What’s in your chest, Rob?

After going over the five projects and going over some questions from the viewers, I got an interesting question. “What’s in the tool chest beside your workbench?” I gave a very brief answer to that, but since it really wasn’t pertinent to the Christmas gift theme, I moved on fairly quickly. I did mention I might turn that into a weekly column though, so here it is.

I’ve always loved Japanese furniture design. I have many books on the subject, as well as some books on Japanese hand tools. One of the pieces I’ve always thought was quite beautiful was a traditional merchant’s chest. When it was time for me to make a tool chest to store some hand tools and other smaller bits and pieces I started with the basic design of a merchant’s chest. Even the extra wide box joints on the upper corners are very reminiscent of Japanese joinery.

Although this chest is almost always right beside my bench, I often take it to installations, as it’s filled with all sorts of basic tools, as well as a million other tiny odds and ends I may need. These little things have got me out of many tight spots during tense installations.

Do you have a tool chest that you’d like to share? Send me some photos of your tool chest, as well as a short paragraph describing it. If I get enough, I’ll write about them in the near future.