William Ogilvie Tool Chest

[David Carroll]

As part of an earlier thread on chisel sharpening, I mentioned that I had purchased a 19th century tool chest with tools. Several folks showed interest in the chest and it's contents. I was looking for photos of the chest (which is currently in storage and not so accessible) but I did find a trove of pictures I took some time ago that might be of interest.
It's beautifully veneered with crotch mahogany, holly, and Brazilian rosewood, on the inside. The outside is pine and oak.

Chest open.jpg

The construction is typical, a fixed saw till in the front, and sliding drawer till. The pulls are all leather and rotted, sadly. In the saw till are a complete set of bits for a brace, and several saws.

Chest Saw Till.jpgkist4.jpg

Along with a lot of chisels!

Ogilvie Chest 018.jpg

A full set of mortise chisels, pig-stickers was in one of the drawers. Note: the smaller one, in the middle with the lighter handle, is a Ray Isles that I put in the group to show the difference between the new one and the vintage ones.

Ogilvie Chest 020.jpg

Along with a few nice planes, a moving fillister on the left and a bridal plough on the right.

kist17.jpg

Most of the tools are in ready to use condition, all of the exposed steel was treated with cosmoline, or something similar. Originally, I approached Patrick Leach looking for a set of Pig-Stickers. He saw me coming, and said he had a set coming in from a chest he had just bought in Scotland. He added he really hated to have to part it all out, and would I be interested in buying it and keeping it together. I was, and am.

Best Regards,

DC

[Stew Denton]

David,

When I tried to pull up the photos, they did not pull up, and instead there was a message that it was an invalid attachment.

Stew

[steven c newman]

Have had more than one post that this happened to.....I had to go back and reload each and every photo a second time....and cross my fingers...

[Jim Koepke]

Sometimes the files are too big and one needs to use a conversion app to condense them.

jtk

[David Carroll]

I re-uploaded the photos, they show up on my computer, but they did before too. Can anybody tell me if they're now visible?

[Karl Andersson]

I can open them

[Kent A Bathurst]

I re-uploaded the photos, they show up on my computer, but they did before too. Can anybody tell me if they're now visible?

Tickety-boo.

thanks

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for the extra effort, they open fine for me.

That looks like a great chest of tools.

jtk

[Tom M King]

That belonged to someone who took pride in their work.

[Stew Denton]

Wow David,

The pictures showed up, and I agree completely with Tom. An incredible set of vintage tools. They look to be clearly before 1900.

It would be great for the tools to tell us a story about the history of the chest, tools, projects they made, and the folks who used them. David do you know much about the history?

David, or anyone else have a good idea of the age of the tool chest? Can't tell, but the hand saw looks newer than some of the other tools.

Thanks for posting the photos.

Stew

[David Carroll]

Wow David,

It would be great for the tools to tell us a story about the history of the chest, tools, projects they made, and the folks who used them. David do you know much about the history?

David, or anyone else have a good idea of the age of the tool chest? Can't tell, but the hand saw looks newer than some of the other tools.

Near as I can tell, from the research that I have done, the oldest saw is a Tyzack, with a very old mark, here it is:

Tyzack Mark.jpg

I can't remember what the dates were that Tyzack worked at this address, but it was early, one of the Tyzacks was working on Old Street as early as 1848. So the saw could possibly be that old. So that is the earliest date that the chest could be from. From the other direction there is a Nurse branded dovetail saw (brass backed, closed handle) that is later. This company (C. Nurse & co.) were in operation until about 1930 (as I recall) so that is the latest date that any tool can be dated. so roughly 80 years or so. 1850 to 1930. All of the tools that are branded come from this period. The reason I lean toward the earlier dates is that the Nurse saw is not stamped with Ogilvie's name, and nearly every other tool in the chest is. So I wonder if it were a later addition.

When I retire (about 3-5 years out) I plan to really do an intensive study on this chest.

Incidentally, I'm not sure what to do with it really, once I'm dirt-side-down. None of my boys are really interested in hand tool woodworking. I'd hate to see it get parted out piecemeal, though Patrick Leach told me at the time I bought it, that he could make a lot more money doing just that. I do intend to travel to Scotland and visit some museums to see if any would be interested in owning it. For the time being I'm it's caretaker and enjoy studying it, and gently using some of the tools.

DC