20L0318 - The Anarchist's Tool Chest, Revised Edition
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This is the 2025 edition of Schwarz’s groundbreaking book first published in 2011, reprinted on a superior grade of paper with a larger typeface and a more spacious layout.
A self-proclaimed "aesthetic anarchist," Schwarz challenges the notion that woodworkers need a vast array of specialized tools, encouraging them to choose and use their tools more thoughtfully. He combed his collection of woodworking plans, some dating back nearly 300 years, compiling a list of hand tools essential to the completion of nearly any furniture-making project. Interestingly, a few of the tools described in the current edition differ from the 48 listed in the original 2011 printing, reflecting Schwarz's changing perspective after another decade and a half of woodworking experience.
Written in a relaxed, engaging style, the book examines several tool categories in detail: planes, marking and measuring tools, edge tools, saws, sharpening equipment and others. It covers their design and function, how to identify real quality and utility, and which tools you can make yourself, with plenty of tips and anecdotes as well as black-and-white photos. Now refined in the 2025 edition, the last section explains how to build a tool chest, adapted from 18th-century designs, with illuminating insights into its design and construction.
Hardcover, Smyth sewn, 6" × 9", 373 pages, 2025.
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The Anarchist's Tool Chest, Revised Edition
This is the 2025 edition of Schwarz’s groundbreaking book first published in 2011, reprinted on a superior grade of paper with a larger typeface and a more spacious layout.
A self-proclaimed "aesthetic anarchist," Schwarz challenges the notion that woodworkers need a vast array of specialized tools, encouraging them to choose and use their tools more thoughtfully. He combed his collection of woodworking plans, some dating back nearly 300 years, compiling a list of hand tools essential to the completion of nearly any furniture-making project. Interestingly, a few of the tools described in the current edition differ from the 48 listed in the original 2011 printing, reflecting Schwarz's changing perspective after another decade and a half of woodworking experience.
Written in a relaxed, engaging style, the book examines several tool categories in detail: planes, marking and measuring tools, edge tools, saws, sharpening equipment and others. It covers their design and function, how to identify real quality and utility, and which tools you can make yourself, with plenty of tips and anecdotes as well as black-and-white photos. Now refined in the 2025 edition, the last section explains how to build a tool chest, adapted from 18th-century designs, with illuminating insights into its design and construction.
Hardcover, Smyth sewn, 6" × 9", 373 pages, 2025.
