Anyhow ol’ Castor screws the sides of his toolbox on after boring holes for the screws. I got to thinking that would be a lot more long-lasting than our bent nails. Plus my daughter likes drilling. Unfortunately it turns out I don’t have a drill bit that’s small enough. Even more unfortunately for the actual finishing of said toolbox, it got us on to drilling again. We now have a board with a lot of holes in it.

Then daughter caught me watching Paul Sellers planing wood, and demanded to know the name of this tool. Why don’t we have one, she said. We do, I said. I have two, I said. She says, give me one. No, I say, they are sharp. Show me, she says. Now you know that my planes aren’t sharp. So then I make some dust with the plane on the board with holes in it. Off to find the what I have to sharpen. My sandpaper tile is god knows where. So sharpening is done at the kitchen sink with a waterstone. I also apparently purchased a honing guide, which I used (contrary to Mr Sellers’s opinion, but I didn’t feel up to it.) Some happy time sharpening later, shavings were achieved, but not uniformly.

So the toolbox didn’t really progress.

So, I found my tools! Amongst which is a Japanese ryobi saw, the kind that cuts on the pull stroke and has a disposable blade. My woodworking teacher 6 years ago must have recommended this, because I had totally forgotten I had it. In my mind I have a tenon saw, but not in my box. I must say the ryobi cuts a lot cleaner than the bad saw we’ve been using and the pull stroke is much easier for the girl. Recommended if you have kids! We cut the sides of the tray to length today. I’m pretty sure they are the right length, also. I mean, I made this cool cut list and I have been trying to stick to it (and checking it along the way – it’s been right so far).

But irritatingly, we walked into the Swedish department store Åhléns and what should they have but wooden tool totes (see below)! So I say to the Girl “Ours is much better,” and she says “No, it’s not.” So much for “quality time” eh? And it’s only 129kr, about $15.

Anyway, amongst the found items in the big orange cardboard box that holds MY tools were a brace and several bits, and a hand (eggbeater) drill. Girl has always been frightened of my power drill and was afraid that these would also make noise. Her joy on seeing how quiet the eggbeater was was unconfined. She bored several holes and loved it and we even did one from both sides that actually met in the middle first time! How cool are we? Brace and bit were more difficult, she doesn’t have the weight for it, I think.

Oh: so Girl is kind of left-handed, which I keep forgetting. The eggbeater drill can only be used right-handed. Is there such a thing as a left-handed hand drill? Or is there some ratchet you can switch to go back and forth that I don’t know about.

Next time we can assemble the tray and paint more things pink, I think.

I wanted to show more pix of the toolbox today but the lure of the snow was too much for my daughter. According to the newsletter we are a “feel good story” which I think is hopeful, if not entirely proved true yet. But for my legion of fans out there :-) we are not gone, just resting and getting the house into some kind of shape that we can mess up with sawdust.

In the middle of this I posted a cry for help on the forums, looking for good books that might teach woodworking with an emphasis on hand tools. I received several helpful replies and by some wandering process happened upon Paul Sellers’s books and videos. His approach really resonates with me and with the short woodworking course I took seven years ago at City & Islington Further Education College.

Because of that course, I had come home fired up to make myself a workbench and made a couple of mortise and tenon joints before realising I simply did not have the space in our tiny flat and put everything away.

Everything, you say? What is “everything”?

- 2 stanley planes, a 4 and a 5
- a Japanese saw which I no longer remember much about
- a swing brace
- a marking gauge
- a mallet
- a set of bevel-edge chisels
- some sharpening paper that I mounted on a flat tile
- a coping saw and extra blades
- a 6” combination square
- a tenon saw

And, in a lovely surprise, I found I also have a quick-release vise as well as a more traditional one. I recall vaguely that I purchased this from Axminster for the planned workbench.

And now I’m looking a Sellers’s book and thinking – hey! I have nearly everything I need! Which reinforces my feeling that the way he teaches is a good way for me to pursue. Plus I like his touchy-feely vibe and his passion for both woodworking and teaching.

And, the first projects in the book are stuff I would really like to make. You know, I can show off my spatula and my stool and stuff. Anyway, as soon as the 36 boxes which remain have shrunk to a more manageable number, and we have found the vacuum, I’ll be back on my toolbox project and hopefully will be starting with some projects from Mr Sellers.

