The Anarchist's Tool Chest

The Anarchist’s Tool Chest in Massachusetts

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Lost Art Press

Some of you have noted that I am canceling classes this year. The reason is that I need to stay home to help take care of some important family members, and this trend could continue for a few years.

I have tried to hold on to a few classes this year, which has required some extraordinary measures and help from friends. One of the classes I am happy to report I can teach is a special Anarchist’s Tool Chest class at The Furniture Institute of Massachusetts June 22-28, 2015.

This tool chest class is particularly special for two reasons: It will be at Phil Lowe’s school. Phil is one of the people I admire most in the craft for his skills, teaching ability and wonderful demeanor. I have always wanted the opportunity to work with Phil.

The second reason the class is special is it will run for seven days instead of five. These extra days will allow us to get a crack at working on the inside bits of the chest.

So if you want to build the best tool-storage system I’ve encountered, this class is ideal. And I don’t have any more floor chest classes on my schedule.

You can read more about the school here. The class will be small – nine students max. And Phil said yesterday there are still three spots left.

In the coming weeks I’ll announce the few other classes I’ll be able to teach this year. So stay tuned. For those students who enrolled in classes I had to cancel, I apologize and look forward to resuming a regular teaching schedule in the years ahead.

— Christopher Schwarz

How Big (or Little) is Your Chest?

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Lost Art Press

A common bit of advice on building tool chests goes like this: “You should build the chest to fit your tools.”

I’d like to amend that melba-toast statement to this: “You should build the chest to fit our tools.”

Woodworking tools come in standard sizes, and the standard tool kit hasn’t changed much since Joseph Moxon laid it out in “Mechanick Exercises” in 1678. So if you are in the craft to build furniture, your tool kit probably looks a lot like mine. If you are in it for type studies and patented tools, ignore the rest of this blog entry.

When I started studying tool chests (several years before writing “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest”), I noticed that they were built in some fairly standard sizes. Most of the outliers were actually for other trades or specialists. In truth, there are more than three basic sizes of chests, but I’d like to discuss three sizes I have found most compelling.

The Floor Chest
This is the massive tool chest I built for “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” and have subsequently built more than 20 times for classes and customers. It is the Denali of tool chests. It’s bigger than it has to be, but it’s still not big enough.

It is roughly 24” x 24” x 40”. And if you can’t fit a tool in this chest, then you don’t need it. This chest will swallow full-size handsaws, over-sized jointer planes, 18th-century tenon saws, straightedges, a full set of hollows and rounds and all the other tools you need to build furniture.

The standard model usually has three sliding trays, though I have seen them with as many as eight.

During the five years since I built this chest I have modified small sections of it, but it is still basically the same design as when I drew it out in 2010.

What’s the downside to this chest? It is a floor hog, taking up as much square footage as a table saw. If you have a small shop, this chest might be too much for you. But after working out of a chest this size since 1997, I decline to downsize.

The Traveling Tool Chest
If you need to move your chest frequently, the full-size chest is a heavy burden. Moving that monster by yourself is difficult but doable – if you first remove the trays and heavy tools. If you need to be mobile for work or to attend classes, a scaled-down chest might be the answer.

I just finished building one of these chests for the August issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. I built the carcase and Jameel Abraham built the marquetry panel for the lid. This chest’s design is based on the length of a panel saw, one of the longer tools in a furniture-maker’s tool kit.

While full-size handsaws are more than 30” long from toe to tote, a panel saw takes up less space – 26” give or take. That’s not much longer than a standard jointer plane. This chest can be 20” x 20” x 30”. That might not seem much smaller than the full-size chest above, but I can tell you that the slightly smaller dimensions allow you to move the chest easily by yourself.

The downside? You can still pack a standard toolkit in the chest if you omit the moulding planes. (OK, that’s not entirely true; you can build a removable tray that holds moulders thereby squeezing every cubic inch of storage out of the chest. It’s just not convenient to work out of.)

