Chris Schwarzs Lost Art Press ran a series of articles on good ol Mr. Studleys Tool Chest last week.
I first got turned on to Henry O. Studleys tool chest back in the late 80s when Lee Valley Tools used an image of it for one of their catalogue covers. When I built the house I was living in then, I added one of the major items I had alchoices wanted; a built-in magazine rack and book shelf in the can. That catalogue sat in that rack for over a year and I spent a great deal of time studying that cover while doing...ahem...other things, trying to figure out how Studley did it. Studleys work is beyond amazing.
I believe credit for this image should go to Fine Woodworking magazine, but I have enhanced it considerably since finding it. |
What I didnt know until recently was that Studley built a workbench that matched his tool cabinet. Chris has also written an article about it; a teaser for Don Williams book about Studleys work.
This is Chris Schwarzs image of Studleys workbench, which he will probably kill me for because I messed with it; straightening out camera distortion, changing the lighting a bit and getting rid of the distracting background. |
I tried to build a modified version of Studleys tool cabinet with no luck, even after making three attempts to get it right. The biggest problem is that I ended up buying more tools than ol Henry. Who knew I would enjoy the hunt and the purchase of old tools as much as I enjoy using them? The second problem is that I dont have room for a workbench and a floor-style tool cabinet, and wont have for the foreseeable future. Another major problem was that I kept ending up with odd shaped areas that wasnt large enough to hold anything I owned, or any that I planned to purchase. It was a livable irritation, but an irritation nonetheless. After completing the plant shelving unit I have been working on for 10-months now, I plan to build a combination bench and tool cabinet, sort of like a Melhuish No.100, but one on steroids.
This example of a Melhuish No.1 was sold by David Stanley Auctions in 2004 for a few cents off of $3000. |
Chris latest entry in this series is in regards to how much flak he has taken for being involved in the Studley project in the first place. I havent been running up against this situation as long as Schwarz has, but I have probably bounced off of it more often than him. Being one of these guys who questions everything, then has the cajones to actually question the answers, I have run up against the "wood wall" Chris is talking about in this post more times than I care to image. Recently, an example of this just played out, and again, it was instigated by a Chris Schwarz post.
Chris ran an interview with Konrad Sauer from Sauer & Steiner Toolworks regarding his newly designed "K13". This new plane design for Sauer started to sprout legs on some previous thoughts I had on planes, thoughts that I had been forming for a while. In general, these thoughts were directed, overall, to the height of hand placement while using a traditional plane, and specifically, dealing with the high Centre of Gravity those high hand-holds produce.
This is an image of the Sauer & Steiner K13 Panel Plane. Sauers customer wanted a plane that oozed speed. Me? I just want one that doesnt feel like it is going to fall over all the time. |
Sauer brought the front knob down considerably and gave the lines more sweep as they moved towards the rear of the plane for an appearance of speed. Im not interested in a fast looking plane, mainly because I know that saying "speed" and "hand planing" in the same sentence is an oxymoron. I was, however, very interested in that lower front knob. By the time I finished reading the interview, my thoughts had legs that ran as long as the knees. By the time I had finished reading everything that was posted about it on the Sauer & Steiner blog, they had ankles, arches and even toes.
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