Boxes for Travelling Tools
A
decade ago, while road testing the new Veritas chisels (then only O1
was available), I built a box partly to house them and partly to
demonstrate them in use ...
This
coming weekend I shall be part of a dovetailing workshop, and decided
that it was time to build a new box for these chisels. These are the
chisels I use in demonstrations, such as wood shows.
For one
thing, the number has grown from 5 to 7 chisels (I had made a 1/8"
from a spare pre-production 1/4" - this was before this size was
available from Veritas - as well as a 3/8" fishtail chisel. At
some stage Veritas will be producing their own version. I do not have
any details).
A second factor was that I thought the existing
box was a little OTT, and wanted something more subtle, and less
in-your-face. The fact is that the joinery in the new box is far more
demanding than half-blind dovetails of the original box, but only
those experienced might recognise this.
It has been a month or
more since I have had any regular time in the workshop. My practice
has been crazy busy, but now I have a few weeks leave. In particular,
I had some time free yesterday and today. This has been therapeutic
and fun. I hope others get something from the details here ....
The
light wood is Jacaranda (in both boxes), which is the last harvested
from a tree on our property several years ago. It is softish, not so
nice to saw and dovetail, but planes beautifully. The darker wood is
Makore. Another wonderful wood to work with.
The construction
of this box is based on mitred-through-dovetails - all lower corners
and the end upper corners. This makes it easier to plough through
grooves for the base and top. The mitred corners are also, in my
view, far more aesthetic, lending a balanced presentation from the
top.
The
sides are held in a sticking board when ploughing grooves with the
Small Plow.
The
rebates were planed with a skew block plane and then fine-tuned with
a rebate plane. This is the main use I find for rebate planes
...
This
is the underside ...
And
from the upper side ...
The
finger depression was carved with chisels ...
Inside
the box, the chisels are held very firmly with a combination of rare
earth magnets and individualised spaces for each chisel ..
The
O1 Veritas chisels differ from the PM-V11 chisels in that their
ferrules are square at the front, while the PM-V11 are curved (below,
the lower handle) ...
This
square section enables the design to butt them fore- and aft. They
cannot move about. Plus the magnets hold them firmly as
well.
All
production handles are made of Torrified Maple.
The two O1
chisels I modified come from pre-production stock, which was used for
testing purposes. These have Bubinga handles. The 1/8" I sanded
down and stained in an attempt to match the others. The fishtail is
an original Bubinga pre-production handle.
On my return from the workshop, I decided to build a few more boxes. Each would be able to be offered as an example of design options.
The
second box
is for a couple of dovetail saws, in particular a Veritas 20 ppi and
a Veritas 14 ppi (which I have re-filed from 14 degrees of rake to 10
degrees of rake and 15 degrees of rake for the first 1 1/2" of
the toe). The 20 ppi is excellent for thin board and softer wood,
plus works well for crosscutting (such as the shoulders). The idea
behind the progressive rake in the 14 ppi saw is to make it easier to
start in hard, brittle wood, and then cut more aggressively.
The
wood here is US Black Walnut, and the 20 ppi saw was used.
The
design again involves mitred through dovetail ends and sides rounded
at the top. The mitred ends make it possible to hide the grooves
...
The
lid pull is incorporated into the curved end, something I should have
done with the previous box ...
Slide
it back to reveal the two dovetail saws ...
The
third of the tool boxes
was made in Black Walnut and Hard Maple ...
This
time, simple mitred corners. The notable feature is that there is no
spline or reinforcing. Instead, the end grain corners are sized and
glued.
Sizing involved a layer of glue on the end grain, allow
to near-dry, then add fresh glue. The glue fills the straws and the
joint avoids being glue-starved.
The
opening to the top in at the end facing the camera ...
Here
is the finger pull ...
Inside,
there is a Knew Concepts 5" Titanium fretsaw with one of my
custom handles, along with a Kerfing
Chisel.
It’s time now to return to the original box …
This was re-purposed from the original chisel box to hold marking tools.
Inside
are a two cutting gauges, a 12"/300mm combination square, a
4"/100mm double square, dividers, marking knife, sliding bevel,
and two dovetail gauges.
Regards
from Perth
Derek
February 2022