If you want to buy tickets for my March 28-29, 2020, Dutch Tool Chest demonstration in Omaha, the Omaha Woodworkers Guild has set up a web page for you.
You can buy tickets using a credit card via this link. The page explains the where, when and how of the event, and the pricing. It also explains how the raffle will work at the end of the seminar, in which you can win the Dutch chest I’m building that weekend.
Should be fun.
— Christopher Schwarz
Update: Sold. (I’ll let y’all know when I clean out my own basement…).
I’m clearing some stuff out of the Lost Art Shop cellar to make more storage room for Chris and his family (it’s their house, after all), and came across this poor, abandoned almost-done sugar pine Dutch tool chest from a class I taught two years (possibly more) ago. The bottom is dovetailed; the backboards are three wide tongue-and-groove pine boards (and as you can see, it features Rivierre forged nails). The battens and fall-front catch are red oak; the tool rack and “lock” are walnut.
It has sustained a modicum of water damage – but nothing that can’t be cleaned up with a little planing – and it needs a lid (I gave the lid for this one away to a student).
Given the fixes it needs – and the need for it to be gone – I’d be happy to take $100 (as-is) in exchange, just to cover the materials – the catch is, you must be able to pick it up at Lost Art Press in Covington, Ky., by August 9.
If you’re interested, please send me an email; my signature below is linked.
I love all the little custom touches people add to their Dutch tool chests – drawers, tissue dispensers (no lie) and the various tool racks. On Saturday, I got to see a new variation on the lid.
During our most recent open day, we had a bit of an invasion force from Canada, with a supporting force from their U.S. friend. Jeremy (@jmawworks) bought along his Dutch tool chest and a chair he’d recently built with Caleb James. Ric (@fairwoodworking) brought along a bunch of of his lathe-less pencils and pens.
This isn’t the first time that people have turned our open day into a show-and-tell event. And we love it.
The lid on Jeremy’s Dutch chest is interesting because it is hinged from the front edge. You pull the lid toward you. And there’s a massive chisel rack on the inside of the lid. Clever.
In the second video, he shows off the drawer in the compartment below and uses the word “unit” one too many times for my tastes.
— Christopher Schwarz
I’ve been home all week scraping stair corners and running a floor edger, so I haven’t gotten a lot done on my Dutch tool chest book (I would much rather be working on the Dutch tool chest book…). But that doesn’t mean I’ve not made progress! I’m on track to turn it in to my editor (that would be Christopher Schwarz) by the end of March 2021, and will work on the book’s design while he’s reading. With luck – and no floor renovation disasters – it will be out this summer.
One single-bay chest (aka the small version) is done and currently serving as window decoration (it still needs a good paint job); I’m mulling over options for a couple different mobile bases for it. A double-bay chest (aka the large version) is partially done and sitting atop my Anarchist’s tool chest, awaiting my return to the shop. I’ll build at least one more chest – size to be determined – so I can show three different options for the back and lids. And possibly a fourth.
I’ve a folder full of research notes on vintage slant-lid tool chests (and other slant-lid storage), and I’m collecting images from readers for the gallery (If you have high-resolution images you’d like to share, please send me an email!). I think that will be an important inspirational section – I can only outfit so many interiors, after all. And I’m working with Orion Henderson at Horton Brasses to offer a forged hardware kit (I’ll be recommending some low-budget-friendly options as well).
So what am I’m going to do with all these chests and bases? After I finish up the “beauty shots” (for chapter openers and possibly for the cover), they’ll be for sale. If anyone wants to put in a preemptive order, send me an email. Prices start at $850, and vary depending on size and hardware. And you can choose your paint color…as long as it’s not too crazy. Or be crazy. I can always paint crazy atop not-crazy.
— Fitz
P.S. To bring it back to my lead: Has anyone reading this used PoloPlaz Primero 275 VOC Finish on their floors? If so, thoughts?
Waiting for a book to print on the laser writer at the shop is boring, so Chris and I were talking to pass the time as we awaited the pages of Nancy Hiller’s “Kitchen Think”; it’s off to Kara Gebhart Uhl tomorrow for copy edit. He was printing; I was three-hole punching. Such fun we have!
I don’t know how we got to chatting about Dutch tool chests…but as of about 5 p.m. today, I’m writing a book on Dutch tool chests for Lost Art Press. I could not be more excited!
How many of these I’ve built and helped others to build, I don’t know… but I do know it is many. I can build the one I teach in less than two days, from rough lumber to hardware installation. It will take me a bit longer this time though; there will be many pauses along the way for photography.
Why, you might ask, if there’s already a good article on how to build this form, do we need a book on it? I’ll be going far beyond the article, presenting multiple approaches to several of the joints, and a choice of at least three ways to build the lid. And hardware – my goodness…some of the hardware people have brought to classes that I had to figure out how to install! So I’ll share a bunch of options on that, too…and what not to try to use and why. (For the record, I prefer unequal strap hinges.)
I’ll also be presenting several approaches to the interior fitments. But I have only so many Dutch tool chest interior variations in me – and there’s now a fair number of these chest in shops throughout the country and around the world. So while it’s early days (heck – we just decided on this book a few hours ago!), I’ll eventually be asking for your help – if you’ve built one and come up with a clever interior arrangement, I hope you’ll take some pretty pictures and send them my way so we can include a gallery.
And there are other Dutch tool chests to discuss (and possibly build), so there will also be research into other forms.
There’s no timeline, but I’m going to dive in soon – I have plenty of wide pine in the shop basement, and (unexpectedly) plenty of time this summer. Heck – I even have parts already sized in my basement…along with some half-finished chests. Time to put those to good use!
