Denmark for a coffee every day; I might even have a few old European tools you would find it interesting to hold or take a few shaves with.
(Just for those who do not know I gave the book two stars out of five, and this was not all popular – I also gave Schwarz work bench book five out of five stars and no one seems to take that as a personal critic).
Regarding using a tool chest, you can read my comments on the review, it is not uncommon among carpenters in Denmark also when on site, but at the workshop our tradition is cabinets.
Best thoughts,
MaFe
MaFe – perhaps it’s just the language disconnect, but even with revisions, your review comes across as personal and insulting to the man, not just his writing.
How can you say that you just don’t like the book, and at the same time in your review write “a book about a man thinking loud full of sarcasm on how to get through his midlife crisis” and “This man feel he is in his right to be rude to whoever he wants”. This is the very definition of ad hominem.
I *have* met Chris Schwarz, and although I do not agree with all of his conclusions, I’ve not found him to be excessively egotistical or rude. I find your review to be both.
There was a woodworker whose blog referenced copying methods of work from his wife who was an operating room nurse. I thought this was brilliant. You also showed a shop put together by a surgeon, right? No surprise it was super organized.
The bench is the operating room table and the work piece is the patient. We don’t store scalpels and sutures on the table (or the patients chest) do we? Instead they are on a tray or cart right next to the table. We don’t have all the tools in the OR on the tray, only the ones we need for the procedure. Therefore the tool chest (or wall cabinet) is “Central Supply”, the shelf with your block plane or other tools is the “instrument tray” and the bench is the table. The “Case Card” is the list of tools we need for the particular procedure – those we place on our tray to have at hand.
Now if we only had the equivalent of a OR Tech who would hand us every tool we needed and crisply slap (the blunt end) into our hands. “Bench chisel, 1/4” slap… “Mallet” slap… “Block plane” slap… One can dream.
Another Dean. I’ll have to come up with a different moniker.
No no, you were here first! Us Dean’s have to stick together! I’m now… Dane.
Dear Mafe,
thank you very much for your contribution. It is not easy to find someone who has the courage to criticize Christopher Schwarz.
My (end of the) story is similar to yours.
I have been banned from two north american forums and from his other blog just because I’ve criticized some things he had written and his philosophy that the good tools are the only expansive ones manufactured by his friends.
They said that I have an agenda against him and that I insulted him, but I’ve never met him and because I live on the other side of the ocean, I’ll probably never meet him and no one will ever find an insult in my writings.
I have not understood the reason for this attitude, but I think it’s because they do not understand that one thing may please to some, but not to someone else.
My best regards,
Auguste
You write, you publish, you get reviewed. That’s life.
sorry, forgot to add: some older chests have sliding dust/shaving lids under the last tray. When the trays are all pushed to one side, the sliding lid keeps dirt and much out of the bottom of the chest.
A book as critical of the woodworking and furniture industries as yours is will make many people with vested interests in such (including their perceived notions of themselves as “lumber jocks”) is guaranteed to stir up all kinds of mental schrapnel and send it flying like kickback from a tablesaw.
The critic’s odd language put aside and understood as lacking nuance of english brings about a theory: as a professional author (and I daresay a clever one), its possible that much of your tone was interpreted too literally. I would wager a fair number of Murrican-born readers will also hear a slight whoosh as many of your words skim the surface of their coiffures.
The critic seems to take most delight in pointing out your contradictions. You claim to be unbiased, yet you make videos for a big tool company. You urge minimalism, but you do this with the luxury of having to get rid of more tools from your collection than most of us could ever hope to start with. These are valid points, but paper thin. Reading a bit more of your work and context explains easily how these can exist with very little threat to the fiber-matrix of the rational universe. I see it similar to the wisdom of an elder being lost on children, although there is nothing to do but try. You have had the delights of an enormous high-end tool collection, and you are telling us “Its not all that… really. You don’t have to do this”. I’ve experienced this kind of disappointment in hedonism/acquisition enough in my life to understand completely.
As someone who has actually had a mid-life crisis, maybe two, I completely failed to see the part in the book where you had one. I did see you suffering a few epiphanies, but that is a horse of a different genus. I did not see you buy a camper van to do a year of soul-searching in the deserts and mountains, nor did you buy a Corvette. Its unclear how much you bought from Festool, but I doubt a Corvette’s worth.
In any case, I feel that when you author something so threatening to the hallowed worldview of so many, you will receive this kind of criticism.
