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.
Students David, Rebecka and Pete showing off the results of their work.
When it comes to the issue of transporting a fully constructed Anarchist’s Tool Chest home, not every woodworker owns a truck. And even though the finished dimensions of the chest are easy to calculate, some people’s eyes are bigger than their Impalas.
I have had to do some wacky things to chests to get them into cars. On a few of the weirder ones, I am sworn to secrecy. Among the less weird:
• Shrink-wrapping it to the top of a Honda, “Beverly Hillbillies” style.
• Building it completely without glue so it can be flat-packed like Ikea stuff.
• Abandoning it at the school!
This week student David Eads pulled another common trick: Taking the car door off the hinges to get just enough space to sneak the chest into the back seat of a sedan. The whole process took 10 minutes. Tips: Have a box below the door and helpers so you can remove the door gently without destroying the wiring or dropping the door on the ground (this has happened.)
I head home on Sunday with this tool chest on my mind. We are getting the electronic files ready for our sixth printing of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” Love it or hate it, this is the book that let me quit my job. So thank you for buying it.
One of the interesting aspects of the book “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” is how many of the readers are active members of the military, government officials or managers in huge internet corporations.
I have lost count of the number of e-mails that begin like this: “I would like to order this book, but I don’t think it can be mailed to me on base, and I can’t have it show up on my credit card.”
We are happy to oblige and always ship our books in a plain brown wrapper.
This last week I’ve been teaching a class in building The Anarchist’s Toolchest at The Woodworker’s Club in Rockville, Md. The club is an interesting place – you don’t see many clubs like this except on the East or West coasts of the United States or in Europe.
Essentially, The Woodworker’s Club is, first of all, a place where you can pay a monthly fee to use a fully equipped and impeccably maintained workshop. There are lots of workbenches and an impressively equipped machine shop (a 16” SCMI joiner with a Shelix head?).
There is a lot of staff support, and the Maryland club also has an entire Woodcraft store up front.
As we were building a dozen tool chests this week, I got to watch the club’s members work among us, both in the bench rooms and in the machine room. I have to say this: Without a doubt, I have never seen a more diverse group of woodworkers. There was a healthy mix of men and women of all ages, races and ethnicities, working away at their personal projects.
It was very cool and quite heartening. If you live in the D.C. area and cannot set up shop in your apartment or condo, stop by the club and talk to Chris, Matt or Amy. They will be happy to help you get started in the craft without having to invest a year of your salary in machines alone.
During this class, I lost track of how many of the students were connected to the military or the government. And after a Thursday-night open house at the club, I was overwhelmed by the response of people to the anti-establishment ideas I write.
So now I think it’s a good idea if I sneak out of town before anyone notices what I’ve been teaching.
Yeah, we all built rectangular boxes this week, but what is radical is what goes inside.
While I think tool storage is a fascinating topic, I don’t expect you to feel the same way. During the last several years, Jeff Burks and I have amassed an image library of workshops from the Middle Ages to the present. After looking at hundreds (perhaps more than a thousand) images, definite patterns emerge.
Here is a question that gets to the heart of the issue.
Chris Thompson writes: “I have read many books of yours on workbenches, furniture styles and hand tools, and I have enjoyed every one. I have started acquiring hand tools over the last year or so. I started researching hand tools after I made a bed for my son. I had 22 mortise-and-tenon joints to cut for the bed. However, I could never get the joints to sit perfectly flush due to the lack of minor adjustments using the table saw to cut the tenons. The shoulders were a tad off on most the the tenons. Needless to say, that’s when the hand-tool bug got me.
“Anyways, I am curious about hand tool storage. In one of your workbench books you describe how to build a rack that mounts on wall or over a window to store them. Then I read ‘The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.’ So…I guess what I am trying to ask is, open rack or chest? Thanks for your time in listening to my long-winded question.”
Me: “Anyone who tells you there is one way to do something is selling something.
“Racks are more common in European workshops. Chests are more common in England and the United States (though racks are common in the States, too). Both approaches are totally valid, and the choice depends on your shop. If rust or theft is a problem, chests are a better way to go. If you have a lot of wall space, racks are ideal.
“I have worked out of a floor chest since 1997, both to deter rust and ‘theft’ in a common shop.
“When I wrote ‘The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,’ the chest was a literary conceit. It was an idea – a way to limit the tool-acquisition problem common to many woodworkers. I actually didn’t think anyone would build one — though I love mine dearly.
If you have ever wanted to build a full-on dovetailed Anarchist’s Tool Chest and want it done quick, here is your chance.
Due to a slight mix-up, we have two openings in my Anarchist’s Tool Chest at The Woodworker’s Club in Rockville, Md. They are prepping the poplar for the build today and tomorrow, so if you sign up now, you can be cutting dovetails on Monday morning and your chest will be done by Friday (except the easy innards. Hmmm “Easy Innards” would be a good band name…).
