Category: The Anarchist’s Tool Chest

I work out of two Anarchist’s Tool Chests (ATC) of two different ages – but for two different types of work. In 2012, I built the one I have at home in my old second-floor home shop and in Chris’s old basement shop. For a long time, it held an almost-complete second set of hand tools for building furniture. After I left PopWood (PW) in 2017, I sold the majority of my doubles (had to pay the mortgage somehow!), so my chest at home is now mostly for tools I use for working on stuff around the house. It does still have a few of the same tools as at work (I need chisels and a block plane at both places), and it has some stuff I never use but can’t (yet) bear to get rid of. And there are a few similar items in my chest at work. I’m not terribly sentimental…but I’m not nearly as ruthless as Chris when it comes to divesting myself of things I don’t truly need.

My chest at work is almost five years old; it’s the one I built in the first ATC class I taught in our shop after leaving PW (I believe in February 2018).

There are a few items that travel back and forth now, but for the most part, my furniture-making tools are at the Lost Art Press shop. While there’s plenty of room in my newer basement shop and I have two benches there, I’m spoiled by the light coming in the windows at work – so whenever possible, I prefer to work where I can better see…and where I can more readily ask for a hand in lifting heavy stuff (thank you, Chris).

My inventory has mostly remained the same for the last decade, but when I began teaching a lot more (in 2018), I began acquiring extras of stuff that students tend to borrow (either because they don’t own that tool or because they bought theirs where they shouldn’t). Teaching is why my tools have blue dots on them and/or blue gaffer’s tape – for quick identification. As Chris did with his inventory, I’ll work my way down through the tills, then to the racks and chest floor. But my pictured groupings aren’t as particular – to some extent, I just squeezed together what fit on top of my chest. And as with his, some of these are tools that:

• I have had for years and that I am happy with. “It is mine, I tell you. My own. My precious. Yes, my precious.” (No need to try another…unless it is blue or cat-shaped)
• Were made by a friend/someone I admire
• Were given to me by a friend/someone I admire
• I have no idea why I have this particular tool

I also have a few other tools mixed in with the student tools, on the shelves near my desk and on the tool wall. (Ones that simply take up too much room in my chest vs. how often I need them.)

The Top Till

My top till holds the stuff I reach for the most – both in classes and in my own work, along with a few small things that don’t fit elsewhere.

Block Planes & Weird Bollocks
The Lie-Nielsen block planes (a No. 60-1/2 and No. 102) finally have their own cubbies as of last week (I’ve been meaning to do that for a while, of course). In the cubby with my No. 102 is where I now keep the straight and Phillips hex tips for my Element’ary driver (because that’s where they fit nicely and won’t get lost). Also in the top till are the Torx tips for the same. I keep my soft-jaw pliers close at hand because I’ve a touch of arthritis in both hands now, so it comes in handy for tightening fences on various tools (and getting things loose). I use the Lie-Nielsen brush to remove sawdust from all my tools before I wipe them with my woobie (which hangs on my bench light) and stow them back in my chest. The (slightly gross – sorry) hearing protection is of course necessary for using power tools, but also while six students are chopping dovetails (hand-tool woodworking isn’t always quiet). The Working Hands cream gets dipped into at least four to five times every day – more in winter (oh, for a better and lasting solution for my dry skin). And I reach for the cat treats even more times than that….

Dovetail Marking/Checking Tools
Yes, of course I use marking knives for things other than dovetailing – but I do cut a lot of dovetails. The one on the far left is my long-time favorite – a Blue Spruce spear-point knife made by Dave Jeske. The rest (from left: a Veritas “Workshop Striking Knife,” A Czeck Edge Tools “Kerf Cadet II” and another of Dave’s knives…that I bought because it’s blue) are knives I loan to students. The Lufkin No. 137C is the small square I use to check dovetails and that I’ll let students use. (It is rare that any but the narrow blade is in the tool, though on occasion I’ll use the 2-1/2″ rule. The miter blades came with it, so I’ve kept them (they don’t take up much room in the box). Above the Lufkin square are three dovetail templates. At top is the Woodjoy tools version I’ve had since about 2006, then a Woodjoy that was given to me (I haven’t forgotten I owe the donor a Dutch Tool Chest book when I finish it…just in case he’s reading!) from an updated design with a longer stock (to fit across two 3/4″-thick tailboards for marking gang cuts). At the bottom is the first-one-off-the-production-line Crucible Tools Dovetail Template that is based on the Woodjoy version (with permission and royalties paid to the designer). To the right of those is the R. Murphy Hand Carving and Dental Knife I inherited from my grandfather; I use it most often for relief cuts on the back of tails. At far right is the small square I don’t loan to students for checking dovetails: a Vesper Tools Precision Dovetail Square (and its various rules). I lost a similar Starrett square in a class – I’m pretty sure it was inadvertently swept off a bench into a trash can. So I bought the Lufkin to replace that one. I can’t afford to replace the Vesper. The boxes themselves are basically cubbies to protect and corral their contents – lazy cubbies, but they fit and they work!