These chests typically had two sliding trays for the small tools. And the tool well below held all the bench planes, saws and joinery planes.

The other advantage to this chest is it will fit in the back seat of most passenger cars. The full-size chest will not (unless you first remove the door).

The Tallboy
The other curious chest I’ve been toying with is a mix of the full-size chest and the traveling chest. While I’m sure this chest was made all over the Western world, I’ve encountered most examples of it in North America.

It is generally a nailed-together carcase that is designed to hold full-size handsaws, a full set of bench planes, joinery planes and lots and lots of smaller tools. Like the traveling chest, moulding planes are rarely provided dedicated storage space in this variant. But they still can hold a handful of moulders if need be.

So the defining characteristics of these chests are they are long, shallow and tall. The one I’m building now for a series of classes in 2015 is 15” x 17” x 34”. This chest will easily fit into the back seat of a car. It will accommodate the (less expensive) full-size handsaws and is super simple to build. It’s all rabbets and nails.

All three forms have their charms. But their dimensions depend more on how you live than on what sort of stuff you build.

Disobey Me
If you want to design your own chest from scratch and ignore the historical patterns, here’s how to do it:

Measure your longest saw. That (plus 2”) is the interior length of your carcase.
Group your bench and joinery planes together into a tight formation that is the same length as your longest saw. Measure the depth of that pile. That is the interior depth of your chest.
If you have moulding planes, add 5” to that depth.
Take the interior depth of your chest and make that the interior height. Most tool chests are square in profile view.

My guess is you will end up with one of the three sizes above.

— Christopher Schwarz

Buy My Tool Chest – and all the Tools in it

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Lost Art Press

Here’s your chance to buy a completely finished and fitted Anarchist’s Tool Chest that is chock full of premium hand tools (more than $8,300 worth) – and help a great woodworking school in the process.

Here’s the story: Last summer I taught my first class in England for the New English Workshop, which was held at the shops at Warwickshire College. As a way to give back to the next generation of woodworkers, Paul Mayon and Derek Jones of New English Workshop completed and finished the tool chest I built (very nicely, I might add). Then a bunch of generous toolmakers donated a load of premium hand tools to put in the chest.

On March 28, 2015, the chest and its contents will be auctioned off by David Stanley Auctions and all proceeds will be donated to Warwickshire College, which offers an excellent furniture program. You do not need to be in England to bid on the chest – David Stanley accepts internet bids and can ship the chest if need be. Check the David Stanley auction site for details.

The chest is finished exactly like the one in the book “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” including the sliding trays and black-over-red paint job. The chest is signed by me and all the students who participated in the class.

The list of tools is nothing short of amazing. Here’s a list of the tools, who donated then and the value in English dollars. Check it:

Ashley Isles MKII bevel edge cabinetmakers chisels x 6, donated by Workshop Heaven, £133

