We now have “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” T-shirts back in stock in sizes ranging from medium up to XXL. Also, a gentle reminder: If you would like to order the DVD “Inside the Anarchist’s Tool Chest” for $10 plus free shipping, you should place your order now.
The special price expires on Wednesday, Aug. 31. After that, the DVD will be $12 plus shipping charges. Here are some links for you:
Next month I’ll pack up my tool chest and drive to Waterloo, Ontario, for the grand opening celebration of Lee Valley Tools’ newest store.
In addition to signing books and letting people root through my chest, I’ll also be giving some short seminars on tools, shop set-up and chest construction during three days: Sept. 22-24.
I’m one of several exhibitors who will be speaking and teaching at the store, including Konrad Sauer of Sauer & Steiner Toolworks, Dan Barrett of D.L. Barrett & Sons, Rick Blaiklock, the director of research and development at Veritas Tools and several other experts on woodworking and gardening.
Many of the seminars during the grand opening are free; a few have a minor entrance fee. All net proceeds from the event are donated to the United Way.
For those of you who are not Ontario-savvy, Waterloo is about 90 minutes west of Toronto – not too terribly far from the border (but yes, too far to tunnel there). I’ll be driving to the event because my tool chest will not fit in the overhead bin of an aircraft.
I haven’t been to Canada for three years and am greatly looking forward to seeing the new store, getting to meet Canadian woodworkers and hang out with some of the other demonstrators. If you’ve never been to a Lee Valley retail store, they are worth the trip – they are just as special as the company’s catalog.
Below is the schedule for my seminars plus the description of the seminar as written by Lee Valley Tools.
The Tools, the Toolbox and Everything
Thursday, Sept. 22, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Join Christopher Schwarz for a talk on his work to date, with highlights from his most recent book, “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” Chris will briefly go over his philosophy on woodworking tools, toolboxes and woodworking in general.
Fee: Free
Meet Christopher Schwarz: Author/Publisher/Woodworker
Friday, Sept. 23, 9:30 a.m. to noon
and
Saturday, Sept. 24, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
If you have one of his books, have followed his blog, and/or read his articles, you won’t want to miss this great opportunity to meet Chris. There will be book signing and a general discussion on woodworking.
An Overview of Shop Set Up
2 hours
Friday, Sept. 23, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
What tools and equipment do I really need to become proficient at woodworking? Do I need a cabinet saw or will a contractor’s saw do just fine? What about a router: fixed base or plunge? Do I really need to buy a jointer and a thickness planer? As woodworkers, we are bombarded with sales pitches telling us that we need a shop full of expensive tools and equipment. But what tools and equipment do we really need? These are the questions Christopher Schwarz will answer during this session.
Fee: $20
Tickets will go on sale in early September. To purchase tickets call 519-746-2555.
Few hand tools come with instruction manuals that give you enough information to use the tool. Same goes with workbenches. We are supposed to either know how to use the tool or get that information from somewhere else.
In “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” I should have included more information on how to actually use a traditional tool chest. Perhaps I was blinded a bit because I have been working out of a tool chest since 1997.
So I need to provide some critical information on this topic here on the blog until I can revise the book itself.
Several critics have mentioned that tool chests are terrible to work with. Here’s an excerpt from one comment on Lumberjocks. This comment was posted below a review of the book that you will enjoy reading if you dislike the book or my writing. Check it out here.
“They (tool chests) are miserable to work out of. Forever sliding tills back and forth to get to something that you cannot see down in the dark depths. Something shifts and sticks up and the tills don’t slide at all. Always sitting in the wrong place so you have to walk and work around them. If you replace a tool, you have to find one that fits.”
This comment nicely sums up a lot of woodworkers’ thoughts on tool chests. However, I strongly disagree with their assessment on every point. I started woodworking with a tool chest, then I tried building a wall cabinet, wall racks and a shelf solution instead. After trying all those, I kept coming back to my two tool chests – one at work and one at home.
Let’s take these objections one by one.
‘Forever sliding tills.’
If you are sliding around a lot of tills, then you are doing it wrong. Array the two or three tills so you can see every tool in the tills. Then you don’t have to move anything to get to the tills. And if you array them properly, you are only one hand motion away from any tool in the chest. I am going to post a video of how this works this week. I show it on the DVD, but apparently it’s not explicit enough.
‘Something shifts and sticks up and the tills don’t slide at all.’
This happens only in small tool chests. I’ve never had this happen in a 24”-high chest. If you are piling tools upon tools upon tools, you might have too many tools.
‘Always sitting in the wrong place so you have to walk and work around them.’
