My Saw Till On Steroids

My Saw Till On Steroids

For awhile now, I’ve needed a larger saw till to house my growing handsaw collection. I put the task off until I found the right wood for the job. Last year someone gave me several large Siberian elm logs, which I sawed into lumber on my portable bandsaw mill. The wood is beautiful, and I thought it would make a nice till. So after air drying the boards for a year, I started on the project.

In thinking about the design of my new till, I had to make some decisions. First, I decided to make a large till because I have a lot of saws. Second, I decided to make the till a little bit fancier than most tills you see because I have some very nice saws that deserve a special home. I want to enjoy seeing this till full of saws hanging in my shop, so designing in a little bit of extravagance on the front end is a small price to pay for years of enjoyment.

The work began by gluing up and sizing boards for the top, sides, and bottom of the main carcass of the till.

The central body of the till is approximately 38”W x 44”H. This is where the handsaws will reside. At the bottom of this section is a space for three small drawers to hold saw filing accessories.

Off each side of the till I hung a 13”W x 38”H cabinet for backsaws. The front of these cabinets is set back 1” from the main body for design aesthetics. The visible joints of the till are dovetailed. Joints that won’t be seen are dadoed, glued, and screwed, with the screw heads countersunk and plugged.

The till needed to be designed to accommodate my smallest to largest saws. This was a test run to make sure all the saws would fit before proceeding further.

Next I put a back on the till made of ¼” birch plywood covered by figured maple veneer. The end panels of the till are matching maple veneer on both the outside and inside of the till. I had a piece of maple crown moulding with light figure that I purchased a few years ago at our local second hand building supply store. This made a suitable trim for the top of the till. I stained the elm carcass with English Chestnut oil stain and applied a satin polyurethane finish to the whole piece. Then it was ready to hang on the wall.

The next step was making drawers. The drawer fronts are elm covered in matching maple veneer. The sides are cherry, which I also cut on my sawmill.

The final step was making the doors. Originally I had planned to make panel doors with elm rails and stiles and figured maple veneer panels. After showing the project’s progress on the Furniture Maker’s Forum, though, the Lumberjocks there suggested I make leaded glass doors. I’m not sure if they were serious or joking, but after thinking about it I figured, “why not”? That would certainly meet my goal of making this a fancy piece. Unknown to those Lumberjocks, I’ve made leaded glass doors for projects before, so I knew I could do it. My only concern was that the glass could easily be broken by flying or falling objects in a shop environment. If that happens, though, I’ll just make a repair.

While thinking about the leaded glass design, I had an idea to incorporate a beveled glass element with my saw etch logo on it. So I purchased two 4” x 4” beveled glass squares and took them to my friend who does the laser etching on saws that I make. I think they turned out really nice.

With assembly and installation of the doors, the piece was finished. It resides in my shop just above a chest that was made by my grandfather, and that sat in my father’s luthier shop for many years. I believe they would both approve.

The capacity of the till is 27 handsaws and 38 backsaws. The till is nearly full now, so if I acquire more saws I’ll have to either sell some or, perish the thought, make another till!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my saw till project.

-- Bob, Missoula, MT -- Rocky Mountain Saw Works http://www.rmsaws.com/p/about-us.html -- ~Non multa sed multum~