Ric “Formerly Anonymous” Archibald made a cool little locking system for his Dutch Tool Chest. He calls it the “Gravity Latch.”
Ric, like a fair number of students, made a Dutch tool chest before taking the class on making the Dutch tool chest. Yes, I think it’s curious, too.
— Christopher Schwarz
Today we had to assemble 18 dovetailed Dutch tool chests during a two-hour period. We had glue. We had mallets. But we didn’t have any clamps that were long enough.
So we fetched the hammers and the nails.
When you look at lots of old furniture, you’ll come across a fair number of them where the dovetails are nailed. If you are a regular visitor to The Furniture Record, then you have seen this joinery method before.
Sometimes it is obvious that the nails were added later for some reason – waffle-headed roofing nails on an 18th-century piece are a clue. Other times the nails look like they are as old as the piece and were added by the maker.
When I announced we were nailing the dovetails during this class at Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, I saw a few raised eyebrows. But as there were no clamps, so everyone dove in.
To assemble these chests, we used 6d cut hinge nails from Tremont. The hinge nail is a headed nail, so it is ideal for fastening chores such as this. All the chests went together in less than two hours and are all as tight as ticks.
— Christopher Schwarz
The only thing that is tougher on my tools’ edges than ipe is students.
— Christopher Schwarz, who has been grinding and sharpening all morning.
Call me sick (or call me “cute as a button”) but I enjoy breaking down rough stock with a handsaw. Part of it is necessity. I don’t have a miter saw, and many boards I work with are outside their capacity in width or thickness.
But more important than the tooling is that handsawing the stock forces me to slow down a bit and it gives me a good feel for how much moisture and tension is in each board. I’ve found some real stinkers when boards tried to pretzel my handsaw or choke it to death.
Today I broke down all the stock for another Dutch Tool Chest. I drive up to Maine on Wednesday morning for a three-pronged mission.
1. Teach a class on building the Dutch Tool Chest on July 5-6.
2. Film a DVD on building the Dutch Tool Chest with the Lie-Nielsen crew the week of July 7-10.
3. Attend the Lie-Nielsen Open House on July 11-12. Both John Hoffman and I will be there with books, T-shirts and Dutch Tool Chests. If you’ve never been to an Open House event, it’s like a huge Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event with factory tours (I tour the factory every time) and a lobster bake. Plus Maine is particularly nice this time of year.
Check out all the people who will be there via this link. Dang. Make your reservation for the lobster bake before July 1 (it’s just $25). The Open House is free and open to the public.
I’ll also be bringing some campaign furniture I’ve built to show off.
— Christopher Schwarz
Woodworker Aaron Marshall took my Dutch Tool Chest class at The Woodwright’s School this week and added a slot in the shelf to hold his English Square, which is featured on the cover of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.”
The slot is a cool idea. And several other woodworkers I know have added slots in the back of the shelf to hold longer tools such as backsaws and framing squares.
I cannot recall any vintage Dutch tool chests with this feature, but it’s quite smart.
— Christopher Schwarz
If you’d like to see what I built during the class – a rolling campaign-style unit that goes below the Dutch chest – check out my blog entries here and here at Popular Woodworking Magazine.