As mentioned above, I implore you to continue writing the way you write, saying the things you want to say, and without the sanitization which some are asking of you. I could care less about your sarcastic tone and vaguely scatological sense of humor; it doesn’t really add to nor detract from your work; its just the surface such as the accent of someone you’re having a conversation with. Your ethics and philosophies, however, are as interesting as I can find in most any book on any subject, and it is deeply refreshing to find woodworking texts written with this kind of slant. Several people have pointed out that anarchy has no place in woodworking; they either read a different book than I did, or they didn’t read that part at all. I love how you mix it into the discussion. This is one of those books that had me exclaiming out loud as I read it (in a good way).
Sorry for the lengthy rant- but I do want you to know that your work is ringing clear and beautiful for me. My only complaint is lack of an index!
“Its unclear how much you bought from Festool, but I doubt a Corvette’s worth.”
I don’t.
I have one “extractor” — the shop vacuum. That’s it.
I use it mostly for cleaning out cars, sucking dust off camera sensors and cleaning cat hair fuzz balls.
I’ve used a lot of Festool stuff at the magazine, and it is very nice. But the extractor is all I’ve bought.
Chris,
I love your blog(s), I own all of your books and I think PW will suffer for not having you at the helm. Having said all of that I must disagree with you with regard to your tool box opinions. Virtually any one of the standing tool boxes described in chapter 6 of Jim Tolpin’s “The Toolbox Book” will more than satisfy the typical woodworker of today. After all how many of us are itinerant craftsmen with a need to move our tools from place to place?
The stand up tool box eliminates the need for bending over, shuffling tills and unloading tools daily. They eliminate the sawdust/rust problem because we close them up at night. All of your tools are easily at hand and I suggest that they take up no more floor space than the traditional toolbox (not really a consideration when you have 4000 ft2 of shop). In terms of craftsmanship we only need to look at Andy Rea’s cabinet.
Folks, clearly _The Anarchist’s Tool Chest_ creates some strong reactions in those who have read (and who have not read) it. Some of those reactions, if not documented in comments on this site, are well-documented on others, and I think Chris does a good job of making sure the full range of responses get some representation here.
This post was meant to engage with a specific set of points regarding the use and ergonomics of tool chests. The link to the Lumberjock’s review was secondary and only to establish some context. Let’s keep the conversation (and debate) on this post to its main topic–using tool chests–as some have done already.
Debate and dissent are highly encouraged but both this post on LAP as well as the review on LJ would be best served as two different discussions.
Man, if you guys are talking about a midlife crisis involving woodworking tools, you are going about it all wrong. I’m still thinking about mine, and there are no sharp tools, or corvettes for that matter, remotely in sight.
Wow.
Let me start by saying that I am from New Jersey, so sarcasm is second nature around here. As far as MaFe’s review, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
I enjoy reading classical books, my favorite author (right now) is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Gotta love Sherlock Holmes. And while I love the way people could accomplish wonderful things hundreds of years ago, not everyone does. I went the way of expensive power tools, and I loved them. However, I was not a woodworker, and was a machinest.
The ideas that are passed to me through Chris’s, and certain other people’s writing is that things dont have to be measured with a micrometer. Woodworking is supposed to be organic. Wood is alive, it moves, grows and shrinks, we need to feed it or it will wither away and die. And like the wood we have to be flexible. Part of being flexible is realizing that you dont need every stanley plane from the #2 to the #55 to make beautiful things. I know many people that think they need the latest new gizmo to build a simple box. I even had a challenge at work about finishing wood because I dont use sandpaper. Needless to say, I won the bet. Actually my LV low angle smoother did. Like I used to be, a lot of people think they need to make dust in order to be productive or ‘real.’ However, modern isn’t always better. After all, what is built in modern times that you would want to own in 20-30 or 40 years? Except maybe my tools?LOL
How many of us know people who want to BUY plans to make a simple piece of furniture, or even a simple box? How many books on ‘box building’ are out there? Box building? Really? My 6 year old son knows that a box (or cube) has six sides. Why doesnt everyone else? Lets buy the latest jig to for our table saw or router to make finger joints instead of realizing that a box has four sides, a top and bottom. People want to learn how to make things without instructions, or they should want to learn. If you master a technique you can apply it in all aspects of your work. If you only follow instructions you are no better than an assembly plant workers.
To me thats what the anarchist philopshy is all about. According to my friends and family, I have been a anarchist since birth. I have always refused to dring the kool-aid. And while I have owned all sorts of electric woodworking machinery, and I will probably own some of them again in the future, I know that I do not have to depend on them to produce something worthwhile. But when building kitchen cabinets I want an 8″ jointer. And a router table. And a…
Unfortunatly I have lost all of my power tools. In fact, I lost all of my hand tools also. I house fire took all that I own last year. The few tools that I have been able to replace mean a lot to me. I see Chris’s philosophy is to learn what each tool capabilities are. Its the “Teach a man to fish” school of thinking. If you think about it, how many people own hand saws? Almost every garage has one. However, how many people have learned to wield the power of a hand saw?
