The Tool Chest

The Tool Chest

The New Tool Chest

Freshly armed with a hand-made chest of hand-tools, the idea struck me that it would be interesting (for me at least) to chart the progress of the various items which I build from said tool chest. Keeping a record of what I made, how I made it and the various troubles and triumphs of learning how to work wood.

The chest building began several months ago when, with a lot of inherited tools and very little knowledge, I decided to build them a home.

My preferred choice would have been a traditional English chest, such as the tool chest of Benjamin Seaton. However, I lacked both time and the skill to do such a chest justice. I still hope one day to build and English style chest, but I need to get some practice on veneering, inlay etc. before I take on the challenge.

Instead I opted for a Dutch style tool chest, popularised by Chris Scwarz and featured in the October 2013 issue of Popular Woodworking magazine. (Schwarz also builds a version with Woodwright Roy Underhill here).

I’ve also come across a couple more examples at the Frisian Maritime Museum in the Netherlands. This one, dated 1850, is the most similar to the Schwarz (et al) style, but the museum collection also features two other chests with sloping tops, here, dated 1696 and here, dated 1850 (but I expect probably older).

This type of tool chest is much quicker to build compared to the English style, or at least it’s supposed to be. I’ve managed to draw my build out much longer that the two days Chris Schwarz says he can knock them out in. The bottom corners are dovetailed, the shelf is held by a dado and the ends of the lid feature clamped ends using several mortise and tenon joints but the rest is simply glued and/or screwed together. I also had to tongue and groove most of the boards to get the width – the largest boards of pine I can pick up locally are about 5 ¼”.

As far as the history of these chests is concerned they are, as the name implies, mostly of Dutch origin. One features in Jim Tolpin’s, TheToolbox Book (‘look inside’ on Amazon and you can see it on p.8) which was ‘brought to America in the late 1800’s but thought to have been built several generations earlier.’ Chris Schwarz has also blogged about another old example here (also featuring one pictured in Grandpa’s Workshop) and has shown another in a blog post here.

With chest and tool kit complete (ok, the tool kit probably isn’t, there are already one or two thing’s I’d like to add, not to mention several things that don’t fit in it – a full inventory may be another blog entry) I thought I’d take the opportunity to record all the projects which emerge from the tool chest. My woodworking experience is limited – I’ve only really made a tray and a box before this chest – and this is my first attempt at blogging so the journey will be very much an adventure in amateurism but I hope the information may interest or entertain.