Cape Yellow Wood Tool Chest Journey

7/6/2016

Thanking Gerhard once again for opening up his website to woodworking friends and Toolgaloots. What follows is my Cape Yellow wood tool chests’ journey – and some more!

Not surprisingly, not very long after I developed the fatal fascination/affinity for old tools, I realized that these restored things of beauty can’t forever reside wrapped in pieces of cloth, all around the shop. No, they needed a nice little tool chest/enclosure, a wooden one, not plastic, not that I had that many old woodworking hand tools at that stage! Included amongst the antique restored tools was a Lie Nielsen dovetail (just missed the Independence era when I bought it) and a set of octagonal Boxwood handled Robert Sorby chisels. Otherwise, the majority of the tools were antique (another “less vintage” set of tools was kept elsewhere).

So, off I went and built a little chest out of the available wood I had, 12mm plywood….. By the way, the chest is sitting on a Kiaat wood (Pterocarpus Angolensis also called Bloodwood, Mukwa, Dolfhout) 8 chair dining set made about 40 years ago by Kavango residents in the Northern Namibia bushveldt. Having no electricity, the logs used to be cut in a saw pit (one guy on top and the other at the bottom of the pit) and the resulting planks then left upright against trees to dry. The finer “kilning” details I know not! Do they frequently turn it, how come it doesn’t warp and twist??!! I’ve heard that it tends to shrink very little from its green state, that perhaps being the reason. Never seen them stacked and stickered, but must have been! These bush artists used to make beautiful furniture, this set an example using just saws, jack planes and for the carved bits, little self made axes (with astounding accuracy and dexterity) and homemade knives, finishing by sanding it (with sanding paper!!). Just furniture polish was then applied. Working on loose sand as reference, these furniture were often a bit wonky and therefore often needed to be trimmed at home, once bought. This set is 40 years old and going, still using it!

Back to my effort.

Somehow, the dovetails ended up on the side of the little chest….

As the infatuation with old tools grew, the requirement for proper storage increased. At some stage I started to do away with doubles and triples (also read a very sensible Chris Schwarz article on reducing your tools and rather getting to know the one’s you have better), I still continuously strived to upgrade some of the tools that I already had, to more valuable ones. The old Disston D8 and #7 was not good enough, no-no, it had to be a set of #12’s. Since the ordinary wedged-stem plough was hurting my office hands, a Mathieson 9B would be more practical…… Often now, in hindsight (also looking at the costs incurred), I’m in two minds whether to kick myself or not!! Must have been the “collector” part in me (but does it mean I’m an official ToolGaloot???). But….. must admit, these tools are “rather nice” to have in your hands, albeit they come at a price (and which took endless times of bidding on eBay because these type of tools demand mostly ridiculous prices). You have to search for “old plough” (with bad pics) instead of “Mathieson 9B”. Also “old rusty wood saw” (with bad pics) instead of “Disston #12”. And then ask questions and hope for honest answers. And so we have all burnt our fingers once (or twice…). But also in hindsight, one should also strive to still keep a balance in your live and your daily responsibilities, because these old tools research, collection, restoration etc etc could become a obsessive beast, consuming all your free time and energy and may just pull you away from your family! Should always be viewed as just a hobby!

So, me being friends with “planning and scheming” started to make drawings en noting down ideas of what I require and would like to have eventually to store the majority of my old tools in. Again, as with my Roubo, not too large, not too small. Collected endless photos of other tool chests and played it off against what I wanted (and space I had). Because of my specific requirements, I didn’t really favour the idea of a large traditional floor standing tool chest. Have a bad back, so I wanted it sitting on a wheeled chest of drawers (with my lathe tools and accessories in the drawers). Furthermore I wanted a drawer to keep my measuring tools and other small items apart from the large tools. Didn’t like the idea of diving into a toolbox in order to access something at the bottom! But all this is purely personal and what works for me! The downside is that it takes more planning in order to cater for the tools hanging down from the top part in order to optimize space available. And because you run the risk of losing real estate for tools just because you want your tools to be a little more accessible and visible, you have to have quite tight tolerances, measuring each tool and plan your drawer and drawer compartment accordingly. I have built-in dividers keeping the chisels in the sides away from the side of the drawer.

Also liked the Seaton idea of some of my saws sitting in the lid (without overstuffing the lid). While the lid arrangement was a practical decision because of my smaller sized tool chest, it also serves a display purpose to me (remember I’m not just a user, I’m a collector-user)! I’m not working in the shop because I have to, no, I’m “playing” in the shop because I want to! “Playing” because I’m still not overly confident in many of the daily woodworking skills required in my cave, but love every step I take to up my knowledge, every new skill I acquire along the way. I suppose I’ll be a student until the day these old hands can’t hold these old tools anymore, just like the old hands that held them before me.

