Category: The Anarchist’s Tool Chest

OK, we know that “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” is an expensive book when compared to literature by Rachel Ray, Stephen King and L. Ron Hubbard. But it is quite expensive to manufacture a book in the United States compared to China – about four times as much.

Plus, I need to keep my kids eating the panda-flavored ramen they love so well.

So some people can’t afford the hardback version of the book. That’s OK. We have an ePub version for $16 – but you have to have an expensive reader to enjoy that version.

If you can’t afford either, then it’s time to head over to James Maichel’s new blog, the “Woodworking Scroll.”

To kick off his blog, he’s written an entry about “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” and is giving away a copy of the book to one of the people who comments on the post.

And because we have a few returned copies of the book sitting in my basement, we are willing – thrilled! – to say we will match his offer. So two people will get copies of the book.

Also, for your information, James sent me a series of questions and asked if I would answer them, from the prospect of me opening a woodworking school to what sort of pizza I like. Those answers are here.

In any case, check out James’s blog here and enter to receive a copy of the book.

— Christopher Schwarz

“A society that can place no reliance on the men who underpin it, who design, build and maintain its houses, railroads, aircraft, bridges, its vast engineering projects, will become an unstable society, insecure and heading for disruption.

“And this is the danger of a purely materialistic world.”

— Charles Hayward, “Chips from the Chisel,” The Woodworker, June 1958

My first shop was on the back porch – 6’ x 8’ of sloping, rotting, dead opossum-smelling space. So I am sympathetic to anyone who has a small shop.

Blogger Brander “Badger” Roullett has a petite shop and a plus-sized storage problem. He needed a sawbench and he needed someplace to store his saws. What he came up with was a clever adaptation of the classic six-board chest.

These sorts of chests come in all sizes – I recently saw a sawbench-sized one at the Museum of Early Southern Decorate Arts. So Badger’s chest “looks” right to my eye.

And it’s all assembled with nails, so Adam Cherubini is somewhere smiling.

Check out Badger’s post on how he built the chest, along with step photos at Badger Woodworks.

— Christopher Schwarz

“Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.”

— Tyler Durden, “Fight Club”

1. Every man knows something that I do not know.

2. Every thing, living or inanimate, has something to tell me that I do not know.

3. It is better to ask questions of things than of men; but it is better to ask of men than not to ask at all.

— “Asking Questions” from The Manufacturer and Builder, 1870