This morning we began shooting photos for the new book “Virtuoso: The Toolbox of Henry O. Studley,” and I shot this short video with a narrative by Don Williams, the author of the book.
There’s not anything more for me to add, except that these photos were taken by me with my Canon G12. The photographer, Narayan Nayar, is using his Leica M9 for the book’s photos.
— Christopher Schwarz
Narayan Nayar’s eyes hop briefly off the road ahead and aim right at me.
“Do you think you are an obsessive person?” he asks.
“Um, not really,” I answer. “Do you think I obsess about things?”
“Absolutely,” he replies, returning his eyes to the road.
At first I thought it was an oddball question that came out of the blue during a long car ride. But in hindsight (or perhaps thanks to three beers at dinner), it now makes sense. Because today Don Williams, Narayan and I are on the trail of one of the most obsessed-over woodworking gems of the 19th and 20th centuries: the tool chest of H.O. Studley.
On Tuesday morning we will begin measuring and photographing the famous chest for a book that Don is working on that is tentatively titled: “Virtuoso: The Toolbox of Henry O. Studley.” After years of work, Don has managed to get access to this much-heralded tool chest.
So after Woodworking in America wrapped up on Sunday afternoon, the three of us took off on a car ride to an undisclosed location to visit the chest and and the workbench of this piano and organ maker who worked for the Poole Piano Co. of Boston and died in 1925.
Even in his lifetime, Studley was well known for his tool chest.
“Mr. Studley had for a great many years been in the employ of the Poole Piano Co., and was accounted a rather unusual mechanic,” according to his obituary in The Music Trade Review. “He was the possessor of a set of tools that was the envy of his co-workers, all of them made by himself by hand and some of them beautifully inlaid with pearl and ivory, and which were always proudly exhibited by Mr. Studley to those who showed an interest.”
The chest is quite obviously the result of one man’s amazing obsession with his tools and the chest that holds them. Every tool is perfectly fitted into a compartment – even the small items in the tiny drawers.
And obsessions with the chest have survived for almost 100 years after Studley’s death. Woodworkers have pored over the poster of the chest published by Fine Woodworking. The episode of “The New Yankee Workshop” that features the chest has been analyzed frame by frame. People have built near-replicas or miniatures of the chest. One company – Shepherd Tool – even tried to produce a commercial kit of the chest. Planemaker Wayne Anderson says a photo of the Studley chest is what first inspired him to become a toolmaker.
And now we are set to photograph and measure every square inch of the thing – a rather obsessive chore – for a book that probably will be 18 months to two years in the making.
In fact I shouldn’t even be telling you this – it’s far too early to discuss a project like this. And I can’t tell you much else – such as where we are or who owns the chest. All that I can tell you is that we are staying in a roadside motel (all the chain hotels are full) and we ate a huge meal of … no, that might give something away.
Stay tuned here. We’ll be giving you more details as we obsess over them.
— Christopher Schwarz
“Unless you think you can do better than Tolstoy, we don’t need you.”
— James Michener
Setting up a workshop is one of the most daunting tasks we all face. I’ve had readers send me blueprints (yes, real blueprints) to seek my advice and approval. I’ve had people ask to hire me as a consultant. One guy wanted to fly me out to see his potential shop space and discuss his options.
This is not to boast. It is to point out how desperate new woodworkers are for real guidance.
I’ve had the great fortune to see a lot of bad shops – plus a few good ones. Even so, I don’t consider myself an expert on any shop except my own. During my last 20 years of woodworking I have developed a list of principles on workshops that are important to me. You might find them helpful or completely useless. I discuss my own journey in setting up my shop in some detail in “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.”
In any case, here they are:
1. Your shop can be too large. Large shops turn woodworking into a “walking long distances from tool to tool” hobby.
2. Use work triangles: (jointer + planer + saw) (tool storage + workbench + assembly). It’s how efficient kitchens are set up. It works in woodworking, too.
3. The more complex the system, the more maintenance it requires. The fancier the dust collection system you have, the more time you will spend unclogging it.
4. The more tools/machines you have, the more time you will spend fiddling with tools instead of building.
5. Have dedicated stations for the core processes. Sharpening, for example. Surfacing wood. Ripping wood.
6. The right light is better than lots and lots of light. Having your bench under a north facing window is the best light. Texture is best seen in raking light.
7. Concrete floors + your feet + your sharp tools = sore back and chipped edges. Wooden floors — even CDX plywood floors — are heaven.
8. Try to keep the humidity and temperature level the same as the place where your projects will end up. This will result in fewer warped doors and lids in your finished pieces.
9. Wood collecting is a separate hobby. Your shop should have just enough wood storage for the two or three projects in the pipeline. If you collect wood (and that’s OK), get a shed. Or a barn.
10. Tool collecting is a separate hobby. If you haven’t used a tool in two years, you probably don’t need it.
11. Jig-making is a separate hobby. If your jigs have more than 10 parts (or an integral micrometer) then you probably are a hobbyist jig-builder (and there’s nothing wrong with that). If you cannot remember what a particular jig is used for then you probably don’t need it.
12. My favorite shops have nothing stacked on the floor. Don’t know why.
13. Light-colored walls allow you to use fewer light sources.
14. In the 18th century, shops were many times a room in the house where the family lived. If you think of your shop as a place where you live, you will construct and arrange it differently than if you think about it like a utility area — where your water heater and furnace are.
— Christopher Schwarz
Be sure to stop by the Lost Art Press booth at Woodworking in America next week. We won’t have a workbench in our booth (I loaned all mine to the event’s organizers). Nor will we have any booth babes (maybe next year).
But we will have a few surprises.
At the top of that list is that we will have Don Williams, the mastermind behind the massive André Roubo translation project and the author of the forthcoming book on H.O. Studley, the piano maker with the legendary tool chest and almost-as-cool workbench.
Don will be hanging out in our booth answering questions about Roubo and Studley and what he’s learned about both men through his research. And if you are nice to him, he might even show you some photos and etchings….
Don will be around the Northern Kentucky Convention Center for most of the event, but if you want to make sure to talk to him, drop by our booth at 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday and 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
— Christopher Schwarz