Lets continue now with the chest at last!!? Starting the project in parallel with my Roubo, you’ll notice some of the work was done on the old, metal framed bench (not wonder I struggled to get my panels flat!) Here I was also evaluating my newly acquired Mathieson jack and smoother.

Great timber to work with (also refer to my first post on the Stanley 246 regarding the Cape Yellow wood or Real Yellow wood (Podocarpus Latifolius)

Doing panel tails

Cleaning up

Trying my best with a mitre joint of the skirt…

Doing a very, very delicate balancing act. With a very, very expensive 607 on the oak bottom…..! What we’ll do for a work in progress pic…

Starting to work on the lid.

Panel insert

Decided to use brass detailing because I also have an affinity for Campaign furniture (not that I own any). Also practical to protect the corners, because Cape Yellow wood, although beautifully grained, is a lighter type of wood (just 510kg/m3 and a Janka of 830). Such a nice wood to work with, workability very similar to pine but ten times more beautiful (especially when aged). Bought the brass new and then “antiqued” it (files-sandpaper-ammonia fumes-rub/polish). Examples of the tree stages; new, fumed, final (the fumed one had not been man handled before the process, was just experimenting)

I treated it with a few coats of BLO, polish and finally a polissoir.

Inside the lid:

Top half:

And then the drawer, which is still not finished. Want to make one or two trays that will drop into the drawer to really keep my measuring tools out of harms’ way. Cork or felt bottoms perhaps. And, trying to be extremely clever in an effort to use one piece of plank for the front, bottom of the chest (inclusive of the drawer front), I now have to make a cock bead (or something) for the drawer (in a 17mm thick front), because I’m not satisfied with the 1mm (saw width……) gap on the sides. The top on the drawer engages air tight (i.e. no saw width sized gap!!). Lets not go into the drawer planning detail… Perhaps I’ll just make another drawer when I REALLY have nothing else to do. I’m not as fast and experienced in drawer making as most of you guys! But as they say practice…..

Reviewing my chest now after using it for a while:

I’ll have to re-fit the inside chisel rack because I recently replaced the octagonal Sorby’s with Witherbys (re-handled with Kamassi ie Cape Boxwood).

Also, while its nice to have the Mathieson jack and smoother, and though I’m using them sometimes (the smoother much more often) which is a real kick, it means that my other (very nice and very old) planes (Stanley 4½, 5, 6 and 7) are sitting in a wall mounted cupboard – and gets used more often. As previously mentioned, I’m still trying to reduce my tools but it is very difficult for me to say “bye” to my Mathiesons! Bit of a dilemma.

Furthermore, I have replaced the very nice tough looking cast iron “Campaign like” handles that I bought via eBay (which snapped first time I tried it out) with brass Campaign handles from Whitechapel. Still don’t trust these handles, even though they’re brass…..

The lid holding chains, even though they may be appealing, are not very practical. Might be looking at a simpler lid stay ala Chris Schwarz, just not as ugly (sorry Chris)!! Also have to take into consideration that I have to remove my saws from the lid without interference. Speaking about the lid, I’ll have to revisit the saw till as well, because while removing a saw is quick, but to put it away takes double the time and more care, not a simple out and back in, especially the Disston #12. I have to guide the saw a bit. Tried to design and built too tightly with too close tolerances. But, currently it works, so why change something that works!!

Although I achieved what I wanted with this chest in that it is unique as well as suit my personal requirements (also trying to built heirlooms), perhaps I should have given more attention to ratios, like in Golden ratios… Even if I increased the width by an inch or two, it would have looked less “upright”. But then it would have taken space away from the chest of drawer top, in front of the tool chest, which was a design requirement of mine. But given me more space inside the chest. Should have sacrificed that outside space….. Eish.

Regards

Frank Bartlett

Cape Town

The hovering skeleton chest

16/3/2015

You’ve heard of the Anarchist’s tool chest and the Dutch tool chest, which seems to be very much part of the prevailing woodworking vernacular. I would like to introduce the so called hovering skeleton chest. It is especially useful to woodworkers who decides to approach their bench from all sides, rather than the more popular custom of shoving it up against a wall. This is not a new idea as you can see from this close-up of plate 11 (AJ Roubo’s L’Art du Menuisier). Neither is the hovering skeleton chest (though possibly under a different name) a new idea, as a similar device is often employed in a kitchen to hang pots and pans from.

