Summer 2025
July 20-24

Class size: 10
Cost: $1,070
Materials: $200

We're very happy to have Megan Fitzpatrick, editor for Lost Art Press, returning this year to teach how to build the Dutch tool chest and a sawbench. This project is great practice for hand tool and layout skills and features a slanted lid that fits in the back of your car!

It's fairly quick to build, and Megan will show you how to add breadboard ends and hand-tool-cut fingernail moulding to protect the lid edges, ensuring your tool chest looks great and stands the test of time. Then, you’ll explore more foundational hand-tool skills as you build a solid sawbench that you can use to support your tool chest, yourself, or, of course, lumber as you’re sawing it.

A fan of a full-sized English tool chest, Megan found that traveling with one wasn’t easy. So when on the road, she uses a smaller and more portable Dutch tool chest (like the one that appeared years ago in Jim Tolpin’s “The Toolbox Book”) for ferrying her tools hither and yon. 

With dovetails only at the bottom, this chest is fairly simple to make – the basic shell goes together in two days…or three more relaxed days. We’ll dress it up both for good looks and longevity by making a top with traditional battens (which will keep it flat for the long haul),  a hand-tool-cut fingernail moulding, as well as a hand-raised panel on the fall front and a tongue-and-groove back. Then, we’ll attach the top with butt hinges.

Next, we’ll learn even more hand-tool skills as we make a traditional sawbench, which is handy not only for sitting on to eat your lunch, but also for sawing stock to the desired length or width. Plus, it doubles as a place to set your new tool chest.

All the hand-tool and layout skills that you learn – dovetails, dados, rabbets, cut-nail joinery, mouldings, rules for carcase construction, and more – will serve you well for all your projects to come.

Tools:

Required:

PTSW will be providing all the required tools for this course. However, if you have any of your own tools, it is valuable to get comfortable with them. Bring along any tools you already have. Some optional tools may be useful.

Recommended:

• Smoothing plane

• Marking gauge or cutting gauge

• Marking knife

• .5mm Mechanical pencil

• Dividers

• Try square or 12” combination square

• Sliding bevel or dovetail marking gauge

• Dovetail saw

• Bevel-edge chisels (1/2” and 3/8”)

• Mortise chisel 1/4” or 5/16”

• Mallet

• Tape measure or folding rule

• Rabbeting plane, moving fillister or a large shoulder plane

• Dead-blow mallet (school has some to share, but recommended to bring your own)

• Hand drill with bits (school has some to share, but recommended to bring your own)

• Hammer (16 oz.) and a nail set (school has some to share, but recommended to bring your own)

• Coping saw with extra blades (school has some to share, but recommended to bring your own)

Optional

• Block plane

• Router plane

• Carcase saw with a bench hook

• Tenon saw

• Your sharpening equipment

• Beading plane or other moulding planes you wish to use for your back boards

Prerequisites

Some skills required. This course will be fast-paced and physically demanding. It is recommended that you have some basic hand tool practice, such as one of our weeklong or weekend beginning hand tool classes, but mostly, it is important to have reasonable hand strength and physical stamina. This course includes 40 hours of classroom time, much of which will be spent standing, cutting joinery, hand planing, and hand sawing. For the more experienced folks, it will provide an opportunity to deepen your knowledge and experience with hand tools. If you have questions about whether or not this course is a good fit for you, please don’t hesitate to reach out to info@ptwoodschoool.org.

Class Information and Registration

Classes run 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday in Building 304 at Fort Worden. Map. Read our What to Expect page for general information about the school and our course Registration Policy. We highly encourage you to sign up for the waitlist if the course is full.