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How I Organize My Hand Tool Cabinet

Which Tools Do I Reach For the Most

My tool cabinet is the final project for Semester 1 of The Hand Tool School. It combines every bit of knowledge crammed into one project. Its overengineered for sure just so that I could fit every single joint from the semester into it.

It took me a long time to build my cabinet, but it took me even longer to figure out the storage inside. I kept setting up chisel racks and plane cubbies and stuff and then switch them around. I kept searching for the best way to store things in the most efficient and ergonomic way. I built projects while working from the cabinet and started to realize which tools I needed the most and refine how I grouped them and where I stored them. The result is a highly optimized tool cabinet where everything has a place and that place is specifically chosen through building projects.

This makes my cabinet not just a storage option, but as refined and efficient a tool as my workbench.

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Brandon Nordin

Really enjoyed this, great to see inside your head on this. Was surprised however to see the non ergo approach to saw storage. Even your 14in sash saw ( hanging on side cabinet) seems to require several delicate manipulations to extract. Given the frequency of use as well as eye Andy appeal of these tools, an teying to think through my own solution.

    Shannon

    Nothing delicate about it. It hangs on a custom shaped block that matches the inside profile of the handle. It just pops right off the cabinet side and pops back on. As far as the drawer goes, those saws will be moving into their own rack. Frankly I have a saw problem and I get sent a lot of saws to demo by manufacturers. Many of them I give away but others live in a drawer because they are so specifically tuned as to not be needed that often.

Jonas

Possibly a time to put a question I’ve been wondering about a long time:

Why is the anglosaxon woodworking tradition so reluctant to knives? You yourself put them in a rarely used drawer and use them only for spoon carving, Paul Sellers goes to all awkwardly troubles to avoid using a knife (uses a chisel to sharpen dowel ends and a gouge to make spoons), James Wright rather use backhand rasping than picking up a knife, I have never seen Chris Schwarz using a Mora knife, and even the big Roy Underhill himself seems rather uncomfortable with a knife in his hand. I would have thought that at least the American tradition with its closeness to wilderness and outdoor life would have embraced the knife, but I haven’t seen this. Or am I just looking at the wrong places?

In the Swedish tradition, the knife is always with you in the belt. It comes handy for both big and minor work: shaving away the bulk of excess wood, rounding a butt end, finishing up after turning, making dowels (then you can keep then square in the end so they bite and not get loose), breaking a sharp edge, chamfering a corner, even out a rounded shape, fitting a handle on an axe (indeed making the very handle), smoothing concave and convex surfaces etc.

In my opinion, a knife is in essence nothing but a plane where you instantly can change both direction and thickness of the shavings. Admittedly it takes some practice to blend in the different cuts in flat areas, but for rounded and tubular objects it is perfect. You may – at least initially – end up with a surface full of small facets, but they are all silk smooth and gives in my opinion a far more interesting look and shine, than the dead smooth surface left by rasping and sanding. A diamant shines because of its facets… 😉

Any ideas on why this difference exists?

    Shannon

    I blame the Puritans! No, honestly I have no idea. I agree with you completely on the bias and can’t imagine why. I really like using my Sloyd knife but you’re right it gets put away as a special use tool for spoon carving instead of living large where I can use it all the time. I would guess it has to do with industrialization. Sweden has stayed mostly agrarian while North America went heavy into the Industrial Age. Machines took over everything. I think that is you move into the farm belts you will still find the pocket knife in widespread use. In fact early on in the Woodwright Shop Roy used his pocket knife for just about everything.

      Jonas

      Well, I can only recommend you to give it some more practise. Maybe not on the front of your next chippendale cabinet – but possibly on the backside. In skilled hands it is a really versatile, precise and fast tool – especially for objects that are cumbersome to fasten in a vise. (over the years you get lazy and only bother to fasten when it is really necessary)

      And there are few better ways of learning to understand wood than using a knife. You notice immediately when you’re working against the grain and can stop in an instant, long before you get a split/tearout.

        Jonas

        And as I realise I haven’t even mentioned it: a HUGE thanks for your work with the web site. It is a great pleasure to watch each video. I’m really enjoying it. Thanks!