This is a an excerpt from Megan Fitzpatrick’s new book “Dutch Tool Chests.” I have been looking forward to its release for some time now and have finally had a chance to read through it. It is incredibly beautiful, which may not always be an applicable word for an instructional book, and clearly written. I appreciate this as one who is not a regular woodworker.
I will include bits of the instructional parts in later excerpts but for now I want to show off some fun pictures of Dutch tool chests that were submitted by LAP friends and readers. The options of how to make your tool chest more versatile seem endless after looking at these…not to mention some of the paint jobs! I only picked three at random but there are quite a few in the book to drool over.
I consider what I’ve presented in the preceding chapters to be the “base model” of the Dutch tool chest form – the Toyota Corolla, if you will. It will last you forever as-is, but might not be as comfortable in the long run as you’d desire.
This Dutch chest form is highly adaptable to different storage needs, sizes and aesthetics. And it sometimes serves, as you’ll see herein, as inspiration for variations that are at times but loosely inspired by the basic form.
I could not possibly cover all the possible storage options, bases, sizes, colors, wood choices and other creative decisions made by others who’ve built or adapted this form. So, I invited people to submit pictures of their chests, with detail pictures of their upgrades and clever ideas.
I present to you in the following pages as many of those as is practical – but without repeating too much of the same (I hope). But it turns out that many great minds think alike. So if you sent me pictures and I didn’t use them here, please know that I appreciate your submissions. It’s likely your chest isn’t blue, so I chose not to include it (just kidding). More likely is that the images simply weren’t large enough to use in print, or that there weren’t enough of them. But know that I nonetheless enjoyed seeing your work; I’m sorry if I couldn’t share it.
I hope the chests that follow (in no particular order) inspire you to build a Dutch tool chest and make it your own.
Jonathan Schneider
The chest is built from local (to Berlin) pine; the unpainted pieces are beech. There are pegged breadboard ends on the lid and fall front, and the dovetailed tray pulls out for easy access.
Michael McCormick
McCormick’s walnut chest was made from “rough lumber, pretty much 90-percent unplugged,” he wrote. “It was exhausting.” Why the fancy wood? Because he had no climate-controlled shop space, McCormick’s chest lived in his family’s home office, where it needed to blend in as a piece of furniture.
The hardware is by John Switzer at Black Bear Forge.
the breadboard ends have kept it flat. Note the hanger for the tool brush, and the slotted hanging rack, which allows McCormick to slide wide chisels into a small hole.
shoulder plane, tongue-and-groove plane and router plane.
Olivia Bradley
The Dutch tool chest is the perfect size for Bradley’s small shop; she’s customized the interior to hold a lot in the chest’s relatively small footprint – but the interior is still flexible enough that she can stock it as needed for various classes. The elastic bands on the lid and fall front, which can be used for a number of tools, are inspired by toolmaker Liam Rickerby, who ships his winding sticks corralled by bands.
“When I got back from a stick chair class” at Lost Art Press writes Bradley, “I finally finished the cart to go under the Dutch tool chest. I needed a place to put [more] stickers.”
houses wider tools and bits. Also shown here
is Bradley’s three-sided pencil box; the bottom
is screwed to the shelf below.
What year did Chris and Roy show the form on the woodwrights shop?
It looks like it aired 9/11/2013 (Season 33, Episode 12). It’s online on PBS: https://www.pbs.org/video/woodwrights-shop-dutch-tool-chest-christopher-schwarz/
Season 33 Episode 12 (2013)
Would I need to buy the book to find out if my chest was included?
I’m afraid I wasn’t able to get the color to look right on yours, so I wasn’t able to use it. But I do remember it – I loved your clever idea of using a clip (like a mop clip, but smaller) to hold your marking knife on the underside of the lid!
It’s a beautiful, well-made, and very well written book on a great subject, so I expect it is destined to become a classic reference on the subject. The level of useful detail is astonishing. I received my copy two days ago, and so far I have failed to identify a single typographical error that might serve to make this first-edition printing rare (like the inverted airplane postage stamp). My biggest surprise was your unique signature on the title-page. I hope you have great success with this book Meghan, and that it makes you wealthy beyond your wildest dreams.
Aw – thank you! (But there are typos…)
I’ve only seen two. They will be easily correctable in what I expect to be future printings of this beautiful book.
looks fantastic! how about a future series of blog posts showing some of the interesting chest ideas that didn’t make the book?
I love the idea of adding one or two drawers in the bottom compartment, I need to make something similar.
Mine is oversized by a third (about 40cm deep) and I have a lot of space in the bottom that just gets filled with a jumble of tools. Some simple drawers would come in handy.
I bought the book as a pdf down loaded to my lap top.It is a beautiful book of many and abundant photo illustrations of the various aspects of making the box,My only concern is that in attractive bundle it may invite theft of all ones woodworking equipment.I particularly love the casters and the way the pull saw is displayed.The book has no reference to power equipment such asRouters and drills .I hope to use 1/2″ thick marine plywood and my recently purchased Dovetail jig.Permutations and combinations are protean with only limits placed by ones imagination.This will be a very welcome Christmas gift to a relative or friend who is a woodworker.Well worth evey penny