As far as Chris recomending his “friends” tools. I take everyones recomendations with a grain of salt and I do my own research. As it happens, Chris’s recomendations are never absolute on tool makers, the only thing that is absolute is the quality that you should look for. After all, doesn’t he recomend a vintage Stanley #5? Why not a Lie Nielsen #5? because there are millions of good Stanley’s out there. However, have you ever tried to look for a nice dovetail saw on the used tool market? How about a socket chisel that hasnt been wompted with a hammer until it resembles a mushroom? I have rehabbed chisels and planes. For the time spent on an old chisel, it is much easier and efficient to buy a new one. But I still rehab the old ones if I can.
Maybe it is because you are not able to get your hands on high end tool makers like Lie Nielsen planes or Wenzloff saws. Maybe it is your geographical undesirableness that is leaving a bad taste in your mouth about his suggestions on tools. Who knows. Who cares.
Just like Norm’s Yankee workshop bringing countless poeple into woodworking even though none of them have a couple hundred thousand dollars to have the shop that he has available to him, Chris has the ability to bring countless people into hand crafting furniture out of a 16 SqFt box that everyone has the capability of building, and almost everyone has the room for. After all, who wouldn’t want Norm’s shop? Who wouldn’t want Chris’s chest? (insert comment here) Out of those two choices which one are most people trying to achieve?
I think I am on a rant here so I will end it with one more thought.
“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.
The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is
wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts
they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions,
it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. …
And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is its natural manure.”
Thomas Jefferson.
Replace the political nature of this with consumerism. Let people realize that “the people” should realize that consumerism has made them lethargic. Lets not refresh the tree of liberty with blood of patriots and tyrants. Lets water the tree with learning and sweat. Lets learn that we shouldnt have to buy new furniture every 5 years and toasters aren’t supposed to catch on fire as soon as the warranty expires. Lets learn that some of the old ways of thinking and doing things isn’t archaic and backwards. Buy a tool and use it. It should last several lifetimes, not several months. etc. etc.
Has anyone ever read “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.”???
I’m a big picture type of guy….here’s what I took away from the tool chest argument in the book.
You can make great-looking, durable, custom furniture, for yourself and others, using about 50 tools that can fit inside a reasonably-sized chest. You need not buy every tool, gizmo, jig, etc. out there; however, you should buy high quality tools (not necessarily expensive tools). Take care of your tools by keeping them oiled and stored away from dust and you will not have to buy them more than once. A tool chest seems like a good way to do that; Chris’s design looks pretty good…but there are probably other methods and designs out there that will accomplish the same goal.
I don’t usually respond to stuff like this—I just don’t have the time—and I understand that the point of the post was not to respond to the negative review, but rather to address objections made to the concept itself.
Still, this kind of pisses me off.
Full disclosure: I have met Chris, and spent some time with him. Yes, he is opinionated—strongly so. But when people accuse him of being dogmatic, or “in bed” with toolmakers, etc., I have to think they have not read (or understood) the book fully. By my reading, he goes to great pains to stress that these are his opinions, and you are encouraged to take or leave them. For Pete’s sake (I have toned down my natural response for our more sensitive readers), that is the primary message of the entire book! Reject dogma, reject trends, and do your own thing!
Even if one does not like his writing style, which, surely, can be off-putting to some, no one can deny that he has put a lot of thought and experience into every recommendation he makes, every technique he espouses, and every criticism he renders. Don’t agree? That’s fine. But please realize that an inability to see through the personal flourishes and idiosyncrasies to the substance beneath only reflects poorly on you. (That is as close as I will get to an ad hominem response. I apologize, but I can’t help it)
In short, if you don’t like toolchests, why are you paying for the book, and then complaining about it? And if you do like them, but don’t like his, well, that’s great—make your own, or enjoy the one you have.
Sheesh. I guess some people just like to complain.
Addendum: Adam seems to have read and understood the book. Thank you for that, Adam.
Hi Chris,
Yes, that was me. I have been following and I understand your reasoning for the toolchest vs. other storage solutions. I look forward to seeing more and am open to being convinced. I realize that toolchests have a long tradition and they do have some advantages. In certain respects though, if you are working with a limited range of tools that are tailored to that storage, it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy.
