Three Artifacts, Part 2: The Book

The second item I received was another artifact of craftsmanship; a tome of modern woodworking.



The Anarchist's Tool Chest was self-published by the author, Christopher Schwarz, through Lost Art Press, LLC. Schwarz is not only the author of the book, he is also a co-owner of the small publishing company he helped create in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky with Lucy May and John Hoffman. He is also the former editor of Popular Woodworking Magazine where he worked for fifteen years.


Schwarz was forced to leave the magazine, not by a power grab or some corporate conspiracy but by his own convictions. He decided it was better to live on a four figure income than to slave away his days working at a corporate job where he was expected to make a profit rather than produce the highest quality of work; an idea that we can all relate to.

I first read about Chris Schwarz and this book while I was living on eighty acres of farm land in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. I moved to Arkansas from Austin, TX with my girlfriend Darcy, our dog Charlie, and our two cats in an attempt to get "back to the land" for an undetermined amount of time.

So when I read about Schwarz sticking it to the man (politely) and writing a book sticking it to mass-produced particle board furniture garbage, I knew that it would be something worth reading. I was and currently am the key audience for this book.

I began collecting antique tools about two and a half years ago. The first real tools that I ever bought were a 1 1/4" ship auger and a drawknife from an antique dealer in Denton, TX. I was obsessed with Dick Proenneke's Alone In The Wilderness at the time and was looking to recreate the tool set that he took with him into the wild country of Alaska to build his cabin. I wanted to be able to build my own home (or at a least a rustic stool) out of wood using simple tools.


This path lead me to rediscover The Woodwright's Shop and I then began to discover modern toolmakers who were still concerned with craftsmanship and quality. I don't think I knew what quality was until I ventured down this path.

I think this episode of Roy's show perfectly sums up well...everything. Watch the episode The Spirit of Woodcraft from The Woodwright's Shop.

Three Artifacts, Pt. 1: The Tool

I received three items in the mail yesterday. All of them carefully planned, doted over, essential; hand crafted.

The first item came in a large box sealed with packing tape embellished with green text which spelled out the words, "Lee Valley Tools, Ltd."

I have spent hours upon hours over the last 2-3 years navigating websites and browsing catalogs from fine toolmakers such as Lee Valley/Veritas, Lie Nielsen, Tools For Working Wood, Highland Woodworking, etc. So when I saw the packing tape with the toolmaker's insignia, I was so overwhelmed and unbelieving that I could barely recall what the item might be.

The item: a router plane from Veritas, the Canadian manufacturing arm of Lee Valley Tools, Ltd.

I had spent hours debating between the large router plane from Lie Nielsen versus Veritas's version. While Lie Nielsen stays more true to the original pre-WWII Stanley's, I decided on Veritas's unique design. I was nervous about my decision when I placed the order (or rather, wrote it on my Christmas wish list to my father;) nervous that it might be "too fiddly" and have too many pieces to get lost. However, the opposite is true. It fits the hand perfectly and all the pieces fall right into place. Whereas with Lie Nielsen's version it seems you have to remove the depth stop and depth adjuster when changing or reversing blades, the Veritas router has a brilliant spring-loaded collar that allows for removal of the blade without any further action.


I immediately set to work cutting dadoes for a chisel rack I've been planning to attach to my bench. I'm smitten.

Picking Up Shop

While it may turn out to be a terrible idea, over the holiday break I moved my workbench from the basement to what used to be our bedroom and is now our shared upstairs workspace.
Before:

After:

Before:

After:

The shavings are begging to fly in my new workspace; they are also becoming scattered throughout the entire house (sorry, Darcy). Did I mention we have carpet? (ugh...)

I know it's not THAT great of a view but compared to the white drywall I had been staring at in the basement, it's pretty damn good. It's just too bad that the window doesn't face the east so that I can see Mount Hood.

A Point of Reference

I'm still trying to decide on my "first" woodworking project. I've built several projects through community college woodworking and cabinetmaking courses but they were very heavy on the table saw aspect of the craft and held no emphasis on honing one's skill.

As with many modern woodworkers, the noise and dust of machine woodworking seems unhealthy and unnecessary to me. As such, I am solely interested in the hand tool side of things. Not only is it cheaper financially to use hand tools, it is more practical for those of us that rent or don't have a whole lot of space to store: a table saw with out-feed table, jointer, planer, band saw, chop saw, router table, etc. (not to mention dust collection!) With hand tools, I can work quietly enough (almost) to keep going late into the night even when my duplex neighbor has his kids for the weekend.

It would be a safe guess to say that I subscribe to the ideas of modern hand tool woodworkers, i.e.:

Lie Nielsen


Christopher Scwarz and (of course) Roy Underhill.

I am a purist at heart (not to be confused with Puritan) or maybe that is not the correct word; maybe the very opposite: "anarchist," perhaps. Is there such a thing as an "anarcho-purist"? Maybe my understanding of both words are totally off the mark. I'll have to scrounge up $37 for a copy of Schwarz's book to really find out for sure. At any rate, I have deep convictions that humans were never meant to evolve to a state of such technological malaise or to become so disconnected to the surrounding world.

Eventually I would like to end up making fine furniture as a source of supplemental income, owning my own furniture shop or just setting up booths at markets and fairs. In any case, I intend woodworking to be an ongoing hobby/profession for the rest of my adult life.

For now, my workbench is planted in a 5' x 10' area of the basement of my SE Portland duplex (the other half of the basement will become a seed-starting area with shelving for grow lights come January.) So in the coming days, I plan on organizing my workspace and building a few helpful appliances formy workspace, including: a set of saw benches, bench hooks, shooting boards, and some shelves and racks to hold my tools off of my bench. Everyday I get a little more excited about the things to come.