Category: The Anarchist’s Tool Chest

I don’t know how many tool chests I’ve built or helped build since 2011 when “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” was published. But I can tell you this: Every class is both brutal and special.

I finished up teaching my latest tool chest class at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking in Washington state and just landed back in Kentucky. This class was particularly special because my assistant was Rob Campbell, who writes The Joiner’s Apprentice blog.

Though Rob and I have only crossed paths a couple times, we see the world similarly and have built our personal lives around the craft and trying to isolate ourselves from excessive consumption and corporate America.

So it was a huge pleasure to work with him all week, building a project we both knew intimately, and to get the opportunity to swap tips and ideas.

And on top of all that, the students in this class were off-the-hook wacko. And that’s a good thing. During some classes, I have to restrain my humor a bit because it is difficult for some to swallow. These 10 guys were as messed up as I.

If you want to read Rob’s account of the class, check out his entry.

— Christopher Schwarz

This morning I walked to a coffee shop in Port Townsend, Wash., to jolt myself awake. And as the barista handed me my cup he looked at my shirt.

“Is that ‘A’ for ‘anarchy?’” he asked.

“Why yes it is,” I replied, forgetting I was wearing an “Anarchist’s Tool Chest” shirt below my hoodie.

“It also could be for ‘anonymous,’” the barista added.

I wish.

The square on the cover of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” is a cute little thing, and it shows up in surprising places, the wall of the Port Townsend School of Woodworking, Rwanda and in students’ tool boxes.

Yesterday, one of the students, Bill, pulled out a set of them that were graduated in size. All of them had different details and joinery. Very cool.

— Christopher Schwarz

This week at The Woodwright’s School, we had a new “first” when it comes to making Anarchist’s Tool Chests.

All 10 students (plus the instructor) had their tool chest carcases assembled by the end of the day Tuesday, the second day of class.

To what do I attribute this success?

Good help.

Thanks to Bill Anderson of Edwards Mountain Woodworks and Megan Fitzpatrick of Popular Woodworking Magazine (not to mention Roy Underhill himself), we’ve been able to keep the students on the straight and narrow. Stopping trouble before it starts. Serving them tea. Rubbing their loins with the balms of forbidden trees. And whelming them – not underwhelming, not overwhelming.

— Christopher Schwarz

The owner of the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking is selling the tool chest that I built during a class there earlier this month.

The chest is built from clear Eastern white pine. The carcase and skirts are completely dovetailed. The bottom boards and battens are attached with cut nails.

The lid is a mortise-and-tenon frame with a dovetailed dust seal around it.

The carcase of the chest is painted in black milk paint (three coats) and ready to go. The lid is glued up and the dust seal needs to be leveled to the lid. Then it can be painted. The dimensions are as per “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” – about 24″ x 24″ x 40″. It’s a full-size chest, not a traveling version.

The interior is empty. No tills or dividers.

If you are interested in buying the chest and can pick it up at the school in Manchester, Conn., send an e-mail to Bob Van Dyke at Bob Van Dyke at bobvandyke@sbcglobal.net.

Price: The best offer over $500.

— Christopher Schwarz

Several readers have asked how far the students in my tool chest class at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking got on Friday afternoon.

Everyone got their lids complete. About four or five people got the dust seal on. Honestly, I think every student could have finished both the lid and the dust seal, but everyone was tired and ready to crack open a beer or try a shot of Connecticut moonshine (that is not a typo).

So we spent the last hour just yacking it up.

As for me, I had Carl “Mr. Wonderful” Bilderback assisting me this week, so I was able to finish the entire shell of the chest and get three coats of milk paint on the carcase.

At one point I asked Carl, a retired union carpenter, to give me a hand with the painting. He readily and cheerfully agreed. But then he noted that during his career he always told people he’d “rather have a rat in my mouth than paint something.”

Sorry Carl.

— Christopher Schwarz