Chisel Storage

[Peter Bell]

I am in a wood group club. We are having a tidy up and trying to get things back in to some semblance of order.

With your own shop you design things to suit your self and organise your more expensive tools with a bit more care. The same goes for your chisels and planes that you have spent hours on rehoning and flattening and do not want to see them rolling around in a draw where they can get blunt and have unprotected edges where they can cut you if not careful.

Now, in a club situation we have a few more things to consider. Not every one is that thoughtful about tools that they do not have ownership on,. Some have no problem in grabbing the most recently sharpened one to use as a scraper to get glue off a bread board or some other project that they are doing. These same people never sharpen by the way, funny that.

Ok. We have some shelves where the chisels can go, at present they just lie in a tray rolling around. They are not a matching set, different lengths, different handles , different thickness. So. making a stand, while can be done, means that the slots and holes have to be specially made for each chisel and they then have to be put back into that particular spot. Something that I know is not going to happen hence the reason they are left in a tray to roll around and damage the edges.

Probably no answer to this and maybe I should, just like everybody else put it into the too hard basket and move right along.

Any ideas would be appreciated. I had thought about using a magnetic bar to hold the chisels and with some perspect clear plastic at the bottom, so you can see which chisel it is and still give protection to the blade edge and to protect the hands when not watching what you do when selecting the required one.

The problem with this is that I will possibly be the one paying for the magnetic bar, I supply enough for free now. And the naysayers will ring the enthusiasm out of you bit by bit if I ask the club to pay.

IDEAS?

Peter

[glenn bradley]

This works well for me and any chisel can go in any spot (I am of course too anal to do that but, it could be done).

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachme...6&d=1240598384

The strip of wood just has holes drilled in it with a Forstner bit. The magnet bar had to be cut to length. Both parts are only double stick taped in and have been that way since they were installed "temporarily".

The same method could be used with the holes facing down and the magnet against the back of the shelf space.

[glenn bradley]

Am I unreasonable to believe the death penalty should apply to each of those offenses?

No, it would help cleanse the gene pool

[John Coloccia]

Fill the drawer with kidney beans.

I just hang mine, by the way. On pegboard of all things. It's surprisingly stable. I got the idea from a picture of Taku Sakashta's workshop (who was just murdered, by the way.... RIP).

like this:



More shots of his shop:
http://www.blue-g.com/taku_sakashta.html

Very practical layout. No pretense. Just tool storage. It gave me a great deal of inspiration recently, and really helped me get over the "storage" hump. Now I just lay things wherever they fit, and I'm much more relaxed about the whole thing. It's quite liberating, actually.

But filling the drawer/tray/whatever with kidney beans will probably keep stuff from rolling around, and if you can get them to bury the edges, then that's even better.

[Mark Roderick]

I have no answer to your question. I just wanted to say how impressed I am that such a club could even exist. I can't imagine letting other people use my tools, or how I would keep myself from strangling the guy who uses my freshly-sharpened chisel to remove glue, or fails to flatten the waterstone after use, or puts a scratch on the bottom of my #7. Am I unreasonable to believe the death penalty should apply to each of those offenses?

[James Taglienti]

Maybe you guys should consider some rules. Of course lots of this stuff you're saying sounds like simple consideration for others. Would people go nuts if you sharpened a chisel and hung on to it, and if someone asked to use it, tell them to go sharpen a different one first? I don't know.
I store my bench chisels in the top drawer of an old kitchen cabinet. They have a sliding till over them that holds some rabbet planes, and behind that is a pile of assorted goodies. Each chisel has a spacer between it, 1/4" x 3/16" and they sit up on a block of pine to keep the edges off the bottom of the cabinet. They are a mismatched set that I've collected over the last 5 years or so and are all different lengths, so I stuck a block of pine in there at the end of each one. It's ugly but it works. The same could probably be done with any 4 sided tray or drawer.
I did pretty much the same thing with my planes, little dividers, but the toe of each one sits on a strip of hardwood. For the crank chisels I have a wall mounted compartment with graduated dividers that they all sit in. If I ever get a NOS set of bench chisels I'll probably do the same with them. I've gone through about 100 vintage bench chisels and these are the cream of the crop, so the set would have to be pretty good. I'm waiting for that 12 pc. set of Bergs with the packing grease still on them.
By the way John that has got to be the sweetest lineup of saws I have ever seen

[Kari Hultman]

Peter, below is a link to my chisel rack. All the cavities are the same size. Foam glued into the front of each cavity keeps the chisels from rolling around or falling forward. If I had to do it over again, I would use a front board that is not as wide so it doesn't reach the bottom. That way I could see the cutting edges of the tools.
http://villagecarpenter.blogspot.com...isel-rack.html

[george wilson]

If I owned such a club,I wouldn't want anyone but myself grinding and sharpening any tools. I would also supervise the use of the tools.

Maybe the tools are jointly owned? I don't know how some of these clubs are organized.I've had a few totally newbie know it alls come into my shop. they were difficult to instruct. I invited them to not return.

[Peter Bell]

Thanks for the replies. The club is part of a church group and most of the members are getting on, even the power brokers on the committee. Most have given up but just come along to fill in time but will they withdraw from the management group. no way, it is their last bit of power they have.

So the younger members, not that much younger really, just humour them, and get on with the daily things that hold a group together.

I, and a few other dedicated members bring in our own private tools like planes, chisels, etc for my own specific projects but they will get their hands cut off, even if they just look at them from a distance less then an arm's length.

I do not mind the sharpening of the club's tools, they never get scary sharp anyway just sharper than blunt like they always were. Mine are as sharp as I can make them just to show that I can do it, but not theirs.

