After 26 Years of Thought

Before stick chairs, campaign furniture and workbenches, I had some hard cheese for tool chests. “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” wasn’t the start of my tool chest obsession. Not even close.

Soon after I was hired as junior editor at Popular Woodworking magazine, I got my grubby little managing editor hands on an obsession-feeding little book: “The Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton.”  I got the first edition. You should absolutely seek out the second edition of the book, which is one of my favorite woodworking books of all time.

The book is about Benjamin Seaton (a woodworking anti-hero), his tool chest and the tools within.

Seaton is not a renowned 18th century woodworker. Not at all. In fact, the reason the chest is so famous is that Benjamin built the chest, filled it with a complete set of new tools (thanks, dad), then didn’t really use it much. Instead of working as a cabinetmaker, Seaton made his nut as an auctioneer and undertaker. His chest remained mostly unmolested. Some of the tools a…