I would like to start by saying I am NOT an expert on 18th century tool boxes, but I have been studying them for years to eventually make one for me.
The Master’s tools would have hung from pegs on the walls or on shelves in the shop, but he may/could have kept a box of expensive and or small tools that he locked up. Of course larger tools like a rifling bench or lathe would have been in the shop free standing. Apprentices and Journeymen would have kept their tools in a box, even in the shop of a/the Master, until they became a journeyman and left the Master’s Shop and started a shop of his own OR worked for someone else. I imagine the Apprentice’s and Journeyman’s box or boxes would have gotten more numerous or larger as he acquired/made more tools.
At the old gunsmith shop at Colonial Williamsburg about 10 years ago, they had a rather SMALL box that was less than two feet long and only about a foot or maybe 16 inches wide and 18 or more inches tall. It was a ‘six board” box. (They told me the boards for it came from New England and were White Pine as boards that wide are not found in Virginia unless someone has a tree specially cut at a saw mill.) I had asked about what might be “correct” for an Artificer/Armorer and they pointed to that box, though I THINK it was meant to represent an Apprentice’s Box. I was surprised it was so small and did not have even a tray or till in it, it was just a basic box. It also did not have even one “band” or “skirt boards” added around the bottom, let alone the top, that are dovetailed opposite the way the box boards were dovetailed to keep the wood from racking. The lid was one board and did not have end boards add that drop down to act as a dust shield and keep the lid from racking. It did not have handles on it.
Back in the mid 70’s, I saw original 18th century boxes like this (though larger) in some antique stores in Fredericksburg, VA and was informed these were just basic ‘traveling boxes” for storage of anything travelers wanted to put in them OR shipping boxes. The dovetails and pins in those boxes were pretty large, though, and especially for pine boxes. I was surprised at how large the pins for the dovetails were on those boxes. I was informed these boxes were sort of like modern day packing crates and were originally rather hastily thrown together and not really expected to last a long time, though they were around 200 years old then. Grin.
Honestly, I can’t think of a reason why even a Journeyman Gunsmith would have what I might call a “traveling box” of tools like Modern Day Military Armorers have. Joiners would often carry the tools they needed for a day’s work in either braided grass baskets or canvas bag “tote” (not the period correct term) in the 18th century and return the tools to the shop at night. MAYBE something like that was done at Williamsburg, VA when The Geddy Shop was paid to clean/repair firearms in the Magazine and the work was done at the Magazine. I THINK gunsmiths normally would not have gone to some other place to work guns, though they may have picked them up from clients and brought them back to the shop to work on them and returned them when done. The only common “traveling gunsmiths” I know of in the 18th century were Artificers/Armorers who traveled with the Military.
Armorers/Artificers would have kept their tools in boxes as they traveled with normally the Artillery and assigned to a Regiment or a storage depot. Here is a drawing of an Artificers’/Armorers’ Wagon I have been informed was of an English Regiment from around the middle of the 18th century.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/firelock/PaulSandbyThegunsmith.jpgOne of what might be my silliest questions on making my box was “How big should I make it?” Took me asking about four times to stop asking that question because the answer ALWAYS was, “How big and how many tools do you have?” In my case: the largest tools would be a brace, a Lancaster pattern Hack Saw, and either a carcass saw or Bow Saw and a medium size period “clamp on” vise. I don’t plan on making my box large enough to hold planes as I won’t use them at most reenactments and I want to keep the box at a size I can still pick up and carry. Grin.
OK, so what about smaller tools like punches, files, chisels, etc?
The simplest original method is to have one or two sliding tills in the box and the till/s have divided sections in them for the smaller tools. What I did not realize was with sliding tills, you can slide them back and forth to get down to the second till or slide both out of the way to get down to the larger section at bottom of the chest. So the tills are never as wide front to back as maybe half the distance of the inside of the chest front to back. In SOME chests, there was a sliding chest of drawers for small tools. The BEST book to give you ideas AND answer questions you may not have even though about I’ve found is: The Toolbox Book: A Craftsman's Guide to Tool Chests, Cabinets, and Storage Systems by Jim Tolpin (Sep 1, 1998) I bought my copy at a Woodcraft store, but it is available on Amazon and a number of sources.