I will show members how to do their own and sometimes do them completely. especially for those that I know are helping the club in some way that their particular talents are beneficial.

Peter

[Peter Bell]

If I owned such a club,I wouldn't want anyone but myself grinding and sharpening any tools. I would also supervise the use of the tools.

Maybe the tools are jointly owned? I don't know how some of these clubs are organized.I've had a few totally newbie know it alls come into my shop. they were difficult to instruct. I invited them to not return.

--------------------

George, It is a strange set up. It is not a club as you generally know it. Apparently it is an arm of the church as part of a community program to encourage the community to socialize especially those who have found themselves single or retired. It has been going for about twenty years and has been given a lot of Government grants because it is part of the church. The ladies have their groups and on a Wednesday their could be as many as two hundred women in the large hall doing needlework and whatever women do. Secret women's business.

That is how this all started the women had something, the men nothing, although we do have some women in the wood group as well. We are fortunate that our president is an mechanical engineer so is always tinkering with the larger machines, jointer/ planer, sanders etc.

We have about eight lathes, that are kept in good order, and you have to have the authority to operate each and every machine. Hence, with the chisels the previous guys who did it are just burnt out hence the reason why they are blunt. I have been given the ok to use the grinder and play with the clubs chisels because the President knows that I have a sharpening fetish and he is just getting some confidence in me,

As well I have some leverage because I have just saved them $5000 plus an annual fee of $1500 because I have just put in a termite monitoring bait system around the perimeter of the building. It has taken me about 8 weeks, one or two days a week with no woodwork just digging holes into rock and shale.

it is an ungrateful task and I wonder why I do it especiall when the same suspects go missing when the word work is mentioned.

Peter

[Rob Young]

I have no answer to your question. I just wanted to say how impressed I am that such a club could even exist. I can't imagine letting other people use my tools, or how I would keep myself from strangling the guy who uses my freshly-sharpened chisel to remove glue, or fails to flatten the waterstone after use, or puts a scratch on the bottom of my #7. Am I unreasonable to believe the death penalty should apply to each of those offenses?

We have a similar situation at my Guild (www.kcwoodworkersguild.org). I've volunteered to start fettling and organizing the handtools. Some work has been done but I hope to have things organized and fully functional soon.

My goal is to keep the basic set of tools in good general repair. A motley collection of bench chisels, bench & block planes, measuring and marking tools and a few lonely hand saws. The majority of the shop is taken up by power tools. I'm also hoping to make it known that the hand tools are there, ready to use and are a compliment to the power tools, not a competition.

To this end we have large 6' x 4' cabinets lined with peg board on the inside. This lets me arrange shelves, pegs, hangers and whatever I need as the collection grows. I can take some photos if it would help but it's pretty much the idea that John C. posted above. We just have it on the inside of a cabinet that can be locked. Since we also host events for the public in our Guild hall, the ability to clean up and lock away small items is a benefit.

The expectation is that the Guild common tools are available for those without a shop of their own or during group builds or to supplement those personal tools you bring in while working on a project.

As to sharpening, I've made it know I'll do my best to keep them serviceable but if somebody drops one on the floor it will be a learning opportunity for them to clean up that nicked edge. We have a lot of people who have never done woodworking joining so I see this as a positive teaching experience. They can learn how to care for the tools, make some decisions on what they want to buy for themselves and practice skills.

But ask me how I feel about this in a year...

[Russell Sansom]

Peter,
I like the idea of Chris Schwartz's tool rack in his workbench book. Two problems, though: The points should not be exposed near your work area and good carbon steel should be kept out of moving air.

I have always stored my good steel in closed cabinets that swing open for access. The tightly-sealed cabinet ( or a drawer would work ) completely avoids rust without oil or wax. Chris's tool rack is open-air.
I also have a problem with points up storage. Makes me tremble with fear. Touching a truly sharp chisel even in the most casual way usually means a trip to the hospital or, at best, a couple days out of commission while the cut heals. It's my policy to throw all chisel caps away ( two-cherries chisels come with them ) for the reason that putting them on means putting your fingers too close to the massive razors.
So...for me... 1) tips down, 2) stored in dead air. I'd consider storing the chisels when not active and putting them in a Chris Schwartz-like rack when people are working.

[Peter Bell]

Thanks Russell. The problem I have is that what I would do for my own shop has to be different to what I do at the club.

We have some, not to bright people here at times, and they have little respect for some tools. I have to place the chisels in a protected space for their safety so they do not cut themselves while not paying attention.

Even though , we are near the ocean, we do not have damp conditions so rust is not a real problem, I suppose having been to Orlando, Florida the weather compares favourably with ours.

I have spent six weeks in Omaha, Nebraska over the Christmas period too, so I understand the extremes of those two places.

Peter

[Randal Stevenson]

Peter, have a sharpening day!


I assume the people have to learn some basic safety stuff. Then make sure they have taken the sharpening "class" before they can use them. I was told YEARS ago, how a sharp knife causes more damage, that can be repaired easier then a dual one, due to the lack of snags, etc.

[Bill Whig]

Ok. We have some shelves where the chisels can go, at present they just lie in a tray rolling around. They are not a matching set, different lengths, different handles , different thickness. So. making a stand, while can be done, means that the slots and holes have to be specially made for each chisel and they then have to be put back into that particular spot. Something that I know is not going to happen hence the reason they are left in a tray to roll around and damage the edges.


Peter

In high school, each tool had an outline on the pegboard which was its home(would work just as well for a planes on a shelf, I think).

This makes it easy to know when "everything (is really) back in it's place", and avoids collision of tools.

Who knows, it might work.

Bill