The Anarchist’s Tool Chest – Revised

The Anarchist’s Tool Chest – Revised

For the revised edition, Chris Schwarz went through the list of tools he recommended in the original text and tightened it up. And after building the chest over and again with students, Schwarz (and his shopmate Megan Fitzpatrick) came up with many ways to make construction of the chest easier – without sacrificing strength or beauty. He rebuilt the chest for the revised edition using these hard-won ideas and managed to create more space for tools, with easier ways to get at them.

After researching lists of the core tools one needs to build furniture that were published from 1678 to 1973&#44 former Popular Woodworking Editor&#44 Chris Schwarz&#44 made a list of the 48 hand tools that he considers essential. He sold off the unnecessary tools in his shop and focused his efforts on fewer &#45 but higher quality tools&#46

He built a traditional tool chest to house these tools based on research into historical chests and his experience of working out of two traditional chests for the last 14 years&#46 Modern chests&#44 he found&#44 are poorly designed &#44 too small and painful to use&#46 So he created a list of the 13 rules for building chests that will result in something that really works. Many of these rules will surprise you&#46 An example&#58 You should always nail the bottom of the chest to the shell&#46

He wrote this book &#40 which by the way is teeming with humor as well as savvy insights&#41to help other woodworkers assemble an ideal first tool kit &#45 or modify their existing tool set tohave fewer, better&#45quality tools&#46

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The Anarchist’s Tool Chest is divided into three sections:

1. A deep discussion of the 48 core tools that will help readers select a tool that is well-made -regardless of brand name or if it’s vintage or new. This book doesn’t deal with brands of tools.Instead it teaches you to evaluate a well-made tool, no matter when or where it was manufactured.There also is a list of the 24 “good-to-have” tools you can add to your kit once you have your coreworking set.

2. A thorough discussion of tool chests, plus plans and step-by-step instructions for building one.The book shows you how to design a chest around your tools and how to perform all the commonoperations for building it. Plus, there are complete construction drawings for the chest him built forhimself.

3. There also is a brief dip into the philosophy of craft, and he gently makes the case that allwoodworkers are “aesthetic anarchists”.

Naturally a book like this tends to stir controversy, as every woodworker has opinions about what tools are truly basic,depending on the journey of their own experience and personal preference.

ISBN 978-0-578-08413-8

Hardcover, 475 Pages

The Highland Blog Book Review of The Anarchist’s Tool Chest .

Publisher: Lost Art Press
Reviews: Lost Art Press Reviews

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