The only thing that is tougher on my tools’ edges than ipe is students.
— Christopher Schwarz, who has been grinding and sharpening all morning.
Category: Woodworking Classes
Another Dang Dutch Chest (for a DVD) and the Lie-Nielsen Open House
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
Dutch Tool Chest Meets the Anarchist’s Square
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.
Bench Building: A Team Sport
Last night I dragged myself home after five days of building 16 workbenches at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. All of the benches turned out fantastic for two reasons:
1. Wonderful (yet inexpensive) material. We used Horizon Wood Product’s Roubo “bench bundles.” For just $650 per bench, we got some amazing 12/4 and 8/4 ash for the bench. It was all cut to manageable lengths, perfectly dry and clear. Out of the 16 benches, we had only two small, tight knots.
Another testament to the quality of the wood: Due to a mistake I made, I ordered 15 bench bundles for 16 students. We still were able to squeeze out a perfect 16th bench from the material supplied. Without a doubt, I will use Horizon again. The service was outstanding. Pete Terbovich, who handles the bench kits there, is great to deal with.
2. Teamwork. At some bench classes it’s difficult to get students to work together on everyone’s benches, hauling tops around, milling material that is not for their bench, assisting with layouts and goodness knows what. Not this class. These were special students.
I’m back on the road next week – I leave Tuesday for The Woodwright’s School, where I’m teaching a class in the Dutch Tool Chest and filming two more episodes on Roy Underhill’s Show “The Woodwright’s Shop.”
So if I haven’t answered your recent e-mail….
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Day 1 and Day 2 of the bench-building class are covered on my blog at Popular Woodworking Magazine. The music is from freemusicarchive.org and is by the Freak Fandango Orchestra.
Hardware Choices for the Dutch Tool Chest
If you are building a Dutch Tool Chest, you have a number of good choices when it comes to the hardware. Here is some of the hardware I’ve had success with.
Black Bear Forge. John Switzer, the blacksmith at Black Bear Forge, can provide everything you need for the chest at a reasonable price for handmade work. The strap hinges and hasp are $250 as a set. Chest lifts are $65 a pair. This is gorgeous stuff and is what I have on my personal chest.
John makes things one at a time, so be sure to give him some lead time when planning your project.
Lee Valley Tools carries a lot of hinges that work well with this project.
Unequal Strap Hinges. The two longer hinges (with the 9-1/2”-long leaf) are best for the Dutch chest. With these hinges, you screw the short leaf onto the back of the chest. Yes, it’s traditional.
Equal Strap Hinges. These are also surface-mounted on the back of the chest and the inside of the lid. No mortising is required – only a small notch in the lid to house the hinge’s barrel.
Large Strap Hinges. If security is a real concern, these hinges are a good choice. One end is mortised into the case and the strap is screwed to the lid. I don’t think these look quite as nice as any of the above options, but I’m a hardware snob.
The chest handles for this project can be difficult to source. I have some old brass ones, which are difficult to find for some reason. Lee Valley offers these nice iron ones. I also encourage you to search on eBay. I’ve had good luck there.
Van Dyke’s Restorers also carries a lot of strap hinges. Here is a good place to start. Most of the hinges that have one leaf that is a butt hinge and the second leaf is a strap will work. But check the measurements to make sure the leaves aren’t too big. Some of these hinges are for architectural woodwork.
Van Dyke’s also carries some reasonably priced hasps, including this one.
— Christopher Schwarz