One of the tool chest forms that has been on my list to explore is the Swedish chest, which I’ve encountered a few times both in the United States and Europe. It’s similar to the Dutch tool chest, with its slanting front lid. But the Swedish one is in many ways simpler.
The chest shown here came from the family of Johan Lyrfalk, who owns Rubank Vertygs AB, a woodworking supplier in Stockholm, Sweden. Last Saturday, he brought it out for us to inspect and measure during a visit to his store.
The chest is most likely pine and it is assembled with through-dovetails at the corners. The top and bottom are screwed to the carcase. The slanted lid is kept flat with two battens that are neatly joined to the lid with blind sliding dovetails. The steel hinges are let into the carcase and are screwed through the lid and into the battens, increasing the reach and strength of the screws.
The interior of the chest is fairly open. There are openings for three drawers (this chest had only two of them remaining). The drawers are assembled with half-blind dovetails (two dovetails per corner). One nice detail of this chest is the top edges of the drawer sides are beveled to the inside. That reduces the number of corners you will bump into when you reach for a tool.
The drawer frame and dividers appear nailed and screwed to the chest from the outside, keeping with the aesthetics of the chest.
The interior walls of the chest are lined with tool racks. And there’s a tool rack on the lid.
How the tool rack on the lid was used was a question among the woodworkers looking at the chest. The lid is propped open by its hasp, which allows the tool rack to be handy. But you’d have to remove the tools to shut the lid. Some speculated perhaps this chest was rarely closed and used mostly in a workshop environment.
Dimensions are: 32” wide, 18-1/2” high and 19-1/2” deep. The top is 11” wide, as is the drop lid. Most of the stock for the carcase is 7/8” thick.
This chest is definitely one on my to-build list. We are always looking for tool chest classes that teach a variety of good lessons for classes (or for publication). The Anarchist’s Tool Chest is my personal favorite to work out of; but as a class, it is mostly about through-dovetails and nails. Even in a one-week class working flat out, it is difficult to get to making the lid, much less the rest of the interior bits.
The Dutch tool chest, as a class, is a more balanced experience. You get some dovetails, dados, rabbets, maybe some tongue-and-groove.
The Swedish tool chest could be a primer on through-dovetails and half-blinds, for the drawers.
I’ll have to build one to find out.
After we spent an hour poring over Johan’s tool chest, he returned it to its resting place. The next day we went to see the Vasa exhibit. And there, right next to one of the workbenches from the Vasa, was an almost-identical chest (just a little longer). Perhaps the universe is sending me a message.
— Christopher Schwarz
Chris, did you scroll through these research notes with measurements and lost of archival photos of it? https://digitaltmuseum.se/011024635669/kista (link courtesy of https://thomasguild.blogspot.com/2011/07/17th-century-toolchest-of-vasa.html)
The thinness of the boards on the Vasa toolchest is remarkable. It’s on my build list.
Interesting design. I reckon you could add a bottom cabinet on casters to this a la Dutch toolchest. This would help to elevate the top for easy access, and to move around. This was a game-changer for my Dutch chest.
Once you see something, you always start seeing more.
Care to give us the overall dimensions of this one? I’d love to make one! But with base slats like the Anarchist Tool Chest.
Dims are in the article.
Well… I’m a derp…
I have such plans to make the ATC taller to add a drawer and a slant lid so I don’t leave things on the lid. I thought I was so original-combining the Roy Underhill Bristol tool chest and the ATC. Nope, the Swedes beat me to it.
Yes, the universe is sending you a signal. That’s true . I am often in Sweden. I have to go to the guys from Rubank to buy one of your books (unfortunately there is no shipping option to Poland). Sweden is full of such treasures.
We are shipping to Poland, you get all info in the checkout. We have a lot of Polish customers.
/Thomas (Rubank Verktygs AB)
The similarities of the Swedish and Dutch tool chests are probably more than coincidental. In the 17th century numerous dutch craftsmen were working in Sweden including the master shipbuilder of the Vasa.
More on the Swedish-Dutch tool connection. From the Skolkoster website: “The castle also has an impressive collection of Dutch woodworking tools, such as planes, saws, chisels and drills, among other things. Most had been bought by Wrangel in 1664 and delivered from Amsterdam.”
Thanks for sharing, Chris. I’m getting secretary desk vibes from the design, from the drawers and proportions. Those sliding dovetail battens locked in by the hinge screws are my favorite bits. Those would also be a great part of the build for a class. One chest, three different dovetails!
One question: How and where were saw stored in this style of chest?
Ok Schwarz, you need to stop coming up with great tool chest ideas- I’m running out of room in my garage! Definitely gonna have to build one of these….
“How the tool rack on the lid was used was a question among the woodworkers looking at the chest.”
My guess is that it’s purpose is temporary storage for tools in regular or, or perhaps intermittent use to:
1. Keep the workbench or work area relatively clutter free.
2. Save having to dig around in awkward to reach places to retrieve the tools which, because they’re in the rack, are pretty much to hand.
