# One of those projects



## Chris Knight (18 Feb 2005)

You know the sort - basically a nice simple job where everything goes wrong? Having just joined a local group of carvers, I needed something to cart a few chisels back and forth. I should have stuck with chisel rolls, they are very economical on space but I wanted something that kept the chisels from touching each other, hence this travelling box.

Problems started straight away when several hours of frustration on the Woodrat revealed I was trying to dovetail with a bit that had the approximate shape of a coke bottle - the tails came out beautifully curvaceous but my pins alas, were straight . In the end I cut the joints by hand. If I had waited a day then I would have been able to use the new bits that the Postie delivered from Woodrat. What started as a nice wrap-around grain was more than somewhat buggered when I cut pins in the wrong piece and had to swap it for a tail piece. In trying to sort everything out and getting a couple back to front in the process, any matching of the grain is purely coincidental.

The inlay in the top started as a 2mm inlay but when I scraped it level, what had been black turned out to be a yukky grey colour - ho hum. I did have some real ebony but I then needed to recut the grooves for a larger strip. This done I knocked the top off the bench just so I could have a nice dent in it - I think the technical term is "distressed" and while the piece is not an antique I reckoned as I had more or less copied the thing from a picture of an old one, that distressed was OK.

And so it went on. I won't bore you with any more tales of woe except to mention that it is the only woodwork I have done where something is held in place with knicker elastic! In this case it is the chisels in the lid. Chisels come in so many shapes and sizes and I found that to accommodate them all was taking more trouble than I would have believed possible but knicker elastic did the trick. Fortunately I did foresee some problems in this area so made the racks in the lid and the box removable which was just as well because they have been in and out like the proverbial.

All I need to do now is fit a box lock when that arrives from a supplier and some sort of carrying strap. Then I plan to finish it with waterborne acrylic.








Knicker elastic just visible






The fall flap enables me to get at the chisels in the body of the box


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## Mcluma (18 Feb 2005)

Sorry but :!: :!: 

I don't see what your complaining about

THAT IS ONE GOOD LOOKING CASE :lol: :lol: 

I hope you will have a lot of fun with it

McLuma


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## Newbie_Neil (18 Feb 2005)

Chris

What a magnificient toolbox. You obviously love adversity and overcoming it.

Well done.

Cheers
Neil


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## StevieB (18 Feb 2005)

Looks good to me  What did you use to cut the inlay grooves with? I have tried making and using a scratch stock before now but have never managed an accurate consistent line to be honest.  

Steve.


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## Alf (18 Feb 2005)

Chris,

Yep, _every_ project of mine seems to go like that at some point. However mine tend to look like it, whereas that looks fabulous in all respects. Even the elastic.  How are you going to react when you're fellow carvers all ask if you'd make them one too...? :twisted: 

Cheers, Alf

P.S. Impressed to see you're keeping the chisel quantities into the low twenties... in that box, at least. :wink:


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## dedee (18 Feb 2005)

Very nice. I hope LOML does not see it or she will think I could make her one. She curremtly uses an old plastic tool box and a canvas tool roll.


Andy


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## Chris Knight (18 Feb 2005)

Thanks for the nice words guys - I honestly wasn't fishing for compliments though :wink: 



Alf":j2wy6cn3 said:


> How are you going to react when you're fellow carvers all ask if you'd make them one too...?


I'll re-read some of the excellent advice on the pricing a kitchen thread and make sure I quote a high enough price! :lol: 

Steve, re your question on the stringing. I usually do use a scratchstock and did for the 2mm inlay I had first put in but for what you see now, which is 1/8 inch wide, I had a suitable router bit and used that in a DW 621. The trick to a scratchstock is to sharpen the cutter absolutely square edged and polish the faces on a fine stone then take fine cuts and not hurry.


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## tim (18 Feb 2005)

Chris,

Looks great and I'm sure the dent will make it look like you haven't just made the case for your new club!! :lol: :lol: 

What stops the horizontal chisels sliding back and forth in the holes?


Glad to see no pics of the result of removing the knicker elastic from its original role!!  

Cheers

T


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## Chris Knight (18 Feb 2005)

Tim,
Thanks. The chisels stay put by gravity at the moment (when not laid on the bench as it is in the pix, it will be carried upright. Still, I am sure something will be needed, haven't quite decided what yet.

The knicker elastic is actually brand new - at least it came off a haberdashery card - apparently modern ones work on a different principle! :lol:


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## tim (18 Feb 2005)

> The chisels stay put by gravity at the moment



Sure - but it looks from the photo that at least some of the chisels are capable of moving freely through either of the retaining holes. Don't they damage the end panel that the tips touch - given that their job is to remove wood that they contact?

T


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## Chris Knight (18 Feb 2005)

Tim,

They do contact the end panel and may in due course chew it up but the racks are removable/replaceable and I know already that I shall want to modify the design and I don't mind if the wood gets beaten up at this stage.

The difficulty is that I shall want an ever changing collection of chisels to occupy the spaces (the selection depending on what I am carving at the time), rather than a fixed set in which case, I could size precisely the holes and holding arrangements.

Unlike cabinetmakers who rather like a nice set of chisels with matched handles - at least I do - carvers opt for loads of different handles which whilst roughly matched to the size of the blade, should look as different as possible from each other because one is constantly picking up and putting down the tools and a distinctive handle speeds the selection of the appropriate tool from an array of maybe 20 or so, (those 20 being a subset of maybe a few hundred tools a professional carver will use)

Chris Pye rehandles brand new tools for this reason.


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## Waka (18 Feb 2005)

Chris

If thats what you turn out on a bad day, I'd love to see what you can do on a good day, very impressive tool box.

Your bad days excel over my good days.


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## Midnight (18 Feb 2005)

Chris..

this you call a castastistrove....???????????

mannnnn...........this is depressing......

<le sigh.....


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## Jorden (19 Feb 2005)

Hey Cris it sounds like we attended the same woodwork school, most of my jobs go like that  
The more I learn about woodwork, the more convinced I am that the difference between a master and an average woodworker is that the master knows more tricks for when things go wrong!

Nice looking chest though  


Dennis


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