Aurio Rasps x 3, donated by Classic Hand Tools, £252

Bad Axe Sash Saw 14” 12ppi Hybrid, donated by Bad Axe Tool Works, £186

Blum Tool Company #5 ½ Mesquite Jack Plane, donated by Blum Tool Company, £210

David Barron 9-1/2” lignum vitae smoothing plane, donated by David Barron, £175

Classic Bow saw 400mm Turbo Cut, donated by anonymous, £56

Chris Pye carving chisels set of 11, donated by Classic Hand Tools, £290

Clifton #4-1/2 Heavy Smoothing Plane, Donated by Clico, £310

Czeck Edge Kerf Kadet II Marking Knife, donated by Czeck Edge, £35

Karl Holtey #10 Mitre Plane, donated by Karl Holtey, £2,000

Jeff Hamilton 5” Lignum Vitae marking gauge, donated by Jeff Hamilton, £65

Veritas 10” Sliding Bevel, donated by Lee Valley Tools, £39

Lee Valley 12” Dividers, donated by Lee Valley, £18

Veritas Medium Shoulder Plane, donated by Lee Valley, £200

Lee Valley set 5 parallel tip screwdrivers, donated by Lee Valley, £30

Veritas Small Plough Plane, donated by Lee Valley, £200

Veritas Router Plane, donated by Lee Valley, £170

Veritas Low Angle jack Plane, donated by Lee Valley, £295

Pax 1776 10” Dovetail Saw 20tpi with pear handle, donated by Peter Sefton, £120

Philly Planes Coffin Smoother, English Box, Donated by Philly Planes, £215

Sterling Tool Works Saddle Tail, donated by Sterling Tool Works LLC, £70

Rob Stoakley Japanese panel gauge, donated by Rob Stoakley, £150

Texas Heritage Waxed Canvas Chisel Roll, donated by Texas Heritage Woodworks, £69

Workshop Heaven Ultimate Hand Brace, donated by Workshop Heaven, £64

Workshop Heaven Maple & Apple mallet, donated by Workshop Heaven, £45

So sell a hock a couple kidneys and perhaps a spleen. It’s all to support the next generation of aspiring young woodworkers.

— Christopher Schwarz

For Marilyn – Crabs or Grabs

Posted on February 21, 2015 by Lost Art Press

Marilyn of She Works Wood fame asked for a video that shows how the crab lock (aka grab lock) works. So here it is. This lock was made for this tool chest by blacksmith Peter Ross. Unlike many commercial crab locks from the 20th century, this one operates super smooth.

— Christopher Schwarz

New Tool Chest is a Joint Project

Posted on February 6, 2015February 6, 2015 by Lost Art Press

Juggling a book and a furniture commission is like juggling two balls – pretty easy and not all that impressive. These last two weeks have been a full on circus: two books in overdrive (Peter Galbert’s “Chairmaker’s Notebook” and Don Williams’ “Virtuoso”) and two all-consuming projects, some three-legged chairs and a tool chest for Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The tool chest is a joint project between myself and Jameel Abraham at Benchcrafted. I built the box (the easy part) and he created a carved marquetry panel for the lid.

The chest itself is a new traveling design based on a bunch of old examples of chests I’ve studied and measured. After a lot of calculations, I found a chest size that will hold an impressive and nearly complete set of furniture-making tools in the minimum footprint. And it has nice lines and is a bit easier to build than an “Anarchist’s Tool Chest.”

I’m not giving up my floor chest. It is too much a part of the way I work. This smaller chest is going to be ideal for woodworkers who have limited floor space but want to hold a lot of tools that can all be accessed with one hand movement (just like the full-size chest). What’s the downside? There’s not a lot of room for moulding planes.

I’ll write up a full description of the chest’s inner workings and post a video on it when the sucker is done.

Jameel’s marquetry panel arrived about a week ago, but I haven’t had time to install it on the chest because I’ve been a slave to Adobe’s Creative Cloud software. But when I couldn’t stare at a screen anymore, I sneaked to the shop to install the hinges and attach the lid to the carcase.

The hardware is from blacksmith Peter Ross – Jameel and I decided to go whole-chicken on this project. I’m not going to show the lid here. That’s for the magazine’s editors to reveal. But you can see some glimpses of Jameel’s gorgeous work on the lid on his blog here.

The hinges are bolted through the lid and secured with square nuts. This is off-the-rack hardware, not from Peter Ross.

Here is the Peter Ross chest hinge on the interior of the lid and carcase.

This morning I convinced the lid, carcase and hinges to work nicely together and released a huge sigh of relief. Now I just have to attach the dust seal to the lid. And add the crab lock. Paint the sucker. Attach the chest lifts. And write the article. No problem.

After three hours of 100-percent concentration on these hinges, I’m ready to work on something that has an “undo” button. Yeah, InDesign and Photoshop sound like a good idea.

— Christopher Schwarz

Category: The Anarchist’s Tool Chest