Thread by @gemorris, I promised more woodworking and less political shitposting so let me share [...]

I promised more woodworking and less political shitposting so let me share my Dutch Toolchest, the weird constraints around it, and the tools I choose to keep in it.

Lets start with dimensions, which are a bit weird for a Dutch toolchest. This form, largely popularized by @RudeMechanic and @1snugthejoiner usually comes in two sizes, both notably bigger than this.

The reason for the size, and thus several of the tool choices we will get to in a bit, is due to the fact that:

1. Before COVID I had the intent to take woodworking classes at Roy Underhill's school in Pittsboro, within driving distance of my home.

and

2. My daily is a Miata.

Working backwards from that constraint we get a maximum envelope, which is very very close to the dimensions of my chest (I did leave a little wiggle room).

The NC (3rd Gen) Miata has a "well" in the middle of the trunk space and I decided to maximize height rather than width.

I'm going to start with the tools that travel with the chest, but don't normally live in the chest. These tools are stored in a tool wrap apron when they are in the chest, and on either the wall tool rack or the bench tool rack when I'm at home.

Starting with Hammers:

Crucible Lump Hammer - Absolutely worth it even though most folks would laugh at the pricetag. It has replaced all other non-claw hammers for me.

Bell Systems 16 oz Claw Hammer - used mostly for driving forged nails

V&B 8oz Claw Hammer - for finish nails

12" combination square. Essential layout tool for me. I keep the head in the apron when traveling (and I have a second 12" rule in the chest to use with it) but when I'm at home this stays assembled on my bench tool rack.

This 12" mill bastard file is something that comes in handy for lots of things, but isn't in my tool list for any one big specific reason. Usually when I'm using this something has gone wrong and the file is helping me fix the issue. Or I'm sharpening a card scraper.

These are the two tools I use most frequently for spreading glue. Schwarz has written about palette knives and their usefulness when making repairs quite a bit recently. The silicone icing spreader is great for bigger glueups and cleans up easily, it doesn't make the travel kit.

Also in the bench toolrack, but not making the travel kit, is a 3/8" Ray Isles English Mortising Chisel and a 1" Stanley Sweetheart Bench Chisel. I have other sizes of these tools inside the chest, and probably wouldn't re-buy them, but I keep them in the rack since I own them.

The tool rack also holds several duplicates of tools found in the chest. Like the 1" bench chisel it is great to have an instance of these tools right at hand, even if the chest contains more specialized options.

Now lets talk bench planes, and about one of the two big compromises which the size constraints on this chest led me to make.

I wanted to have dedicated "coarse, medium, and fine" planes, but given the volume limitations that didn't mesh with a traditional 22" jointer plane.

The Veritas No. 6 Fore Plane is not a tool many have spilled words about, and I think that's a shame. If I only had one plane it would be this one. It serves as my try/jointer plane and I find it to be sufficient in that role despite the reduced length.

One reason I think it does so well in this role is that Veritas positioned the mouth further back than on a traditional No.6, this increased length of the toe helps it register on the workpiece like a larger jointer plane would.

In the jack plane category, I have this antique Vaughan & Bushnell drop-forged steel (not cast iron) plane from the 1920's. A WoodNet member used to precision grind old plane bodies and I picked this one up from him.

The blade has a severe camber for working across the grain.

I know there isn't and never will be a "perfect plane" due to all of the varied tasks we ask a plane to do. However I do think there is a solid argument to be made that the Veritas SBUS is in fact a "perfect smoothing plane". If I had only two planes this would be the second.

Next up is my Veritas low-angle block plane, a fine tool I'm not particularly fond of. I hate that the adjustable mouth isn't fully "captured" like the SBUS and those corners occasionally cause issues. I keep it because no other block plane has an available chamfer guide.

On your left you will find a plane known for wildly varying quality control, the Stanley Sweetheart Shoulder Plane. This is a good copy, I got lucky. It is a "sufficient" plane. I had planned to upgrade to a large veritas but so far this has served my needs reasonably well.

Also over here, some odds and ends have collected. Space being so limited, sometimes things just go where there is room.

An .03 mechanical pencil, an extra blade for the No. 6, a blade holder for the plow plane (stored below) and a drill index for my smaller bits.

Lotta stuff packed over here. These are my veritas trammel guides, lead holder tip, and spare leads. To be honest I don't use them much so far but they have worked perfectly when I've needed them and they take up little space.

Moving back a bit we see the head to the only tool that is stored in a disassembled state (as opposed to just having accessories stored separately). This is the Lie-Nielsen panel gauge. Its a great tool, if a bit bulky for a situation as space constrained as this one.

Now we get to my Starret no. 92 dividers, which is likely to be the nicest pair of dividers I will ever own now that Crucible Tool has stopped producing theirs. These are probably a bit too nice for me, as I don't seem to reach for them unless I need to use them as a compass.