Here you can see the wife helping me to hang the contraption …

… after which I stocked it with essential tools needed at the bench.

Chisel storage

17/3/2014

On Saturday I briefly interrupted my bench-building-activities in order to ensure that my precious new Lie-Nielsen bevel-edge chisels receive a warm welcome and safe haven right from the start of our (hopefully) long and prosperous relationship. I ordered these chisels back in November 2013, but the tool works at Lie-Nielsen were out of stock and in the process of crafting new ones. As far as what I can gather they had a few hiccups in this process, which meant that the chisels only arrived on 10/3/2014. The guys and gals at Lie-Nielsen leave no stone unturned when it comes to their commitment to ensure the absolute highest quality, which was again quite obvious when I unpacked these heirlooms.

An example of the attention to detail is how the backs of these chisels have been perfectly flattened by hand honing. This means that you have the absolute minimum preparation honing to do before you go mental with it on a piece of timber.

Just look at these stunning Hornbeam handles. I plan to turn my own longer handles for when I am using the chisels for paring.

Here you can see how I very quickly built a rudimentary chisel dwelling from a piece of scrap Swarthout. Swarthout (Acacia melanoxylon and known as Australian Blackwood, Sally Wattle or Tasmanian Blackwood) originates from Australia (surprisingly) as a species, but this particular piece is South African by birth as it spent many years enjoying the tranquility of the rain forests of the Garden Route.

I decided that the quickest way to keep the chisels sitting stable and upright (as the three smallest chisels are top heavy and therefore tends to attempt acrobatics in it’s dwelling) was to whack dowels through the living room.

Together with the dowels, a small notch on the inside of the side walls where each chisel’s socket rests, does a great job of keeping each chisel proud and upright.

At this stage I left the dwelling as is, but might add a base once my bench is finished, because it might be useful to grab the who set and stick it on the bench next to you while doing dovetails or mortises. For now it will be supported by two storage containers on either side of it in my tool rack.

File accommodation

28/10/2013 – Over the past year I have realised how useful a tool the file is. During my plane building phase, which took up almost all of my shop time over the past 6 months the file became a real asset. It shaped the totes and created perfect stopped chamfers.

The way my files were stored until the weekend frustrated me with a vengeance. It was a quick fix when I first started setting-up shop, but not really doing the job anymore. In the picture below you can see this first attempt at storing them. They frequently fell out of their handles and ended up banging against each other when I tried to grab one or return it.

I then came up with the following plan. A small space became available when I moved my planes so I thought of building a type of beehive with PVC pipe to store each file in it’s own sheath. I bought 7 x 1 meter lengths of PVC pipe as shown below.

They were then each cut into 2 x 300 mm and 1x 400 mm lengths giving me 7 x 400 mm and 14 x 300 mm pieces. I drilled 4 holes into each end of these piece to accept cable tie.

The pieces were then tied together using cable tie as shown …

… and voila, a filehive. The next step would be to replace these horrible plastic handles with shop made Witpeer handles. I am in the process of documenting that project, so keep an eye out for the post.

Drill bit shelve

21/9/2013 – After all the arduous plane-building-manoeuvres, I decided to do something different before continuing with the unfinished Jointer and Shooting Plane. My Drill Press is at least 5 meters or so away from my assembly table were all of the drill bits I own lived until this weekend. This resulted in some serious calorie burning, while perambulating the workshop in order to provide the mentioned Drill Press with suitable dentures for it’s multifarious activities.

I therefore decided to build a austere drill bit shelve aimed at limiting my calorie expenditure. In the picture below you can see a collection of the drill bits I own in this particular year of our Lord.

I found an old piece of timber that was salvaged from a sideboard that used to belong to my grandparents. I ripped it into the strips seen below. As it was a tad short of what was needed I ferreted around and found small pieces of Ysterhout and Witpeer to supplement the reclaimed timber.

Here you can see the future arms of my humble elfin shelve.

This picture indicates how I marked out the area to be removed from the set of arm-anchors (or maybe shoulders is a better term).

Before removing it, I first drilled the holes for the screws that would eventually anchor the anchors.

This gave me some much needed practice to saw to a line as you can see. The waste was then removed by chopping it out with a sharp chisel.

With some careful pairing I managed to custom-fit the anchors to the vertical spine of the shelve.

Here you can see the anchors glued and screwed to the spine.

The unexpurgated spine-anchor-assembly was then fixed to the wall next to the Drill Press.

I then attached the multitude of arms, most of which were already armed with it’s own array of drill bits, but some were left barren for future bit acquisitions.