At the end of the day, or when the job’s finished, the tools in the (temporary) rack go back to their allocated, and perhaps not very accessible storage place and the lid can be closed.
I must admit I’ve never liked big box tool chests of that style, or the similarly massive rectangular type of chest that was common here in the UK. When filled they’re always too heavy for one person to shift, they take up too much space, and the tool you really want is always buried under a pile of other tools that somehow seem to always end up just being chunked into the space willy-nilly.
You beat me to it. I thought the same thing about about the rack in the lid and I love the bent hasp doing double duty.
What do you use now, if I may ask?
It’s hard to see but in the background of the attached URLs is my hand tool box sitting directly behind the cordless drill on the left. It’s a pine cabinet 26″ wide X 24″ tall X 10″ deep when closed and sits on 3″ diameter swivelling castors. With the two doors open (you can see a couple of saws hanging in one open door) the cabinet takes up a space ~52″ long. There are a couple of metal handles at the top. It’s just about light enough with its full load of tools that I can pick it up on my own and get into the back of a van or an estate car (station wagon). Hopefully the URLs provided below work if you highlight, copy and paste them into a browser.
http://www.richardjonesfurniture.com/Cabinet-Furniture/Torpedore/Torpedore-Make/Tambour/torpedore-40-650px.jpg
And a second image link below. These are the best I’ve got. I’m afraid I’ve never thought it important enough to photograph my tool cabinet in isolation.
http://www.richardjonesfurniture.com/Cabinet-Furniture/Torpedore/Torpedore-Make/Tambour/torpedore-43-650px.jpg
So it’s a vertical tool chest that you can transport …?
Yes. All the bits of kit I find essential on a daily basis are accommodated: five planes (block to no 7), bevel edged chisels from 1.5 – 25 mm hanging on a rack inside one of the doors, coping, tenon and dovetail saws, measuring and marking tools, spokeshaves, screwdrivers, drill bits, hammers, mallet, oilstone slips, hand drill, Yankee screwdriver, sanding blocks plus bits of abrasive paper, scrapers, files, burnisher, pliers, pincers, and so on. Basically the key tools to do my job. Naturally power tools, routers and so on, and other work aids have to be kept in larger cabinets, but that key tool cabinet can easily be rolled around the work area so that everything in it is always readily available.
Makes sense. More efficient I suppose .
Nice piece and well preserved. Thanks for sharing.
I would think that putting a cloth flap above the lid tool rack would easily flip out of the way for use when open, but could be tied down over the handles for transport. It doesn’t look like it was used that way, but I’d rather do that than move the tools in and out. Just a little tie down on a sailboat cleat.
Swedish? Wonder why I haven’t seen these at Ikea when i go to get meatballs. They could make a killing selling these filled with an allen wrench and philips screwdriver.
Curious form. I think that having the drawers over the storage space at the rear would be annoying as you’d have to keep the front relatively empty to access it. I built a Dutch tool chest 5 or 6 years ago and like the form. One of my favorite aspects (I also have a separate bottom chest.) is that it’s tall (I’m your size.) and it’s ridiculously easy to grab tools out of the top. It’s made my bench top a neater place.
My first (not fully caffeinated) thought is that it would be better to have the drawers in the base of the chest and a false front or something equivalent to secure them.
Just a couple initial thoughts and probably not worth writing. I’ll be expecting to build this chest as soon as you get home.
Agree though of it but would make it bigger overall , no?
I see another class and book in Fitz’s future 🙂
I well remember visiting the site of the Wasa, in the summer of 1981, at which time the Swedes were deep into the active rescue and conservation of the ship. Such a find!!! I’m recalling the work being done in a super-humid enclosure—something about the need for a very slowed-down passage from complete water saturation (it was submerged for centuries!) to a stable dry state. That was over 40 years ago. I’d love to see the state of the Wasa now, after (presumed) decades of work on it. One of my favorite sights in one of my favorite places in the world. It’s great you’re getting to take this trip, and thank you for the reporting. It’s fascinating!
I actually think the tool rack in the lid would be ideal for a not shop context. For example, if you were out working on a wagon, or something in the barn, or anywhere else. There’s almost never a good place to put a tool down, and it’s easy to lose or drop stuff in just this way. Having a quick place to stick a chisel or whatever else, while you were wrestling to get parts into place, would be ideal… I’ve been in situations where I have one hand holding something in place, and then went to reach for the tool, and had it drop, or roll away. This is a great solution. Kind of like a fore-runner to the bucket boss.
Of course, in field environments, I’ve had so many improvised ways of making something work… something simple like this just looks ideal.
The hasp trick is great. Reminds me of some of my early ‘I just need this to work’ type projects. So who cares if the hasp digs into the top board? I certainly don’t, this isn’t precious… Very much not a tool-worship solution.