Goodies to Fill My Tool Chest!

I had a very nice Christmas and holiday season with family and friends in Germany. Since I was home, I thought I would take the opportunity to bring back to Spain some more goodies which should help fill out my tool chest here.

I wound up having to pay extra as this duffel bag was nearly 30 kilos!

This is difficult for me, as I would really like to bring a LOT of stuff here, but it just doesn't make financial sense, and I can live without many things.

That being said, I do have a nice batch of "nice-to-haves" here now.

Noticeably absent are any western saws. They didn't quite rate high enough on the list of priorities to replace anything in this bag. I am making do with my Ryobi Dick saw. Also missing are more chisels. I find that the three I have (in sizes kinda small, kinda medium and kinda big) are all I need at the moment.

Unloading the above bag, I thought I would document what was in there after I took out the boring stuff like t-shirts and underwear.

This first photo shows from left to right, my home-made tapered tenon cutter ala Tim Manney that I made a couple years back to match my tapered reamer that is already here. Not shown is the blade that gets attached with a c-clamp. There is also some sandpaper backed with foam that Pedder gave me, a few belt buckles for leather work, a couple of maroon and gray scratchy pads, some ebony scraps, a hunk of wenge, some leather wax, and a buttload of slotted screws and Roman nails that I got from Dictum. I bought three bags of the biggest ones they had which are 2 1/2" long. They should be great for clinching.

Next, I brought back my spokeshave roll which I left there after taking it to Denmark. I finally found the blade to my adze, which was safely hidden in a pocket of the tool roll I forgot was there. - Do yourself a favor and don't get old.

I also brought my 5/8" WoodOwl bit which should be great for staked furniture. I also bought some new tiny Proxxon drill bits, and I bought a new tapered drill bit for pilot holes for the Roman nails. For good measure, I threw in my flush cut saw, too. It's small and light.

This wasn't in the bag, I had brought it here a few months ago. I think it is a type 10 #2. There is a few things wrong with it for collecting, but it should make a fine user. It came with that ugly front knob, so I replaced it with a vintage replacement. This plane will hopefully soon get rehabbed and put to work.

My plow plane and a set of blades in a case I made for them long ago.

A mongo 1 7/8" skew rabbet plane. I haven't had good luck with this one yet, but perhaps I can get it working well. This picture also has a pair of dividers (I love me some dividers), a French side-bead plane, and a low-end block plane probably made by the Ohio Tool company.

I have been really missing my 6" adjustable square, so I brought it back. I chose these planes as they aren't my nicest and best ones, but should work well and can be sold when I leave Spain. There is a Sargent VBM 409, which is the same size as a Stanley #4 (I rehabbed this one a while back and it works great), and a #8 sized Sargent jointer. I'm not sure exactly which one it is, I'll have to do some investigating. I got it in this condition as a bargain from eBay. The previous owner rehabbed it, and did a fairly nice job. It should be easy to get this thing working well. I have never used such a big jointer before, so I look forward to getting to know it.

Last of all, I got some wood in the bag. There is a pretty board of black wattle that was sent to me from Austrailia, a chunk of mirabella from Denmark, some quarter sawn oak, and a few bits of American birch for an upcoming project, and also to replace the pine locks in my chest with. I just feel better about a hardwood for these. While I was at it, I made some more of the lock pieces that are attached to the drop panel of the chest out of ash. I'll use these to replace the pine ones that are currently on it. A little overkill never hurt anything. Also in this photo is The Essential Woodworker book, and a bunch of cribbage board pegs.

Not bad for a buttload of tools in a checked bag.

Next I'll have to set up the insides of my chest. I have to figure out how to get all this stuff in here.