“You can have art in your daily life if you want it, but you don’t. You prefer fountain-pens and motor cars.”
— Eric Gill, the creator of the Gill Sans typeface, as quoted in “Country Craftsmen” by Freda Derrick (1945)
Turning the Grindstone for a Booby
“Alas,” me thinks, “deluded people, you are doomed for a season to turn the grindstone for a booby.”
— Charles Miner, “Turning the Grindstone” in “The Fourth Reader” (1872)
The first two words of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” are the most important ones to remember: Disobey me.
It’s a Russian absurdist saying that I learned from Prof. Gary Saul Morson, the single-most influential teacher in my life. You can take those two words at face value – don’t do what I do. Or you can enter the hall of mirrors if you think for a moment about the impossible task set before you by those two words.
In the same way, you can take the tool chest I built at the end of the book at face value – it’s a place to store tools. Or you can scratch the paint on its surface and see that it is also a symbol of a way to approach our craft. Every tool you need to build furniture is contained in this box, and everything else you need (outside of raw material) is something you cannot buy: skill
Since “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” was published in June 2011, I’ve received letters from woodworkers who don’t have the space, skill or desire to build a dovetailed tool chest and they are wondering what they should do. My answer: Disobey me.
A traditional tool chest is not the only way to manage your tools, though after trying many other methods I think a chest is best. But if you boil down the principles of a tool chest, you can create a tool cabinet, a wall rack, a system of open shelves or a German-style rolling and folding box.
What are these principles? Here is what I think is important.
1. All your hand tools should be only one hand motion away from you putting a mitt around its grip. That’s why the tool chest has staggered and sliding trays.
2. You should be able to see the core set of hand tools all the time. And nothing important is in drawers. In fact, I think drawers are the enemy of efficiency. I have worked with a wall cabinet with drawers, a workbench base with drawers and a tool chest with drawers. What I remember most about those systems is rooting around in the drawers for a countersink.
3. Your tools should be protected from dust. Dust has salt. Salt absorbs water. Water rusts steel. Wipe down your tools after every use with something oily (not from your glands, please). When you aren’t working, the tools should be covered so they don’t get dusty, salty and rusty.
4. Your system should hold your core set of tools, and little else. A 10’-long shelving system might hold everything, but you will spend more time walking back and forth than is necessary.
5. Your system should adapt as your work changes. A chest with undivided tills allows you to move your carving gouges to the top till when you are making a shell. Then you can move your hammer and nailsets to the bottom till. A system that has one place for every tool is great – for that day. Tomorrow you will be a different woodworker, even if you keep the same tool kit.
But like I said before: Disobey me. Think for yourself.
Or, as John Brown once wrote: “By all means read what the experts have to say. Just don’t let it get in the way of your woodworking.”
— Christopher Schwarz
Sold out: A Few Black-leather ‘The Anarchist’s Tool Chest’ Books Available
After doing a complete inventory here at Lost Art Press, we found that we had five black-leather copies of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” still available. And so we are going to offer them for sale here on the blog.
Two of the copies are both lettered and signed. Three of the copies are signed but not lettered. Updated: We have two unlettered copies now. I am willing to sign them with a “silent Q.”
“Huh?” you might be asking yourself.
When we do a run of leather copies we send unbound book blocks to the bindery. We always have to send extra book blocks because some of the blocks are unacceptable to the guys at Ohio Book. So we will send 30 book blocks and hope to get 26 back – one for each letter of the alphabet.
This time we got 29 black-leather books back.
So we are selling these five off for the same price of $185 – that total includes USPS Priority shipping in the United States. First come, first serve. Just drop me a line at chris@lostartpress.com.
The first two orders will receive lettered copies. The next three will get the unlettered ones. Apologies in advance, but we can’t ship internationally yet. If you can supply a U.S. address, we can make it work.
— Christopher Schwarz
A Different Drawer
Woodworking writers love to get to the end of the story where they can simply state: Build the drawers in the usual manner and apply your favorite finish. And enjoy!
This is, by the way, a bit of laziness or secretiveness. Some writers don’t want to reveal how they really finish a piece. Finishing is still a state secret for some professionals.
As to drawers, this morning I finished up work on the drawer for a Charleston table reproduction from the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. And let me tell you this drawer was a lot of fun to construct because it is not built in the usual manner.
What’s the “usual” manner?
1. Through-dovetails at the rear of the drawer.
2. Half-blind dovetails at the front.
3. The drawer bottom slides into the drawer box from the back and rests in a groove in the sides and drawer front.
For this early 18th-century drawer, here’s what we’ve got:
1. Through-dovetails at the rear.
2. Half-blinds at the front.
3. A drawer front that is wider than the drawer sides.
4. A bottom that is nailed onto the drawer’s sides and back.
5. The bottom edge of the drawer front is rounded over, on both the inside and outside corners.
I have a theory. Wanna hear it?
The rounded-over drawer front is the same profile used on the stretchers at the bottom of the piece. Perhaps it was a conscious design decision. Or perhaps the drawer front was originally planned to be a stretcher.
In any case, I had to be wary of wood movement with this drawer. If I’d simply glued the bottom on the drawer frame the bottom would likely split or ruin the drawer frame. So here’s what I did: (Man what’s with all these lists? It’s like I work for USA Today.)
1. Glued the drawer bottom to the backside of the drawer front.
2. Glued the bottom to the drawer sides – but only for the first 4” or 5”.
3. Nailed the bottom on with 4d cut headless brads.
(Edit: Robert Lang, who measured the piece, had Megan Fitzpatrick call me to tell me I forgot a rabbet in the backside of the drawer front. And yup, I did. There is a rabbet behind the drawer front that the drawer bottom rests in. Below is Bob’s drawing of how it should look.)
The glue will keep the drawer bottom tight at the front. The nails will flex and allow the bottom to expand and contract.
I hope.
Now I just have to apply my favorite finish (green or blue?) and turn a knob.
— Christopher Schwarz
How to Manually Add a Kindle Book to Your iPad or iPhone
Several readers who have purchased the Kindle version of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” have asked how to add it to their iPhone or iPad and read it with the Kindle app.
This was once a difficult process, but with an update to the Kindle app in January it’s easy. So the first thing to do is make sure you are running the newest version of the Kindle app.
Now connect your iPad or iPhone to your computer and launch iTunes.
Click on your device in the left-hand sidebar of iTunes. Now click on the “Apps” tab at the top of the page.
Scroll down a bit and you will see a section called “File Sharing.” And your Kindle app will be listed. Click on the Kindle app.
Now you can add your Kindle version of the book to the app. Simply click “Add” and navigate to the file. The next time you sync your device, the book will be waiting for you in the Home section of the Kindle app.
— Christopher Schwarz