Measuring Tools
I’ve had both the large and small Starrett combination squares since almost the day I decided to learn how to make furniture. I love the 12″; I need a new old-stock 6″ (mine slips)…but I’ve been saying that for at least five years, so it’ll probably never happen. Then there’s an array of 6″ rules – mostly for loaning out. My favorite is the Starrett at bottom left; it’s the easiest for me to read. The 4″ Starrett at bottom right was just too cute to resist during a long-ago visit to Colonial Homestead. And I have two tape measures because I always seem to be missing one or the other. If they’re both where they ought to be, I typically reach for the red one; its wider blade has better standout.

Pencil (etc.) Corral
This far-right cubby is also new, and already I love it. It’s so much easier now to find my .5mm pencils (all those at bottom left). (If you’ve ever taken a dovetailing class with me, you know how I feel about these!) Alongside said pencils is a paper knife given to me by Eric Brown (thank you, Eric!) – I keep trying to find the perfect woodworking use for it. I haven’t yet, but in the meantime, it doesn’t take up much space. At top left is dental floss (used for working glue into splits, or into miscuts while dovetailing to hide the mistake…I’d like to claim it’s only needed for students). My most-used safety equipment is that hair clip. I catch a lot of crap for having my hair down in pictures – but I promise you that if I’m using any tool or machine that poses a danger of scalping (or worse) my hair is up. I have two lumber-marking pencils. I ought to find a new home for the blue one (I much prefer my “Unturned Pencil“); under those is shopmark stamp from Infinity Stamps. Under them is my paint can opener; I use a lot of paint. In the middle is a planing stop that fits into a 3/4” dog hole. Adam Cherubini left it on a bench at Woodworking in America, circa 2013. I’m waiting for him to walk through the door so I can return it to him. Below that is an M+R pencil sharpener that Chris gave me. (I do have wooden pencils for which to use it; they’re on my desk…which is where this sharpener really should be.) Then there’s my Japanese nail set (at just $12, I think everyone should have this handy tool). Alongside that is a ceramic pencil with white “lead” (and some extra “lead”), and two bits of eraser. I don’t know what that knob goes to (though I think it’s a Veritas knurling pattern), so I’m afraid to pitch it. I also keep a small notebook in that cubby, and my new cat-head tape measure. (I love it…but it’s not so great for woodworking – but it’s great for keeping track of my expanding waistline.)

The Middle Till

The middle holds the tools I use somewhat often – but not quite so often as those in the top till…or that I don’t use often, but just ended up there due to their size and my available space (I’m talking about you, metal spokeshaves).

Hitty Things
At far left is a crappy hammer that is terribly uncomfortable. (My good one is at home.) Chris bought this atrocity for me because he was tired of my borrowing his Platonic Ideal Hammer from his tool chest. I still borrow it. (And I put this one in the student chest just after taking this picture.) The ball-peen hammer was left at Woodworking in America by Peter Ross (he kindly told me to keep it). I use it for teaching how to “bishop” proud pins and tails (get the wood wet, then lightly hit it with the domed striking surface to spread the fibers and fill small gaps). The plane-adjusting hammer was made by Raney Nelson of Daed Toolworks; I use the 8-ounce Dunlap for setting small nails…and as a plane hammer when it’s closer than the one Raney made.

Cutting & Cleaving
At top are my two flush-cut saws. Only the top one gets loaned. Its blade is replaceable (for when blood makes it rust). I’m not sure why my small router plane is in the middle till; I think I moved it down when I got the No. 60-1/2 block plane; it used to reside where that block plane now sits. The spokehaves get used a lot in my “Dovetailed Shaker Tray” classes, and for the occasional other curve need. The PMV-11 plane blade actually gets used a lot; it’s the one I hand out in ATC classes to mark the skirt baselines off the chest (that sentence will make sense only to those who’ve read the book or taken the class). I bought it to put in my No. 3; someday I’ll actually do that. I use the Bohle hacking knife for making pegs.

