This weekend Janel and I followed an estate sale lead from her aunt and uncle that promised a good selection of hand tools. The sales began Thursday and we didn't find out about it until Sunday, so most of the hand tools worth looking at were already gone by time we got there. There was, however, a pretty cool chest that caught my eye and I instantly recognized it as a carpenter's tool chest. The only reason I recognized it was because of my recent interest in hand tools and I have come across many pictures of similar chests on the web. The sticker on the chest said $350 but since it was the last day of the sale, everything was 50% off, so I picked it up for $175. I don't really know what it's worth, but it seemed like something I shouldn't pass on.
Every carpenter a 100 years ago would likely have a similar chest to keep their tools in and carry them to and from job sites. I think that typically the carpenter would have made the chest himself and assume that is the case for mine. Unfortunately I don't know much about this chest and who used it. I couldn't find any names or dates in it. It has three sliding trays in the top half of it and below that is all open space for larger tools. The corners of the chest and the trays are all joined with hand cut dovetails and you can clearly see the scratch from the marking gauge from when the cuts were laid out.
Here is a photo that I got off the Lost Art Press website that shows several carpenters and their tool chests. This photo is circa 1910 and I assume that my chest is from around that time as well, possibly a little later.
