Tool chest content

[Dave Lehnert]

In a tool chest (antique) was it common to carry things like a saw-vice or hand crank grinder for sharping or were tools like that left behind in the shop?

[John T Barker]

Other than looking at tool chest books and that great tool box in the Smithsonian I have no experience to base an answer on, So...I would think that a worker that works in a shop and goes out in the field to work is expected to spend the time "out there" getting the job done as fast as possible and then getting back to the shop to produce more. Being prepared in the field would be expected, I think. I would think tool sharpening would be done in the shop and the most one might see in the field would be a stone or two for touching up a chisel bevel.

A gut reaction to the question.

John

[Todd Burch]

When my grandfather was a young man, he would go out to the job site with his crew to build a house. This was in Missouri in rural areas. There was no electricity. He told me that he would set up his area to sharpen handsaws, and he and the rest of the crew would start framing. When a saw stopped cutting as efficiently as it could, a framer would bring it to him and he would dress it up there on the job site. All saws stayed sharp on that crew.

I would guess an answer would be "it depends". One man's tool chest might even be nothing but sharpening equipment.

[Jerome Hanby]

I think depends is definitely the answer. Some folks place a very high premium on keeping tools sharp. My mom has repeated several times how her father spent most of his time in the cotton fields moving from child to child (with kids and grandkids, about a dozen at any given time) sharpening hoes. he didn't believe in working yourself to death trying to chop cotton with a dull tool.

[Randy Alkins]

You might try asking the Mercer Museum in Doylestown PA. They have the most complete collection of old tools I have ever seen.

[Jeff L Miller]

Being an accumulator (so my sife says) of old tools and tool chests, I've run into a few of the same things in antique chests.

There is almost always a sharpening stone of some sort. I've also found files and saw vises as well as small clamp style grinding wheels in a lot of the chests. As was mentioned above, the traveling carpenters that transported their chest to a job site needed to keep things sharp if they were going to be there for some time. Many also had a tote that they could take a few necessary items for a short job and they would leave the chest at home base.


There is nothing like digging around in an old tool chest and finding the treasured worn favorite tools and the personal touches of the maker.


Jeff

[john brenton]

Don't know whether you're planning to build your own, or you're actually looking for historical fact. I know for myself that I have a separate box just for saw sharpening with the vise, the brushes, the jointer, the chalk and compartments for the files.

I keep all of my edge tool sharpening stuff in a drawer.

I think a saw sharpening vise or a hand crank grinder would be innapropriate for a tool chest.

[Dave Lehnert]

A tool chest is on my list of things to build. Just need to get some projects done promised to friends.
My question was more for historical fact because I never see a saw vice or grinder in a chest. just hand planes, saws etc...... Would seem like a good idea to include them. But then again weight is also an issue. Only carry what you need.

[harry strasil]

FWIW, I keep a hand powered grinder in my shop trailer and a small simple saw vise in one of my demo shop tool chests.

If a saw happens to meet up with a nail or a chisel gets dropped and the cutting edge meets up with another tool or a brick or some stone while you were on the job in the old days it was frowned upon for a worker to leave the jobsite and travel back to the shop to sharpen a necessary tool.

This is the folding saw vise I keep in my toolchest, it doesn't weigh much and will fit in one hand and it can clamp to a saw horse or saw table etc for use.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/sawvise.jpg

and this is the little file holder I keep in the chest and use, it doesn't need a saw vise to hold the blade any vise will do.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/sawfileholders002.jpg

Hope this helps.

Also more often than not at the steam shows and living history places I demoed/demo at, after seeing how well my saws cut I was/am asked if I can touch up a saw for the hosts shop or use.