Bits Etc.
I love this set of fractional brad-point bits, and I need to stop loaning them because it appears this set is no longer available (I prefer to not loan things I can’t replace). I also have a few other bits tucked away in the case, including a broken Insty-bit that I use as a countersink. Underneath is a brand-spanking-new box of tiny bits (thank you, Chris; sorry I kept borrowing yours). That lone countersink doesn’t fit in the index box, so it just rolls around in the till. The saddle square gets used for just about every project – particularly during stock prep (best $14 I ever spent – a decade later and it’s still only $16.50). At top right is my Starrett centerpunch, which gets used on every hardware install (and which I think is great fun to use). Below it are two tools I don’t use often but I love: a 4″ sliding bevel that was a gift from Fred West (it gets used once in a while to mark 30º angles on Dutch tool chests when I don’t have a larger one to hand) and a small square I bought to match it, both from Vesper Tools.

The Bottom Till

This holds the stuff that is either too big/bulky for the smaller middle or top till, and/or tools that I don’t use much. And/or that I got used to hiding a decade ago…a habit that hasn’t completely left me. (I’m overly protective of my paintbrushes…and would dearly love to find some new old-stock Purdys. If you know of a pre-2004 stash, do let me know.)

Brushes & Such
Gloves to protect my lily-white hands (to help cut down on the splinters, plus wood sucks what little moisture there is from my hands). That Wooster brush is in bad enough shape now that I’ll loan it. The Purdy is not. The card file is for cleaning my rasps (which are at home – so this is pointless). The cork is a sanding block. Above that is the roll of blue gaffer’s tape for marking my tools (it was in the middle till; I just moved it), topped by the blue nail polish for the same. At the top right is a box of headless brads…because the drawer where they go is full, and I brought these in from home, where I didn’t need them.

Hodgepodge
The pinch rods are stashed here because they’re too short for measuring an ATC, and I don’t want students grabbing these by mistake when the glue is wet. (I shortened these for working on my staircase, but I didn’t really need them at home after that, so here they sit.) Oh look – another spokeshave! This wooden one (which I love) was made by Kansas City Tool Works (now out of business). On the left are inexpensive dial calipers; I rarely care about caliper-level of perfection – but sometimes, one has to. The Barr chisel should be in my tool rack, but there’s no room remaining thanks to a recent saw acquisition (I tape a folded business card over the cutting edge to protect it…and to protect my fingers when I reach in the till. The Zona saw comes in handy sometimes, but I should drill a hole in the handle and hang it on the tool wall. I don’t often reach for it. At the bottom center is a heavy toothed blade from Ron Bontz meant for bopping into the corners of half-blind dovetails for easier clean-out. It sounds really useful – and soon I’ll get around to cutting some half-blinds and find out! The last tool, far right, is a pencil gauge that can be used on outside curves (e.g. the back of a stick chair seat) – another gift from Chris. So that I quit borrowing his.

Moulding Plane Corral

I have most of my moulding planes at home (because of a misguided thought of making by hand all the replacement mouldings needed for my house) so I mostly use this area for stuff I want to store upright (and that doesn’t really fit elsewhere without getting in the way.)

Scrapers, Tips & More
The two scrapers I actually use are a quite flexible Lie-Nielsen (for getting into corners) and the Crucible curved scraper (which, even with my achy hands, is comfortable to wield); the ones I don’t use are in the leather wallet underneath. The driver tips don’t really belong in my tool chest; I just don’t know where else to put them. The Bevel Monkey gets most used for setting 30º angles, and the set of needle files get used to fix my planes after almost every class (the front edges tend to get dinged up and require filing so as not to leave tracks).

Edge Tools
The Lucian Avery scorp and Lie-Nielsen straight drawknife are for all the chairs I might someday make.

Most Students’ Least-favorites Tools
I cope out (or fret out) the waste on dovetails; this can be vexing to those new to these saws – but I find it saves a lot of time on waste removal, particularly on the pin boards. These are the only tools my students regularly balk at using. (While I covet Chris’s Blue Spruce Coping Saw – that’s what I’d buy if I were starting from scratch – these two Knew Concepts saws are old friends. NB: The KC fretsaw is available with and without “swivel blade clamps” – make sure if you get one, that it’s “with.”)

Moulding & Rabbet Planes
I do store a few wooden moulders in the moulding plane corral: two 1/8″ beading planes (from M.S. Bickford [top] and Philly Tools [middle] that get used on the upper skirts of ATCs and other things); and one straight rabbet plane from M.S. Bickford.

