Dutch Tool Chest

In early November of last year, I had the opportunity to attend a hand tool woodworking class in San Marcos, TX that was taught by Chris Schwarz.  Chris is one of the most visible members of the hand tool community.  He has written many books, most notably “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” and travels around the country, and world, teaching woodworking classes.

I was able to attend this class with my friend Josh, who has been recently updating his blog at boundariesintime.  It was a great weekend of woodworking and beer consuming and it definitely made me more confident in my ability to work with hand tools.

Unfortunately, again, I don’t have too many pictures of the process. So for now, I will do my best to describe the build…

This chest has 2 compartments, an upper and a lower, which will house my hand tools.  The most used tools will be up top with the lesser used tools below.  I also wanted to put a drawer in the bottom compartment to hold some of the smaller things that are easy to lose. It also has a sloped lid that was historically for shedding water when it rained, but it also serves the purpose of not allowing me to put things on top of it.  It is very easy to fill every flat surface in the shop with tools that I just used or scraps of walnut that “might be useful for something”.  This stops the clutter from getting in the way of the tools.

Keep in mind; all of these steps were completed without the assistance of power tools!  The shop that we were in was the Wortheffort woodworking school.  There were a dozen benches, moxon vises, and plenty of extra tools for those who didn’t have them.

We started by cutting the bottom and sides to size.  There was material provided for the course, and since the chest would be painted, I made mine out of poplar. 

Once the pieces were cut to size and cleaned up, we started laying out for dovetails.  The bottom will be holding a nice amount weight, so the dovetails are critical to support that.

In this case, Chris had asked that when a certain problem arose, to tell him so he could demonstrate fixing it.  My friend and I were a bit further along in our woodworking skills and as such, I was the 2^nd one done with the tails.  That also meant that I was the first one with the problem… so the teacher had to come help!

Once the dovetails were complete, we cut the dado for the shelf.  This was cut by hand and without the use of a guide block.  I wanted to challenge myself a little bit, and I am happy to report that I didn't mess up too bad!  You can see both Josh and my chests in the glue up stage.

Only one clamp needed!

The next stage was adding the front and the back.  The back is ship lapped to allow for expansion and contraction while the front is simply screwed on.  I still contest that the hardest part about building this using only hand tools was screwing in all of the screws.  I definitely take my power drill for granted.

This was where we got to during the class, a fully formed chest, but no lid attached and nothing inside.  Over the course of the next few months, in between frantic toy-chest building and Christmas gift making, I was able to chip away at the tool chest.  The first point of business was adding a drawer.  We deviated from the plans a few inches to allow room for a drawer in the bottom compartment.  I have a lot of scrap walnut around, so I used an interesting piece with a lot of sapwood for mine.

It is hung from 2 ‘L’ brackets inside the compartment that ride in grooved on the inside of the drawer sides.

The front is handcut half-blind dovetailed into the sides.

And the front is decorated a little bit with a bead that was made using a straight slot screw in a piece of wood!

With the drawer done, it was time to outfit the inside.  I had a general idea of what would go into the upper compartment, so I laid them out and installed some dividers to keep everything from sliding around.

In that last picture you can also see the chisel storage rail.

The next thing to make was the saw storage.  I have seen saws stored under the lids, and I wanted to maximize the space inside by doing the same.  In theory it seems easy, but in reality, it is a little difficult.

I hand drilled a few holes and then, very carefully, cut the long straight cuts with a coping saw.  They aren’t perfect, but the saws fit in nicely and don’t move around when opening and closing the lid.

I had a friend of mine make some leather straps to hold the lid open, I really like the color that he chose and they work great.  I don’t know if they will stay the same length in the heat of a Houston summer, but they look too good, I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

The chest features a simple yet effective locking mechanism for the front. There is a bracket on the front that allows a narrow strip of wood to pass through.  There are matching relief cuts in the bottom of the chest and in the shelf to capture the slat.  Once the lock is fully pressed down, the front won’t come off.  This was originally done so that workers in a shop would only need to lock the top and both compartments would remain protected.

The last, and most fun, thing to do is to fill it with tools!

From my count, I am able to fit:

7 saws

8 hand planes

15 chisels

4 card scrapers

2 squares

2 drills

1 mallet

And various marking and layout tools (rules, scribes, marking gauges) along with extra blades for most tools.

I think I have room to spare in the lower compartment. I guess I will need to buy more tools.

I really enjoyed making this tool chest.  It was challenging and eye opening at the same time.  I realized I can do a lot of tasks with hand tools that I didn't think I had the skill to do.  It also taught me to slow down and think before making a cut, as some things can’t be rushed. Some more beauty shots:

 Hand cut edge profile on the lid.  This was nerve wracking to do on a finished lid.

The Ship Lapped back panels.

I think the thing I like the most about the chest and hand tools in general, is that it was my grandfather’s tools that really got me started.  I am so happy that they have a home and get used regularly now!