My chests and many others are on casters. So they are easily movable and can serve you as an assembly table, a sawbench, a place to sit at your bench.
‘If you replace a tool, you have to find one that fits.’
Traditional chests hold all the tools, even if you change them. The only time you are going to have problems upgrading your set is if you “French fit” all your tools. French fitting is where you create a tool-shaped compartment for each tool. This was rarely done in traditional chests. It’s more of a NASA thing than a woodworking thing. I use almost no dividers in my trays or on the chest floor. This gives me flexibility. And more space – dividers eat up space.
Tool chests aren’t good for people with bad backs.
This is something I did cover in the book. Use your off-hand to support yourself. Use your dominant hand to get the tool. Try it. My back ain’t great. Concrete floors are harder on your back than a tool chest.
Why a tool chest instead of shelves, wall cabinets or wall racks?
You can use both. And they aren’t mutually exclusive. When I start the day I’ll take my bench planes out of the chest and put them on the shelf below the benchtop. My common tools go in the rack behind my bench or in front of the window.
The reason I prefer a tool chest is that it does a better job of protecting tools from dust, which carries salts that absorb water. Dust has always been the enemy of hand tools, and old-school woodworkers went to some lengths to seal their chests from it.
Comparing a wall cabinet to a tool chest is more difficult. A well-designed wall cabinet could perform all the functions of a chest if properly designed. I just haven’t seen or built one that I like as much as my tool chests. That’s my failing as a designer.
So if you are still wondering why I like tool chests compared to other tool storage solutions, stay tuned to the blog.
In “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” I make the case that a traditional-scale tool chest is the right size and shape to hold all your tools and make them easy to get to.
Not everyone believes me. That’s OK. But after working out of a traditional and large tool chest since 1997, I am confident in my opinion.
The one thing I don’t like about my large tool chest has nothing to do with my tool chest. It has to do with my car. I have a small two-door hatchback. And while I can haul an incredible amount of tools and lumber in that car, the hatch is too small to receive my chest.
This makes me grumble because I’d like to work out of a chest when I’m traveling. Right now I wrap all my tools in old socks and pile them in some luggage. I am regularly mocked for it by students and other instructors.
So I’ve been meaning to design a traveling tool chest that fits in my car and holds a working set of tools. I’ve been looking at historical examples of chests, and this week I found one that I am quite fond of.
It’s owned by Thomas Lie-Nielsen of Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, and it was hiding below a bunch of tools in his personal shop next to his home. The interesting curved detail on the lid caught my eye, and after we finished shooting a DVD and a couple videos for YouTube, I dug the chest out and went over it with a tape measure.
There are some really great things about this chest, and some disappointments. Here’s the good and the bad.
1. Good: The size is about right for my tools and my car. It’s 33-3/4” long, 15” high and 20” deep. It has two sliding trays, a tool holder and even a small sawtill. I think this chest would work for me.
2. Bad: The carcase is nailed together. The skirts are mitered and nailed. Still, it has survived a long time.
3. Good: The top panel is very attractive.
4. Bad: The coved detail on the top is just nailed on. It’s not a raised panel.
5. Good: The sliding tills are made from some great rough material. The bottom of one of the tills is an old painted sign.
6. Bad: The lower tray is locked into the chest by the runner system.
7. Good: The chest has survived a lot of abuse.
8. Bad: A big section of the bottom is rotted. And is that a mouse hole?
9: Good: The proportions of the chest are very pleasing. And the thing is painted black. Sweet.
10. Bad: I’d have to redesign this chest to suit my taste in joinery and function.
I made a nice detailed sketch of the good parts. So that’s a start.
In “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” I profess a love – actually it’s more of an uncomfortable lust, the kind so weird that you can’t look the other person in the eye the next morning – for Eastern white pine.
But Eastern white pine can be difficult to find outside of its range on the Eastern seaboard and the Great Lakes area.
I’ve had several readers ask me for alternative choices for woods for the shell of a tool chest. I do have a few ideas to share, but before I do that, here’s the “how to fish” portion of the blog entry: Look for a cheap, lightweight wood that is indigenous to your area. Buy it in 4/4 or 5/4 in the rough and dress it to 7/8” or 1” thickness and you will be fine.
Don’t buy 3/4” surfaced material — that’s too thin.
So if you are in the deep South, look for cypress. Out West? Sitka spruce. Europe? Scots pine. In the Middle West, look hard for Eastern white pine, it’s out there.
If none of these options pan out for you, use poplar, which is widely available in most parts of the United States.
If you have other suggestions, post them in the comments below.