Chest Floor

Mostly Planes
There’s a lot of unused real estate on the floor, so I managed to shoehorn it all into one picture. My No. 7 is at the top (another non-loaner) with the rest of my bench planes on the left: a Type 11 No. 5 that Chris had Jen Bower engrave for me (thanks to both!), and three smooth planes (Nos. 4, 3 and 2). I like the bronze because it’s easier to file, and these get files on the leading edge a lot (the smooth planes are remarkably prone to throwing themselves atop holdfasts and other metal bits…). I use the No. 3 in my own work. Above the smooth planes is a medium shoulder plane. To its right is a chisel plane; I find this tool useful for fitting built ins, but not for furniture work. It should go home to my other chest. Under the chisel plane are two Veritas tools: a right-handed skew rabbet plane (wish I’d not sold the left-handed one, but oh well) and an edge-trimming plane. Alongside is my beloved (or a word that is stronger than “beloved”) blue Blue Spruce mallet. If that ever breaks I will be seriously bereft. Above it is a small bottle of jojoba oil that I take on the road; it’s in my chest only so I don’t forget it when I’m packing. Last is one of my large router planes (the other is in the students’ chest). I do love a router plane!

Hanging Racks

You may have noticed way up at the top that I have panel saws hanging on the underside of my chest lid at home. At the LAP shop, I borrow from the tool wall when I’ve a rare panel saw need. So I don’t need a floor till; my backsaws hang behind my chisels and other pointy tools.

Dovetail Saws
I swear these spawn in my chest. The two walnut-handled ones are from Bad Axe, and have extra small handles; because I use my DT saws a lot, I prefer they feel comfy…which is how I ended bringing home from Ed’s Tool Store the 19th-century Woodrough & McParlin on the left. The wee handle is a perfect fit; I guess it belonged to a very young apprentice? Of the Bad Axe saws, I prefer my old one, at top; it’s like an old pair of slippers – super comfortable if not as pretty as it once was. I need to spend more time with the new one, and wear away some of its set (I’ve been using the old one for so long that it could double as a flush-cut saw I think!). At the bottom is a Lie-Nielsen progressive-pitch saw that is no longer made, and that I don’t often lend – but I rarely use it. I guess that makes me a collector. Oh dear.

Other Backsaws
The “American Kid” tenon saw at top is a hybrid filing with a handle meant for children. It fits me well. The Lie-Nielsen crosscut carcase saw is excellent – and because I don’t use it daily, I don’t mind that the handle is a bit large for me. At the bottom is another collectible, a crosscut carcase saw by Wenzloff & Sons.

Screwdrivers
I have an almost-full set of Grace USA straight screwdrivers, a Lie-Nielsen driver “rescued” from a Chris culling (I’ll hang on to it until the next time I clean my chest), a Phillips driver (’cause sometimes I need one, though I almost always use slot screws) and my Element’ary driver with a locking magnetic collar (its tips are in my top till).

Marking Tools
You can’t beat the Tite-Mark cutting gauges…and I wish people would quit copying these. Kevin Drake deserves all the $$ for these (you can get them via Lie-Nielsen or Tools for Working Wood). Then there’s my large family of dividers: three Starretts and two Crucibles (these all get loaned out for laying out dovetails). And oh look…another loaner Czeck Edge marking knife (the rubber band is so it doesn’t fall through the 1/2″ hole in the tool rack). Finally there’s my newest favorite pointy tool: a Mathias Fenner birdcage awl (this year’s lovely and much appreciated Christmas gift from Chris).

Chisels
I use three of these six Lie-Nielsen bevel-edge chisels regularly (1″, for first-class saw cuts on 3/4″ and 7/8″ tailboard half-pins, and the 3/8″ and 1/4″ for chopping dovetail waste remaining after coping). I use the others when I’ve loaned out the ones I really like to use. The Blue Spruce fishtail chisel is for cleaning out corners in half-blind dovetail pin boards – I don’t need it often, but when I do, I’m awfully glad to have it.

As Chris mentioned in his ATC inventory last week, we get a lot of emails about this chest and the book Chris published in 2011. I have a weird relationship with the book (about which I’ve written before – sorry to repeat myself). As he wrote, it’s the book that allowed him to quit as editor of Popular Woodworking Magazine. If he’d not left, I would never have become editor and content director for the brand…which was professionally rewarding but not the greatest for my mental health. I am nonetheless altogether thankful to have held had that position for five years. I am even more thankful that now I again work with Chris every day in the shop. Every tool chest that I build or help others build reminds me anew of how lucky I’ve been.

– Fitz

We receive almost-weekly requests for a current inventory of my tool chest. Usually, I am too swamped with work to take a complete inventory. Luckily, I had a couple days of downtime last week and took the opportunity to clean out my chest and take stock.

