How do you keep socket chisels?

[Clarke Davis]

Hey folks. First post of what I hope are many more to come. I'm awaiting the arrival of 4 new Stanley Sweetheart socket chisels to augment/improve a few old Craftsman chisels that are all one-piece metal. The socket chisels won't begin to fit my workbench where the Craftsman chisels reside close to hand. I'm just fishing here for some ideas about how best to keep these 4 new socket chisels. They won't come in a box, as they are separate random sizes. But I anticipate using them almost more than any other tool, dovetail saw excepted. What do you do with yours? Thanks for sharing.

[lowell holmes]

I keep mine in a leather tool roll.

https://www.google.com/search?q=leather+chisel+tool+roll&rlz=1C1UCRO_enUS813US813&oq=leathr+chisel+t&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.11383j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[Kory Cassel]

I haven't pulled the trigger yet, but I'm eyeballing those Benchcrafted Mag Blocks. If you go that route, or another rack type arrangement, it's a good plan to have the handles pointing up or they can fall out during seasonal changes and get stepped on or kicked across the shop.

[Edwin Santos]

Make a holder out of wood and screw it to the wall?

[Clarke Davis]

Sounds like a practical solution that would make them more accessible than a roll. Not much empty wall space, but maybe worth rearranging some things.... Thanks for the replies.

[Steve Clardy]

My good ones stay in a drawer. Beater in a rack hanging on the wall

[Edwin Santos]

In my case the better tools, or the ones I reach for most often go on the wall over the bench. The beaters are in the drawer in the low rent district. Keeping chisels exposed in a rack helps me (a) reach for the one I need with no searching quickly and (b) encourages me to put it back in the correct place and resist accumulating a pile of tools all over the bench. I cook better in an organized kitchen and work better at an organized workbench. Some people prefer it the other way around, I suppose it all depends on your tastes and working style.

I adopted slatwall after some discussion in this forum and I'll never go back. Hope any of these ideas are helpful to you.

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[Phil Gaudio]

You could build a wall cabinet for them:

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[lowell holmes]

This is my roll.


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[Andrew Seemann]

Mine are in a rack in my wall mount tool cabinet. I like keeping the edges protected. That keeps me from dulling them with my knuckles.

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[steven c newman]

Have made two "racks"...both are now along the back edge of my bench.

One has a series of slots, sized for the chisel's blade to slide through....with a hole drilled in the center of the slot, sized to allow only the first half of a socket through.

Second one is just a bunch of spacers, with a 1x screwed to them....spacers are about the same thicknesses as most of the chisels I use.
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Rack no.1.....no. 2 was to have been for just squares
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They have since been evicted....as more chisels showed up....

Either way...hang the socket chisels by their sockets..NOT the handles...unless you like picking the blade up off the floor...

[Rob Luter]

Crude but effective

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1830/42327947994_67aec58ba5_c.jpg

[Patrick Walsh]

As said hang form socket not handle.

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[Clarke Davis]

Excellent ideas, folks! Thanks a bunch. I envy all the space I see. My bench is up against the cold air return on the furnace, so not much easily-accessible space at or near the bench itself (that isn't already taken up), which is where I'd want the chisels. Edwin, while little of my life is organized (by choice), I too work better in an organized space. If a tool doesn't go right back to its living space, it is in the way. These ideas will help me figure something out. I appreciate them.

[Bill Houghton]

All my chisels live in drawers.

[Philip Glover]

Rare earth magnets are another option.
I used 3/4" dia. for this 12 chisel rack.
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Regards,
PCG

[Charles Guest]

I work out of a tool chest though not one of the magnificent things you see in magazines. I basically built it in a weekend so your imagination can fill in the rest.

It takes a little getting used to, but once you are used to it it's great. My most-used tools reside in the top set of open trays in the chest, and this of course includes bench chisels. If I need both hands for something, I slip the chisel I'm using into my leather apron which I feel naked without. Works great, highly suggest the combination of the two. My theory on wall racks is that all tools will fall to the floor at least once in a woodworker's lifetime when either retrieving or putting a tool up, probably more. I work on a concrete floor (blech!) so that's not acceptable. My tool chest sits on a couple of bearers, so it's not far off the floor in case of a drop. I have mishandled a tool or two over the years but it just dropped into another part of the chest resulting in no damage.

[steven c newman]

Maybe a rack like this?
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When I outgrew this chest,,,I flipped this rack over, and attached it to the back of my bench....
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[Clarke Davis]

Thanks for your help. It helped me figure out that the rack I currently have on the back of my workbench (a bit of a combination of Steven's two racks) -- was devoted to a few tools that could easily go somewhere less accessible, and I could then re-figure their space for when my new socket chisels arrive. Sadly, Canada Post seems to like my chisels and is hanging on to them in their Ottawa warehouse.....