The Anarchist's Tool Chest
- Author: Christopher Schwarz
- Format: hardback
- Status: Currently reading
- Started:
Disobey Me
I hope to make the case that most woodworkers I've met are "aesthetic anarchists" — people who work with their hands, own their tools and seek to live in a world where making something (anything) is the goal of each day.
Woodworkers generally labor alone, producing objects that are the result of just our tools, our minds and our hands.
So though woodworking might seem a traditional, old-time skill, it is weirdly and wonderfully radical in this consumerist age where buying stuff is good and not buying stuff is considered fringe behavior.
1. Lastmakers
Anarchism is the realization that all large institutions — governments, corporations, churches — have divided up the tasks we do in our jobs to the point where these institutions do wasteful, dehumanizing and stupid things.
I realised that I wanted to build furniture using fewer tools that were of good quality. I wanted to build things that couldn’t be bought in a store. I wanted to build things requiring more skill than wallet. And I didn’t want to support the system that encourages endless consumption.
So one night I hatched a plan that would pull together all the threads that had been running loose in my head. I would make do with fewer tools. I would make everything our family needs. And I would make my shop as nice as the rest of the house. Here is that seven-step plan.
- Make a list of the basic tools and machines that I need to build furniture. Base this list on my research into the historical record and my years of practical experience.
- Sell off every damn tool and jig that I don't need that has been cluttering my shop.
- Use that money to turn my workshop into a comfortable and inspiring place.
- Build a tool chest that is based on historical forms [...].
- Fill the chest with the tools on my list and forsake any tool that won't fit into the chest.
- Write a book about the experience.
- Build stuff until I croak.