Not much has changed in terms of the chest’s structure since the publication of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” in 2011. I have nailed in a few dividers in order to corral small tools – plus I added a couple tool racks. But that’s about it. The chest continues to age gracefully, and I am just as grateful for it as I was the day I finished it in December 2010.

The tools have changed a bit as I now make more chairs for sale. In 2010, I was making only three or four chairs per year. This year I made almost 20.

This inventory is arranged first by location (the top till, middle till etc.). Then tools in that location are grouped by function (measuring, bashing, reaming, poking, slaying).

I hope this inventory is useful in some small way. I know there will be questions about why I own “particular tool A” instead of “particular tool B.” There are a handful answers to those questions. Let’s get them out of the way.

1. This is a tool I have had for decades. There might be better/newer ones out there, but I am happy with this one.
2. This tool was made by someone I have a strong connection to or someone I admire.
3. We make this tool. Of course I like it.
4. I have no clue why I own this tool.
5. It is the ideal tool for the kind of things I build.

And I know some of you will ask: Why don’t you have a compass or pinch rods or….in your chest? The answer is likely that those tools are hanging on our communal tool wall or in my shop apron (both pictured above). The tool wall is used by me, Megan, instructors and students. In other words, I couldn’t just lock up this chest and sail to the New World to set up shop. I’d need to first throw in a few other tools. But I promise they would fit (along with my underwear).

Let’s start the inventory with the top sliding till of my chest.

The Top Till

These tools have risen to the top of the chest because I use them many times a day. Think about it: A combination square wallowing at the bottom of a chest like a catfish will just slow you down. This till also gets the dirtiest and has suffered more wear than the others. Because of the wear, I added slick plastic “drawer tape” to the sides of the till to keep it from racking.

Marking & Flesh-digging Tools

The right-hand divider contains all my mechanical pencils, my half-pencils (everyone needs them) and my “unturned pencil” for marking out rough cuts. Plus artist’s gum erasers, my M+R pencil sharpener and a Blue Spruce marking knife with a broken finial. The knife is a personal thing. An Arkansas doctor sent me the knife, which is made from a wild burl that one of his patients had dug up. The patient, a long-time reader, asked the doctor to send me the knife before the reader died. I couldn’t say “no” to that. Finally, there are my Tweezerman tweezers, which are fantastic for digging out splinters.

Cutting Tools

I was surprised at how few cutting tools are in the top till. The Ernest Wright scissors are from Sheffield, England, and are of insane quality (thank you, Matt!). The Kershaw pocket knife is inexpensive, made in the USA and damn-near unbreakable. Crucible Curved Card Scrapers – because they are the best (my boss made me write that). A collection of small drill bits in a handy case that I use constantly (get one from Rockler here). My Lie-Nielsen 60-1/2 block plane, because it is the best. And a small flush-cut saw from Lee Valley (choose “single-edge saw” on the drop-down to buy this one).

Beating & Scrubbing Tools

I know, it’s an odd grouping of tools. But here we are. The small hammer (11 oz.) is a no-name hammer that I use for driving pins and adjusting planes (yes, I hit only the metal bits with this hammer). The bigger hammer is a 16 oz. Plumb with an octagonal handle. After trying to reproduce my magical favorite nail hammer, we concluded that we couldn’t beat the old Plumbs in price or value. Get one. Plumb made millions of these suckers.

My 16 oz. Blue Spruce mallet is a long-term survivor. I chop dovetails and hinge mortises with the help of this guy. The polissoir is made by Cate Richards (I love the pink). The Lie-Nielsen brush is an essential and personal favorite for getting shavings and dust out of the mouths of planes. And the fingernail brush is used to clean the teeth of my rasps. 

Oh, about the orange gaffer’s tape. I put that on tools that tend to wander during classes. Thanks to the tape, I can spot my tools across the room.

Measuring & Marking Tools

At top is my Starrett 12″ combination square, a faithful companion since 1997. Below that is a Chris Vesper try square, which is the ultimate arbiter of 90° in the shop. Worth every penny. A Starrett 24″ rule fits into the combination square and helps with big layouts. The Crucible brass center square is indispensable for chair work. Yes it marks centers on the ends of sticks. But it also allows you to mark radial lines on curved surfaces. The Crucible dovetail template is a natural fit for my work. The Vesper double square (based on old diemakers’ squares) gets inside joints to check their surfaces.

Below that are two Crucible Sliding Bevels and a larger Vesper Sliding Bevel. Sliding bevels are in constant use. I want good ones that hold their settings in a shop environment. Finally, a beloved Shinwa 12″ rule. Nothing special but immensely readable and useful.

