Hanging Cabinet for my Chisel Problem

[Lasse Hilbrandt]

I can get you some more pictures if interested.

That would be nice. Especially of the double door and how its hinged

[Zuye Zheng]

That would be nice. Especially of the double door and how its hinged

Oops, meant to reply earlier, just piano hinges inset.

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[george wilson]

I just do not have wall space for such nice cabinets. My shop is quite large,but much of it is machine tools for metal,and wood working machinery. I have an area clustered around my bench for chisels and carving tools. Just too much stuff,period.

Well,I do have my toolbox which I made in 1970. It is a pattern maker's style. Pine exterior and mahogany interior.

Up at the top is sandpaper storage. That's my wife in the picture. A lot younger than I am. That thing that looks like a white "ghost" is a sea ray skin I bought for a restoration job.

The old tool box has been carried about for nearly 50 years,and is showing some age on the outside(as they were designed to do). The Mahogany interior is still pristine. It is mostly full of more chisels and gouges.

Those white boxes with red ends are Bigsby vibratos for guitars. Guess I won't have to buy any more for some time!

In picture #2,you can just see the ear end of my Norris jack plane on the extreme left. There is a left over cast aluminum banjo rim atop the chisels in the 2nd. picture. A remnant of the 60's when I made a lot of banjos. I used to be able to get those cast and machined in the small shops that existed back then. No more these days! They made a huge sound.

[Pat Barry]

Hey George, what is attached to the side of your tool box? Is that the handle? A bit unusual shape for a handle but I can't figure out what else it might be.

[george wilson]

It's a type of handle that's supposed to have a thick oval iron ring through the hole,or a rope spliced into a ring. A bit of sea faring touch.

[Pat Barry]

That makes sense now. Rope handles attached directly to the side panel don't usually leave much room for fingers but with your setup its a lot better.

[Ray Selinger]

George, in your photo I noticed in channel gouges, scribing to the English. I bought a pattern makers tool box and he had cranked neck versions. I know what they do in pattern making, but have you found other uses? thx

[george wilson]

I got a real bargain on a whole bunch of crank neck gouges back in the 70's. Funny story: I had just arrived at a big outdoor flea market at Kutztown,Pa.. I had $500.00 in my pocket,and here was this very large youngish guy. He hat several blankets spread out on the ground,with a very large assortment of great condition tools spread out on them. He said he wanted $24.00 EACH for the gouges.

I knew I'd be blowing my wad of cash right there,but you can't mess around in a flea market,or next time you look,the tools may be all gone. I think I picked out 24 gouges and a nice Disston back saw. I asked him how much I owed him,and waited for the bad news. He screwed his face around for a minute and said "$150.00". I paid him QUICKLY and bailed out of there. Should have been closer to $600.00!! I think I scorched my pocket getting out my wallet fast enough!!! I was called upon in my work in the museum to make casting patterns that no one else seemed able to do. There were 30 patterns in the 18th. C. fire engine we built. Other things popped up from time to time. At this stage,I haven't much use for them,except they add to the pleasure of going into my shop.

A while later,here was this same guy carrying a very nice Atkins miter box saw. A large one. He wanted me to buy it for $50.00. Was pretty insistent. I think he had figured out how he messed up and was trying to recoup some of his money. I gave him the $50.00,although I'd not have paid that much for the saw elsewhere. Not in the 70's. I have never used it to this day,but it is a really nice saw with an applewood handle,aged to a beautiful dark chestnut color. I need to put it up in classifieds here sometime and get my money back!! My instrument making does not require use of a miter box. And I don't have the miter box that would have gone with it. Have to make a wooden one if I wanted to use it. But,I bought a small Jorgenson(?) miter box w/saw when we bought this house,to do some repairs with. Haven't used it since then.

[Ray Selinger]

Even $150 was a lot of money in the early '70s, at least to me and I was a union carpenter apprentice. $500 would have been a king's ransom, but good tools always cost dearly. When I started my apprenticeship in "71, they no longer required you to purchase a full set of tools, in the late '60s that was over $300.As I heard frequently from those journeymen just a little older than me. I think my patternmaker's tool box had gone through a couple of estate sales. It had a boxed set of E.A. Berg butt chisels. William Marple&Son Shamrock bench, paring and the cranked neck gouges sets, each set was almost complete, plus a couple of braces and bits, a collection of Yankee screwdrivers and marking gauges. I also bought a 6" shop built metal shaper.

I don't have wall space for nice hanging chisel cabinet, so my English and Swedish chisels are in drawers.

[george wilson]

His asking price of $24.00 per gouge was a lot at that time too. I was glad that he couldn't do math in his head!! The tools were in such great shape I couldn't resist them.