The Tool Chest Part 1 (Or Making A Chair From A Tree Without Electricity Or Machine Tools, Part 7)

"Maybe he was a pattern maker". Alexander, myThe eight drawers or trays are of mahogany and
oldest son, is an engineer and was looking at thedovetailed, there are four pairs, which slide on rails and
collection of gouge chisels as I put their tray back inthey are varying in height with the shallowest at the
the chest. I was wondering why Mr Wake had sotop, so they are not interchangeable, and only the top
many gouge chisels and whether that was a clue totwo have lids.
his job.The lower part of the interior, under the trays, is divided
All the tools in this chest are marked "C Wake" but Iinto three sections for larger tools - saws and planes
know nothing else about him, except for what I canetc.
guess from the chest and its contents.When fully loaded this chest is heavy, very heavy, not
"You just want to show off your collection of tools,the kind of toolchest you would want to lug from job
that's why you're doing these articles !" Well, I thinkto job. Anyway motor cars were few and far
there's more to it than that, in fact, there are manybetween in 1900; I imagine that Mr Wake spent much
reasons; one of them is to get on Mr Wakes' trackof his time in a workshop... but I don't really know so will
and learn about him from his tools.stick with the evidence in front of me. One thing I do
I think of the box as Mr Wakes's toolchest and onlyknow is that this chest was bought at a house auction
partly mine. He is still present in a way and maybe hein Worcestershire in the 1950s or 60s, probably near
was a pattern maker. I've thought of shop sign makerEvesham, which puts it in the West Midlands and you
and fitter of spiral stairs - there are clues here that hecan almost hear the heavy industry....
did free hand curved work as will become evident.The narrow tray on the top row holds very fine
There's also a set of heavy number stamps, from 1 -dividers and callipers, is this more evidence of pattern
9: I can see him making up wooden cogs, wheels andmaking? This is that ubiquitous drawer for all the bits
bits of large wheels in some iron foundry and stampingand pieces. Amongst these I found bowsaw blades,
them before they leave his bench to go to the row ofbut there wasn't a bowsaw in the box so I sneaked
sand boxes lined up for the molten metal to be poured.one in. I also found bits for a "Yankee" (ratchet)
"Come back with that before it gets lost."screwdriver, so I sneaked one of these in too; I had an
There's even a drawknife in here; it is well used and Iold one with the traditional wooden handle. These
can only assume that he was the only person to ownpreceded battery drills and I found them very handy in
it as, like all the tools in this chest, there's only his namemy early days, they don't need regular charges and
on it. This is what makes this collection especiallyyou can still buy them.
interesting to me. Most old wooden tools have namesThere is also a very elegant hammer and three spirit
stamped on them and many have several names, aslevels - the spirit levels say to me that Mr Wake spent
they were passed on, perhaps to another generation.some of his time out of the workshop.
To share Mr Wakes's toolchest is a rare privilege - it'sThe next level of drawers contain saw sharpening
not the same as getting a grandfather clock or aequipment (so he sharpened his own saws) and
commode.chisels. All the chisels in the left hand compartment are
Another thing worth mentioning is that it is well filled -gouges (what a lot!), the right hand side contains an
there's not much room for anything else - so apartassortment of flat chisels. All were in good condition
from one or two odd gaps this is a complete set.and didn't require much cleaning up and sharpening.
There's no hammer, nor is there a ruler; maybe theseIn level three on the back left hand side, I found a
have been borrowed more recently.collection of mortice chisels with one or two others,
There's no plastic in the tool collection, which dates it,some of them very big! On the right hand side there
and there's no plywood in the construction of the box.are lots of files, some for saw sharpening, some for
Although plywood dates back to the Egyptians itthe difficult bits of moulding plane blades - some for
became common in the 20th century.pattern making? What about the assortment of
The chest is made of yellow pine and mahogany. Thebullnose and rebate planes, at the front right hand side?
yellow pine is knotty and not of high quality, but I thinkThese were obviously for fine detailed work - pattern
this is a reflection of how it was to be finished rathermaking again? Does it matter? You just want to use
than the purpose of the box. It was covered inthem!
"scumble" a thick coating of shellac based materials onThe last section contains fine chisels - I'm better
a Plaster of Paris base, which had enough stain in it toacquainted with these; essential for dovetails etc.
make the wood look like mahogany.In level four, the larger tray has an assortment of
The lid is of yellow pine too and was shattered when Ispokeshaves and home made scrapers, with the
got the chest so the first thing to do was strip off allaforementioned draw-knife. There are all handy for
the varnish and reinforce the lid. These chests stayedshaped work or freehand details of a Chammer chair.
in the workshop, were sat on and stood on, butThere are keyhole saws and gimlets - there's also a
maybe not in their first few years; there are hours ofmarking gauge, but there's a more interesting one
work in making this functional and beautiful item: "Getcoming up later.
off that, sit on your own box, there's hours of workThe contents of the Toolchest were going to be one
etc, etc."chapter, but that was ambitious, even without slavering
The lock is nice - it works on the second click, which isendlessly over the tools. I still have the lower level to
unusual and the wrought iron lifting handles aredeal with and must close the lid for now.
blacksmith made.