Till Two

This till holds chairmaking tools, plus a bunch of bits, punches and other small items. These are tools I use almost as much as my top-till tools. But it has sort of a “junk drawer” feel at times (such as today).

So Many Bits

At some point in my career, I decided I didn’t want to be a two-bit woodworking celebrity. I wanted to be a 142-bit woodworking celebrity. Hence, this photo. Having all this hex-shank tooling has saved my butt many times. Some of these are ground gunsmith bits. Some are cheap ones that fell into my hands and are great to loan out…. The nut drivers at top mostly get used for machinery maintenance. I once tried to epoxy all these bit holders together, but the epoxy flaked off like skin over a sunburn.

Chairmaking Tools

Here are some dedicated chairmaking tools. At top is a “dummy leg” for checking angles as I ream leg mortises. The three little dowel bits are what we call “Hinderpluggen.” We use them to assist in boring through-mortises in chair legs. And for knocking loose legs that have become stuck in chair seats.

Below that are three tapered reamers. There are three to help supply students during classes. Then a 5/8″ tapered tenon cutter, which has been beat to hell and back. The red line on it indicates the thickness of a typical chair seat. And the 5/8″ Wood Owl augers are used for leg mortises.

Miscellaneous Tools

At top is a hacking knife, made by Tom Latane, which splits small parts out for chairs, mostly short sticks and pegs. Below that is the Crucible Bevel Monkey, which is essential when describing chair angles in plans and books.

At bottom left is the Benchcrafted Skraper, a carbide scraper we use for terrible, horrible things I cannot say words about. And a Tooleypark scriber, perhaps the newest tool in the chest, which is used for scribing chair legs to length.

Punchy & Poky Tools

More “junk drawer” items that see a lot of use. The Starrett centerpunch is a constant companion for installing hardware. To the right of that are some of my “I can’t quite get there from here” stubby screwdrivers. Used mostly in emergencies.

There’s a paint can opener because we love paint in this shop. To the right of that is a Japanese cat’s paw, which helps pull headed nails. And a Japanese nail punch, which is so tough that it gets used for many unpleasant jobs in the nether regions (like the Skraper). Then we have a handful of punches. I modify these for different odd jobs, such as setting cut nails.

Below that are some extra compass points and my feeler gauges, for when I feel fancy like a machinist.

Shaves

My only two spokeshaves are from Veritas (I don’t have a spokeshave problem, unlike some chairmakers). Plus a chair devil from Eleanor Rose, which I adore for its functionality and gorgeousness. Oh, and some safety razors, which get bent to become tiny awesome micro-scrapers.

Till Three

Back in the beginning, this till was for bigger tools, such as a brace (now hanging on the wall as a communal tool) and an eggbeater drill (ditto) and auger bits (now in a tool roll). Today, this till is still for bigger tools, but mostly chairmaking stuff and all the grabby tools.

Chairmaking Tools II

At top is a scorp from blacksmith Lucian Avery, which is shaped perfectly for shallow seat saddles. Below that is a Tilt Box gizmo, which is used to “steal” angles from existing chairs or other furniture. Two travishers. The top one is a tight-radius travisher made by Allan Williams. I use it for the sharp transition at the rims of my seats. His travishers are stunning and work incredibly well. Below that is a travisher from Claire Minihan and Peter Galbert, back when they were making them together. I traded Pete a bunch of books for it and still adore it. 

At bottom is a shop-made pencil gauge that is indispensable, especially for chairmaking. It works on flat edges, inside curves and outside curves. I wish we could make these for sale.

The Grabby Things

Most of these tools are obvious. The soft-jaw pliers are for compressing round tenons. The nail pullers are for … pulling nails. And the other tools are for their normal, listed-on-the-box uses.

Machinist Tools & Bits

The Wera tool set is an emergency kit for when things go wrong in the bench room. Or when we need to go fix something on the car or in the house. The Brown & Sharpe dial caliper checks tenon sizes, tolerances when inspecting Crucible products and other machinist-like things. 

And the Snappy bits are for when we need to run-and-gun to build a screwed-together something.

Miscellaneous Tools

At top is a thin pry bar (an iron crow), which gets a lot of off-label use. Below that is the hi-viz orange tape for marking tools. A flexible protractor for doing weird angled stuff on curves. Then there’s a Veritas edge plane, an occasional life-saver. And a Lie-Nielsen small router plane, which was in the top till when I wrote “Campaign Furniture” because of all the hundreds of bits of hardware I had to install.

Name & Number Punches

The number punches stamp the year on my work. And they are used to identify parts in a complex glue-up. The other stamps are name stamps and shop stamps for a variety of purposes. Marking my work, tools and other objects that might walk. The three grey stamps are from Infinity Stamps, which does excellent work.