Card scrapers. The Crucible one is insanely good, a true top-tier option. My old one shows the scars of my poor scraper sharpening skills. I may need to do further mods to make a good home for the Crucible scraper, it won't quite fit in the slot for my older one.

Backsaws are the other main area where I had to make compromises due to the size constraints of the tool chest. There just wasn't space for me to store a full sized tenon saw with all of the other tools I felt were necessary.

The compromise is this set:

Dovetail: 20tpi Veritas
Carcass: Xcut Carcass Veritas
Tenon: Rip Carcass Veritas

Almost all of my work happens on my bench right next to my bandsaw which can handle deep tenon cheek cuts. Thus this compromise hasn't really cost me anything so far.

More "things that found a home because an empty space existed there"

1. Stanley Sweetheart Tape Measure
2. Veritas MK2 Sharpening jig w/ camber roller (The narrow blade jig is in the lower section)
3. Chestnut Tools carbide sharpener (for sharpening scrapers)

Moving to the underside of the lid we have the Brooklyn Tool & Craft hardware store saw. A great tool that I would likely use quite a bit in classes but seldom use at home as I have larger panel saws, a miter box, and a bandsaw.

Still an excellently made tool, I do recommend it.

Held in place by the BT&C saw you will find an Olsen coping saw with a Pegas blade (the important part) attached.

One thing about fitting tools into a chest this tightly is that future upgrades (like say to a Knew Concepts saw) would require significant mods to the chest.

Finally on the underside of the chest lid you will find an Auriou cabinetmaker's rasp. Another world-class and worth-the-money tool. Schwarz said this thing gives you superpowers and he was not wrong.

Moving on to the tool rack you will quickly spot something amiss. How are these tools, sometimes a foot long, sitting so low?

Due to the limited overall height of the case, the tool rack is a pre-assembled section that protrudes significantly into the lower compartment.

Starting with chisels, I have left and right skew chisels by Two Cherries and Stanley Sweetheart socket chisels in 1/8", 1/4", 1/2", 3/4", and 1-1/4"

Both are advertised as "bevel edge" and neither are meaningfully so. If budget is a concern buy Narex, otherwise stick to premium

The other English Mortising Chisel by Ray Isles, this time in 1/4". I use this size 80%+ of the time, and it would probably be the second chisel I'd buy after a 1/2" premium bevel edge bench chisel.

Czeck Edge Birdcage Awl in A2 steel. Always works, feels good in the hand, going cheaper means making substantial compromises to the experience of the tool, if not the function. For measuring and marking I'd put this right behind dividers, combination square, and marking knife.

Elemen'tary screwdriver, yet another Schwarz recommendation. The oblong handle allows you to put down major torque on your subject. A pleasure to use.

Marking gauges are extremely critical for repeatable accurate layout. Tite-Mark (brass) is the standard and is unrivaled imo. The Veritas mortising gauge (this one is an anniversary edition in stainless) is the best available option, but I wish Tite-Mark made a two-post gauge.

Dividers and an inside caliper. The steel dividers are a bit rough but work, the brass ones are a bit lightweight for woodworking. The inside calipers came in a box of "machinist tools" and I find it occasionally useful.

Marking knives are very important for accurate work, and this one is great, if not my aesthetic style. The Sub-$20 Veritas marking knife would work just as well as this Blue Spruce version. The important attributes being spear-point and single-bevel.

This corner of the chest as an unfortunate amount of "nesting" going on, where you need to move a tool to get to the one you really want. This Stanley boxwood rule is probably the most nested tool in the entire chest and thus almost never gets used.

Dovetail marking tools by Sterling Tool Works. Really excellent stuff. Also nested but these are tools for a very specific task (rather than general use like the previous folding rule) so the extra step of moving the marking gauges out of the way isn't as much of a problem.

6" combination square. This is a compromise I wish I had not made. I could have made a 12" square fit, if I was always willing to reset the blade to halfway before returning it to the chest. Instead I went with the 6" as it could be returned regardless of setting.

Veritas drawbore pin for reaming drawbored tenon joints, and a carbide burnisher for turning hooks on scrapers. The burnisher is a 3/8" ball-end carbide end-mill embedded in a Nicholson file handle.

This Japanese nail-set is super useful in many situations, I have more specialized nail-sets, but almost never reach for them.

The Shinwa bevel gauge is probably the best budget option out there. Serviceable but not expensive or frequently OOS like the primo options.

12" Starrett rule and a Starrett depth gauge I happened to already own and was able to include in the tool rack without displacing anything else.

Getting through these tool rack tools is a bit of a slog, they are necessary tools but its difficult to be excited about them.

