oobject’s latest list aims to collate the ultimate in gadget porn with some of the most fascinating tool boxes of all time. Unfortunately, the list shoots its wad with the first entry: the tightly packed and meticulously organized walnut-and-iron guts of Henry O. Studley’s incredible piano-fixing tool chest. After that, the rest of the entries seem positively mundane, although the vintage machinist tool chest from 1949 is another gorgeous treasure, an alter to a sense of purposeful manliness I will never once possess.
top 10 interesting tool chests [oobject]
droooool =D – love the teeny tenon saw!
Not quite as pretty, but an interesting story with it: patternmaker’s toolchest.
… from the times when designing toolboxes was still an art.
Whoever created that one must have gone to MIT or equivalent. Imagine the amounts of odd combinations he had to go through to manage such a tightly compacted, space-efficient layout for all the tools someone could need?
s/g/alter/altar
That one is relatively famous–its the H.O. Studley chest, made and owned by a piano repairman. You can get a wallpaper of it here:
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/ProjectsAndDesign/ProjectsAndDesignArticle.aspx?id=27038
It really is a pretty phenomenal achievement… I keep wondering if it was evolutionary or designed at one in a giant spurt of creativity.
Reminds one that the term “masterpiece” once referred to the object a Journeyman craftsman constructed in order to prove his skills and be accepted as a Master. That custom produced some truly stunning works, some of which were useful as well.
One of the projects on my own “tackle someday” list is to build a suitably high-quality wooden toolchest… though I’d specialize it for locksmithing than for piano repair. But considering that as a woodworker I still make a good programmer, it’s gonna be a while before I’m ready to attempt it.
TOOL PORN!
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