The Moulding Plane Corral

This area is like a little terrarium in the tool chest. It is a bit closed off from the rest of the chest because of the way the sliding tills interact with the tool racks. You have to slide all three tills all the way forward to get the moulding planes. Not a big deal, but it’s rare to go here unless you mean to. I used to have a lot more hollows and rounds. As I’ve gotten older I’ve settled into a few sizes and profiles that I like and use frequently in my work.

Do not take these tool choices as gospel for what you should own. My work varies wildly in style and period. Yours might not.

Straight Rabbet Plus Hollows & Rounds

The 7/8″ straight rabbet plane is from Clark & Williams (now Old Street Tool), which makes rabbets parallel to the grain of boards. These rabbets might be for joinery, or they might be to rough out the shape of a complex moulding.

I now have only two pairs of hollows and rounds in my chest. A pair of 7s and a pair of 9s. Both sets are by M.S. Bickford. Because I don’t make reproductions, I can usually press these two pairs into making what looks good. Also, my work is more on the vernacular side, so enormous stacks of crazy moulding isn’t my thing. I think that stuff is beautiful, but it’s not what I do.

Beading Planes

I do like to use beading planes on my casework. They produce a nice shadow line to separate a face frame from a door or drawer, for example. I have four of them, but I really only should have three. The 1/8″ beading plane is from Caleb James. There are two 3/16″ beaders. One from M.S. Bickford and one from Old Street. The 1/4″ beader is from Caleb James. If I had to own only one beader, it would be a 3/16″, which is a nice size.

Complex Moulders

I use a few profiles over and over again. Call it consistent or call it boring – I do it so that I have fewer tools to sharpen and care for. (I prefer woodworking over tool maintenance.) At top is an A. Mathieson & Son square ovolo. It was made in Glasgow, which is where the Scottish side of my family comes from (or so I’m told by my spit). Below that is a bigger square ovolo by Old Street Tool. Then a thumbnail moulding plane, which is ideal for the edges of lids and chest tops. It was made by what is now Old Street. I could make that moulding with a straight rabbet and a block plane, but this plane is just so sweet, I keep it around. Finally there’s an ogee plane by Caleb James.

Miter Plane

With all the leftover room from trimming back my hollows and rounds, I have room for a long-time companion, a Wayne Anderson miter plane. This plane was stolen at a Philadelphia tool show. But I got it back after the thief had to sell his tool collection after it was wrecked by Hurricane Sandy (karma is a bitch, sir). It’s a long story, and one that I am not allowed to fully tell. This plane is the first infill I owned, and I love it to bits. Works great, too.

The Central Well & Small Tool Racks

This is the largest space in the tool chest, but it contains the fewest number of tools. When I peek into other woodworker’s chests, this area is usually crammed with bench planes (two No. 5s? Is one for formal outings, Biffy?). While the well looks a bit spare, it has been even more empty in past years. I finally succumbed to a shooting board plane. It’s a luxury. But I have the room, and we use it every week.

Bench Planes

No surprises here. I’ve owned these three tools since before I built the chest. There are Lie-Nielsen’s Nos. 3 and 8. And a Stanley No. 5 (Type 11). The No. 3 has the standard frog, plus a Veritas PMV-11 plane iron (my NAFTA plane). The No. 5 is on its third iron. I now have a Lie-Nielsen A2 iron in it (I had to file open the plane’s mouth a bit to make this work). The No. 8 is stock.

Specialty Planes 

I have a few other specialty planes packed away because I haven’t used them much (especially my plow and moving fillister; but that’s going to change shortly). Here are the three currently have in the central well: A Lie-Nielsen 073 shoulder plane (I have never needed an additional size than this one). A Lie-Nielsen closed-throat router plane. And a Lie-Nielsen dedicated shooting plane. 

Tool Rack Chisels & Stuff

The rack right above the chest’s central well has some important specialty tools. The flush-cut saw, a tool holder from Mattias Fenner in Germany and a Veritas mortise gauge. Next to that we have the Ray Iles mortising chisel (1/4″) and a matching swan-neck chisel for de-crapifying the floors of mortises. Then there’s a massive and beloved Barr bench chisel, which is good for all sorts of nastiness. The steel is ungodly good. Then there’s a Lie-Nielsen 1″ chisel, which didn’t fit in the top rack, and a Lie-Nielsen dovetail chisel with a bog oak handle I turned.

Front Rack & Sawtill

This is a busy area of the tool chest as these tools are pulled out a dozen times a day. As a result, this area gets filthy, especially below the saws. There’s a lot to see.