At present. I am working out of piles of tools so I as far as casting the first stone, I would be the last. I am in the process of rebuilding my working set of tools that follows along with the minimalist (or at least constrained) ideas that you are going for.When I look at the toolchest, I don’t see a place to put my inshave, bowsaw, frame saws, or slick. Oddball unwieldy tools aside, what do you do in your chest to deal with things like keeping rasps from self destructing against each other and the rest of the tools? How do you keep chisels from crossing swords? How do you keep squares and marking gauges from hooking on everything else?
I don’t expect everything to be fitted like the Studley toolchest but I see a real advantage to keeping some things separate from others, something somewhere on the continuum between the Studley and BucketBoss.
As someone who has just finished building this chest, I can say that I really look forward to using it. I still have a few finishing touches with it. I guess that I am going against the main stream by converting from a wall mounted cabinet to a chest on the floor. I have arthritis in my hands and tendonitis in my wrists. Grabbing a plane from the wall mounted chest and moving it laterally puts more strain on my wrists than lifting it out of the bottom of the tool chest. I also found myself constantly opening and closing the wall cabinet due to its proximity to my bench. I will be able to position the chest at a convenient location, lift the chest lid, grab tools and go to work. The top till actually puts the tools at a very comfortable reaching height, no bends required. I also have arthritis in my back and the thoughts of reaching down into the well for a plane does not bother me especially since the chest provides a brace for the body.
I do feel that the book is a bit lacking in some basic storage strategy such as where do I put everything so that sharp edges aren’t bumping against each other. I will confess that I have not read the book from cover to cover so I may have missed something there. I do plan on adding some dividers to separate tools.
I think that you really don’t need to get too worked up about where everything goes in a chest. Put the stuff in the trays. Rearrange the stuff as you work until you develop a pattern you like.
Tools can touch one another.
Well, Chris, you had to of known this was coming.
First I want to state this post is only as a comment, not to offend anyone. If you are offended get over yourself.
When you write a book that flys in the face of how the tool/woodoworking world thinks, you are going to gets some haters. Most people who get into woodworking in the US do it for a hobby. They convince themselves they are going to build furniture and some do. Many don’t. Many just buy every little thing sold and build a large tool collection to look at and maintain. Kind of like a trophy wall. Most take more pride in the tools they have than in the products they make. These collectors think that the next great tool they buy will make them a great craftsman. But, every tool they buy just builds to there false ego. Plus, all the tools they have bought will not fit in a tool chest, not even close. This is why so many people have a bad reaction to this book and want to find as many things as possible wrong with it.
This book is great. For those who do the following. Build things, use mostly only hand tools, realize they do not need every tool made, and don’t want to buy crappy furniture from a store.
What this book does is great. It proves its point through the reactions of all those who dislike it. They dislike the book because they are being told all the money they have spent on all their tools has been wasted. No one wants to hear they are a poser.
I remember when I first started skateboarding back in the 80’s. I saved up and bought a great pro board. But , I still couldn’t really do any tricks yet. Yeah, I had the cloths, the hair, the board, and the talk, BUT I WAS STILL A BIG POSER. This book calls out alot of the posers. I think they just need to look at themselves and realize that.
skate poser
1. Someone who wears skate clothes (usually element, etines and DC’s) but doesn’t skate
2. Someone who skates for popularity (they normally aren’t any good)
3. Someone who skates for guys/girls
4. Someone who claims they skate but just goes to the skate park
5. What mean advanced skaters sometimes call beginners
Woodworker Poser
1. Someone who wears t-shirts made by every tool company(Lie-Nielsen, Lee Valley, Lost Art Press), but don’t own any.
2. Someone who buys tools and has a shop to look cool (they haven’t even cut a dovetail once)
3. Someone who buys tools to impress their friends/coworkers.
4. Someone who claims they build furniture but just spend time at the homecenter.
5. What I call people who can’t make a mortise and tenon by hand
But, with that said, somepeople just want a bunch of tools. And if you have the money, more power too ya.
Just realize , you don’t need them to build furniture.
Courage to criticize Schwarz??? He’s a woodworker not Stalin. What melodramatic silliness. CS I really hope you aren’t letting this incoherent ranting trouble you. It’s not like anyone on that board would read any book let alone yours.
Wow, it is quite amazing how bold we all are online. The one with courage would be Chris who puts his work and self out there (online, in books, in pictures, and in teaching) knowing that each knucklehead with a keyboard and an alias to hide behind are just aching to find a place to release their passive-aggressive energies. Maybe if the greatest adventure of our life was not being found in our latest purchase of an iPhone, we as men (and women) would not feel the need to attack one another (if even with our keyboards) because a book did not fulfill our wildest desires.
There, I got my rant out, too! I suppose that makes me a modern man, with my digital scalp in hand.