As some of you know, I got into this whole wonderful obsession when my wife’s grandfather passed away and left me with a lot of his tools. He was a hard working, honest man who through his work as a carpenter embodied the “Als Ik Kan” ideal of the Arts & Crafts movement. When I first started to go through the tools five years ago, I experienced a kind of fascination everyday as I stumbled across tools I had never dreamt of in my wildest philosophies. Central to this inheiritance was a gigantic rusty toolbox that weighed in well over 50 pounds. Inside that toolbox was treasure trove of tools old and new, pristine and weathered. It is these tools that most hold the mark of the man who put them to such great use throughout his career. I use this as a preamble to hopefully explain some of the reverence that I have for all of these pieces.
The magic toolbox still has not disappointed me. At first, I disregarded many of the tools as esoteric or too highly specialized to invest any effort into learning to use them. As my own work has matured, I continue to go back to the magic box to see if I can pull a rabbit out to help refine my work. Since my discovery of chairmaking with my recent Windsor epiphany, I have become interested in the ancient brace and bit set nestled at the very bottom of the toolbox.
In doing some shop modifications to make room for a fancy Roubo bench that I hope to start this summer, I broke out the brace to drill some clearance holes around some stuck masonry screws that were holding in place a base cabinet. Wow, that is fun stuff! The control and “feel” for the wood that you get with a brace and auger bit is next to nothing as far as I am concerned. Don’t get me wrong, my 18V cordless drill and 18V impact driver will never be far from my hands, but yet again, the magic toolbox has provided another option for a more delicate approach.
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