Screwdrivers

First is a full set of Grace USA straight screwdrivers (why, pray tell, is the No. 6 driver such a weird size? Must be a gunsmith thing). These are the best drivers. Ground tips. Tough as nails. At bottom is an Element’ary driver, which accepts all the hex-shank bits. And it has a locking/magnetic collar. Highly recommended. There’s a Lie-Nielsen screwdriver for tightening split nuts. It’s modified it to work with all our backsaws. And finally a Perfect Handle screwdriver bought for a $1 – perhaps the best $1 I ever spent. It is indestructible. I wish I owned a whole set (no, not the garbage ones that Garrett Wade sells).

Slicing & Poking Tools

The two Tite-Mark gauges see continuous use. I cannot imagine working without them. Next to that are three pairs of vintage dividers and the Crucible dividers. These are used for laying out dovetails, chair spindles, executing olives and other tasks. The little awl was bought at a flea market in Maine (I think it was $3). I adore it. And a Mattias Fenner birdcage awl, the best one I’ve found (if you are awl-curious like me).

Bench Chisels

I’ll be honest: I don’t use all of these chisels. I could probably boil it down to three: the 1/4″, the 1/2″ and the 3/4″. But these guys grew up together and I’d hate to break up a family.

Backsaws

In the sawtill are my personal backsaws. I also have a few on the wall for communal use. Here we have the Lie-Nielsen tenon, carcase and dovetail saws, all with apple handles (a special trade that Tom Lie-Nielsen made for me). And an Eccentric Toolworks dovetail saw by Andrew Lunn – the best saw I’ve ever owned.

Panel Saws

Also in the sawtill are these two vintage panel saws. There’s a Disston D8 filed crosscut with 8 tpi. And a Spear and Jackson filed rip with 7 tpi. The handles are different colors so you can grab the one you need without thinking too much.

Frame Saws

I have a bowsaw packed away (I use a small band saw for big jobs now). But I still use the snot out of my Blue Spruce coping saw and my fretsaw from blacksmith Seth Gould.

Rasps

The rasps and files are tool rolls that stand to the side of the sawtill. Most of these are Auriou, with a couple oddballs thrown in (including a file that sneaked into this tool roll). The Auriou cabinet rasp is a 9 grain. The Auriou modeler’s rasp is grain 15. The Auriou rattail is 13 grain.

Files

I am surprised by how many files there are. They started collecting en masse when I wrote “Campaign Furniture” and I had to file a lot of brass hardware. Then we launched Crucible Tools, and files are helpful when making prototypes. And the needle files are essential for tool maintenance. Files don’t take up much space, so I have allowed them all to stay.

The Future

We receive regular messages asking what I would change about my tool chest if I built it today. The answer is: structurally, nothing. It is the right size. Built the strongest way. From an ideal wood (pine). Since building it, Megan Fitzpatrick and I have taught hundreds of others to build this chest, and we have come up with better ways to do some of the construction steps. Some of these are honestly good ideas. Others are simply more efficient ways to work when you have to build seven chests in a week.

We also get asked if I will ever update “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” to build it with a more current tool set. An update is not a priority. Perhaps some day when I run out of new book ideas I’ll revisit ATC. But every time I pick it up and read bits of it, I’m happy with it overall. 

Yes, if I were a “guy on the internet” I would take umbrage with a few choices and rationales in the book. But all in all, the book holds up, and we recommend it to new woodworkers without reservation.

We also get messages thanking us for publishing this book. That ATC changed the way they look at tools, woodworking or rampant consumerism. To that, I say: Thank you. The book changed us, as well. After “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” was released in June 2011, it sold well enough that I didn’t have to get a job at Woodcraft or Rockler after leaving Popular Woodworking Magazine (which was my true plan B).

After I left the magazine, I felt the same thing was happening to my career that happens to many other woodworking editors when they quit or are fired. My phone stopped ringing. My email tapered off. People who I thought were friends turned out to be transactional turd birds. 

But after this book was released, you were there. And you kept me from diminishing into obscurity by talking about this book. Recommending it to friends. And attending classes I taught. 

And to that I say: Disobey m…. Nah…. just thanks.

— Christopher Schwarz

Editor’s note: Here are links to those construction updates mentioned above:
• Anarchist’s Tool Chest Update 1: Dovetails
• Anarchist’s Tool Chest Update 2: Bottom & Skirt
• Anarchist’s Tool Chest Update 3: Lid
• Anarchist’s Tool Chest Update 4: Tool Rack & Sliding Tills
• Chain of Tools