So a couple of things are done; we have been inhibited by the snow on the balcony or “workshop” as I call it, and the fact that we are moving countries in under a week.

We have glued and nailed the main box together. And painted it pink. Photos are in bad light, sorry.

From this I have learned:

1. I have no idea how to both hold a box together and nail it and the same time. How on earth do people do this? I am thinking some type of clamping device but I wasn’t able to work it out. I just kind of gyrated around the workmate and the floor. Very unsatisfactory!

1. My daughter is good at nailing. (She’s not yet very good at sawing though)

1. I am about as good as my daughter at nailing. (But much better at sawing)

1. We like painting.

1. I wish I could find my tools – all I have are a bad saw, a drill, and my combination square. I know that somewhere I also have a tenon saw and a plane, and more clamps. Not to mention a freshly sharpened set of chisels. I guess I will find them as the move progresses. They are in a big orange cardboard box, it shouldn’t be that hard to spot.

Here is the base of the tray with the tool silhouettes painted on. This was a lot of fun to do! We drew the silhouettes together, then I painted the outlines and she filled in. I have yet to clean up the outlines though. For various reasons this is the only base we’ve painted yet.

Here’s the rest of the project, under the coffee table. The paper gift bag on the left currently has her tools in it. Classy, no?

I decided we’d make a toolbox, intended for the 9 “Red Toolbox” tools we got, plus various things like nails, screws, a pencil, sandpaper and glue… (The tools are: little saw, little hammer, little rasp, 2 clamps, 2 screwdrivers, measuring tape, and coping saw).

The design is a classic one, a simple box with an upper tray with a dowel handle and a removable tray that sits in the lower box. The tool silhouettes are painted in the tray bottoms. I used a plan from the Australian Better Homes & Gardens as inspiration.

However I also took inspiration from Ana White’s site and redesigned the toolbox to be more decorative. The sides of the box are made of decorative mouldings and the whole thing will be painted a bright red. The tool silhouettes are done in a light pink. Or vice versa. Charlotte’s initials and the date will be on one end.

The Better Homes and Gardens plan said “you can cut everything from two sheets of plywood” but me and my cr*ppy handsaw are not at all dealing with giant sheets of ply. No how, no way, not dealing. And since this project is all about working with Charlotte, no power tools. I modified.

• One board 25×200mm (which is actually 21×193) – also called an 8×1; we needed 1.4 metres so got a 1.8m board. Cost £9.45 (seriously?) + 20%VAT…
• One strip of moulding 25×63 (again, 21×59) – I guess this is 2 ½x 1 in old money; we needed 1.8m so got 2.1m (£4.04)
• Two 12×25mm (1 x ½) strips for internal dividers and such. They should be 1 ¼ x 1 but they had not got such things – 2 x ½ was the next size up. Two 1.8m strips. (£1.74)
• A 4×2 sheet of hardboard – for tray bases. We didn’t need nearly this much but that’s the smallest size they had. (£3.69)
• Sample tins of red and pink paint – Dulux “Red Stallion” 3 and 6. (£3.57 ea)
• Mopstick – 15/16” or 24mm x 48” (£1.80)
• Wood glue, nails, wood filler, sandpaper and a sanding block – expensive, actually, but generally if you do woodworking I guess you have these.

Cut list, modified from the BH&G plan as follows to account for the moulding – meaning I put the moulding over the ends, rather than the ends over the sides, as the BH&G plan has it. Also modified for our sizes of timber and other choices.

CUT LIST
ITEM PART SIZE MATERIAL
A Main box ends (2) 300×193 x 21 Pine (8×1)
B Main box handle 442×24mm dia Mopstick
C Tray ends (2) 100×193 x 21 Pine (8×1)
D Main box base 400×193 x 21 Pine (8×1)
E Tray base 400×193 x 3 Hardboard
F Top box base 400×100 x 3 Hardboard
G Main box sides (2) 442×59 x 21 Moulding
H Tray sides (2) 358×41 x 12 Pine (strips, glued edgeways)
I Tray handle 400×24mm dia Mopstick
J Top box sides (2) 400×43 x 19 Moulding (trimmed)
K Main box dividers x 41×12 Pine (strips, glued edgeways)
L Cross dividers x 20×12 Pine (strips)
M Locators 400×20 x 12 Pine (strips)

At this point most everything is cut.