Veritas flush cut saw, comes in handy more frequently than I thought it would for trimming drawbore pins, through tenons, fixing mistakes, etc.

Warrington hammer is competing with the 8oz V&B for driving finish nails, and if I rebuilt the chest I'd probably leave this one out.

This is a tool I really questioned for awhile. Schwarz and Fitz highly recommended them but I wasn't sure they were worth the space. I can say after a few years of using cut and forged nails to build things, these nippers are absolutely worth having around.

I included this center punch because I had it, but between the awl and the dividers I don't need it, I'd leave it out next time.

I will haven't built enough staked furniture with this Veritas low-angle spokeshave to have an opinion on it.

Finally up top we have Gramercy modeller's and rat tail rasps. Not as nice as the Auriou but still good.

Also a Shinwa protractor for setting bevel gauges and laying out angles.

And we're done with the tool rack! I promise the tools in the bottom section are more interesting.

The bottom compartment of most dutch tool chests has a door that is held in place with a wooden lock mechanism (which eats up more space than I can sacrifice) that is accessed from the top compartment. The top compartment then has a metal lock installed to secure everything.

Given that a mildly determined thief could carry off my whole tool chest, I decided to leave off the security features and attached the door via sliding dovetail (it does get a bit tight during high humidity but it has never locked me out)

Up first is the Wera ToolCheck plus, a great way of packing a ton of bolt/screw functionality into a very small package. This one is metric because most of my stationary machines are european.

Next is this DeWalt bit case that holds the larger bits which dont fit the drill index stored in the top section. Its main job however is holding the tapered drill bits that make using cut and forged nails easier.

Obviously the bottom section isn't as portioned out as the top.

We made it folks, the third plane I would choose if I was forced to, the Lie-Nielsen router plane. I absolutely love this tool, even with my goofy plastic knob replacement depth stop screw. This tool opens up a world of joinery even if purpose built planes are more efficient.

In the category of "I already owned it and there is currently spare room" is this Veritas Small Scraping Plane. Its a great little tool, but in no way is it necessary, the second I need the space it is gone.

Next there is a roll of Wood Owl auger bits, stored in a canvas roll I bought from a WoodNetter years ago. These bits absolutely live up to the hype.

A couple of loose ends here, a magnetic edge planing guide that I don't use much anymore, but used to, and a 220 grit sanding block.

The black line in the upper right corner is this granite tile, on which PSA mylar-backed 3M sandpaper is adhered (the small black container holds extra sandpaper). This along with the MK2 honing guides is my sharpening system, which takes up very little space.

Now we are at the joinery planes. These tools are awkwardly shaped due to their fences, thus the "open void" storage rather than bespoke compartments. This is the Veritas Skew Rabbet plane, a very well made tool that I should use more often rather than defaulting to my router.

Next is the Veritas small plow plane. This one I do use all the time as I find grooving operations to be relatively foolproof and enjoyable. Bonus "in-use" photo on this one.

This Miller's Falls eggbeater drill (this one was sold under the Craftsman name) is a fantastic drill that allows very precise control, but is awkwardly shaped and is thus one of the more frustrating tools to store.

North Brothers "Yankee" 10" ratcheting brace. For use with the wood owl auger bits. An excellent tool that is only somewhat less awkward to store than the eggbeater drill above.

Tapered tenon cutter and reamer for building staked furniture. I've only made a few pieces this way so far, but plan to make quite a few more in the near future.

Remaining odds and ends, a thin prybar for disassembly and a file brush for cleaning my rasps.

The pry bar is stored so deep in the chest as to be useless, I always fish the copy out from my home repair toolbox instead of digging for this one.

Here's an empty view of the lower compartment. You can see the addition I made on the left, it corresponds with the location of the modeler's rasp in the upper compartment.

The rails for storing my sharpening tile were a later addition as well.

Some additional data:

Wood Species:
Chest: Southern Yellow Pine
Tool Rack Assembly & Dividers: Soft Maple

Finish: Milk Paint
Fasteners: Brass Screws (aside from the black oxide steel handle attachment screws)

Empty Weight: 33.6lbs
Loaded Weight: 99.6lbs

What didn't make the tool chest? Well obviously my power tools aren't in here, but the primary hand tools that did not fit were my full sized panel saws, which hang on the wall behind my bench.

Thank you all for bearing with me, clearly this is not the type of content I'm used to creating or sharing and also not why folks follow me, but at least now I have a place I can point people when they ask about my tools. Thankfully this thread only cost me a few followers.

Also I'd be remiss to not again mention, Christopher Schwarz and his company Lost Art Press. The tool set shown here is largely the same set from The Anarchist's Tool Chest with slight personal modifications. Schwarz does an excellent job of explaining the "why" behind each tool.

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