Here are some other things I found out about 18th century tool boxes I did not know even though I have a couple late 19th century wood tool boxes that belonged to my Great Grandfather. While you can make the bottom of the box out of just a single board, they usually or often didn’t do it that way. In the grooves cut for the bottom, they put boards running front to back and sometimes they were tongue and groove to fit together and sometimes they just fit up against each other, though not tight so they could expand and contract with the environment. This gave more strength for the bottom AND they did not have to use a large board in the bottom that would have bowed with time from the weight of heavy tools.
Something else I would not have thought about was they NAILED “sacrificial” boards to the bottom of the chest and normally front to back. These were often usually just rough sawn boards as their whole purpose was to keep the chest off dirt packed floors or the grass outside and the boards were replaced when rotted out from moisture or got insect infected. I am not sure, but perhaps/maybe/probably when such chests were kept in a shop with a wood floor, they may not have had such sacrificial boards nailed to the bottom. I don’t know for certain.
As to the construction of the lid; it SEEMS they made them from either one board or sometimes a board with side boards held by tenons and pins to keep the lid from racking and act as a dust shield or used a panel top depending on how big and how fancy the chest was. The panel top lids seem to be very late 18th century and I don’t know how early they MAY have been used for tool chests generally. I plan on using one board (or two boards glued together if I can’t get one board large enough) with the side boards tennoned and pinned as that style was common as early as the late 17th century and would thus be “correct” for any 18th century reenactment. Of course IF I can find more documentation the panel top WAS earlier, I might do that instead. (Chests in the 17th century were often constructed of panels even on the sides, but I think that style died out by the 18th century. However, once again, I’m not certain.) Oh a GREAT TIP I’ve read more than once is NOT to cut the lid board to final dimension UNTIL the box part of the chest is done. That way you cut the lid to fit the box just like they did in the 18th century and especially if the box is not quite square. They used a larger board and went around the sides of the top of the box with a compass to mark where they would cut the lid board. Also if you use one large board for the lid, you have to think about how it will cup over time and which side to install downwards. Here is what I’ve found about that: “Any board that is flatsawn will have a tendency to cup...the direction of cupping can be seen by looking at the end of the board...think of the board trying to straighten out the growth rings...that's how it will cup.” Now I may be entirely wrong, and someone PLEASE correct me if so, but that sounds to me like you should put the curved portion of the grain facing downward? Maybe the side boards tennoned and pegged take care of such cupping?
One thing I never thought about was how to attach handles for the chest until I began studying originals and reading The Toolbox Book mentioned above. MOST of the original boxes I saw did not have handles because screwed on handles could//would crack the wood sides of the chest. The Toobox Book shows a couple of ways to get around that by adding boards to the sides that had holes in them for rope or metal handles. I’m NOT sure how often that was done, though, on original 18th century boxes.
Roy Underhill designed what he calls “A Joiner’s Box” that was published in Popular Woodworking Magazine, but all the links I’ve found don’t work. It may give you some ideas and was designed to be made from “modern size” boards. Here IS a link that works and may give you some ideas:
http://mcnabbsstation.blogspot.com/2011/03/underhil-tool-chest.htmlNow here are some things I am not sure about and maybe someone else can help. I don’t know how big tool chests were before they added the bottom “skirt boards” that were dovetailed opposite the way the box was made. Personally, I plan on using at least a bottom skirt as that is where they nailed the sacrificial boards on the bottom of the chest and I plan on putting the chest on the ground at reenactments. Not sure if I’m going to use a skirt on the sides below the lid, as I don’t know how early that was done or IF it even needs to be done on a small/medium sized chest.
Oh, as to finding wide enough boards for the chest, that can be a bugger – depending on how tall you want the chest. The widest boards I’ve ever found locally in Virginia were 16 inches. I’ve even checked with sawmills and they usually won’t even answer an inquiry on wider boards. Some folks have informed me that wider boards might be found from flooring reclaimed from old houses. Here are some sources, though I have not personally used them:
These next are for white pine:
http://www.berkshireproducts.com/?gclid=CJ3829WN7LkCFbRQOgod3GMAkwhttp://www.goodwoodvt.com/pine_boards.htmlhttp://www.fernaldlumber.com/Fernald_TPS_WidePine2.htmlhttp://www.craftsmanlumber.com/products.htmhttp://wrrobinsonlumber.com/contact/Heart Pine would also be correct, but is long gone from Virginia:
http://www.redhillslumber.com/?gclid=CIKuzrGP7LkCFctxOgodgGMAugHope this helps, Gus
