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Most of the Japanese toolchests I make follow the pattern established by Toshio Odate, which makes them very traditional, but very modern.

So what were Japanese toolchests like in the medieval period? Similar in some ways, but a lot less sophisticated.

In the fourteenth century illustrated scroll, two apprentices take a break from working on the construction site of a new temple. One leans against a tool chest that is open, showing some tools inside. We can estimate that this chest is about 3 feet long, about 1 foot wide, and six or seven inches deep. The end handles and clever locking mechanism are missing, but the cross battens keep the lid from falling in. The wood seems very thin, represented by a single line whereas the battens are shown with rectangular ends. No joinery or fasteners are visible, which makes them something of a mystery. Butt joinery is used on the modern chest, so we can assume it was used here, too. No edge to the bottom of the box is visible, so the bottom piece is most likely fully captive. Nails are used on the modern chest, so it's likely they are used here, though they may be wooden nails or pegs.

Here is my interpretation of the fourteenth century toolchest.

I ran a 6-foot 1×8 and a 6-foot 1×12 through the planer to shave it down to a half-inch thick. I cut the bottom, lid, and two ends from the wide wood. I cut the sides and battens from the "narrow" wood, ripping the 7.25″ width into 2″ battens. Then, I nailed it all together.

I deadened the nails for the lid, so it should hold together pretty well. The whole thing is 29 inches long, which was about the biggest chest I could make from the two boards with which I started.

What did I learn? My chest isn't long enough, and it's possibly too deep. The proportions just don't look right. My battens should be made from thicker wood, and should be both narrower and closer to the ends of the lid. Because I used thinner wood, this chest is a lot lighter than a previous attempt. Very little wood is wasted, unless you count the one third of the lumber that got turned into shavings.

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That looks like a well built chest from thinner stock. Nicely done.
 

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That is an interesting bit of history. In the drawing it looks like a saw or knife is held in place within the batten.
 

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That is an interesting bit of history. In the drawing it looks like a saw or knife is held in place within the batten.

- swirt
I would think that the saw belongs inside the box. If correct, is it possible the top is inverted?
 

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Nice traditional Japanese tool box Eeyore.

The two workers in the painting or wood block print look like they are giving each other the high 5, Or is it the wife of the carpenter on the left side of the scene.

Anyway they look happy on this 4th of July.
 

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That looks like a well built chest from thinner stock. Nicely done.
-Eric
Thanks! I hope it doesn't break apart too quickly.
In Japan these might be made from paulownia, which is lighter weight, but very strong.
 

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That is an interesting bit of history. In the drawing it looks like a saw or knife is held in place within the batten.
- swirt
It is a "leaf-shaped saw", which was a common kind of crosscut saw at the time, but is difficult to acquire these days. I've seen pictures of a more modern saw called a "boat saw" that is similar. I have a "log saw" that has a similar shape, but is larger with coarser teeth.

Anyway, yes it does look like the saw blade slips under the batten. If the blade is flexible enough, you should be able to slide it under and then tension from the handle will keep it from sliding out.
 

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Nice, but there must have been some kind of handles back then…
- jwoodcraft
It's a bit of a mystery for sure.
Odate says it was the apprentice's job to hoist the chest up and carry it on a shoulder.
The master would make the chest to hold his tools,
without much regard for the comfort of the apprentice.
 

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Nice traditional Japanese tool box Eeyore.
The two workers in the painting or wood block print look like they are giving each other the high 5, Or is it the wife of the carpenter on the left side of the scene.
Anyway they look happy on this 4th of July.
- James E McIntyre
The full image shows dozens of people on the job site, but all of them are probably male. the facts that the two kids are not wearing pants is more of a signifier of social status than gender.
 

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I would think that the saw belongs inside the box. If correct, is it possible the top is inverted?
- controlfreak
It does seem a little strange to carry the saw on top of the box, but perhaps it was just used recently. The two blocks to the left of the apprentices are the ends of beams that have been trimmed off. Other figures in the scroll are carting away such ends and the long shavings from rough-planing. I suspect that soon the master will yell at the two to get back to work. :)
 

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Took a second swing at this project. Here it is up on sawhorses in my workshop/garage:

It's huge! It's 4.5 feet long and a foot wide. It fits in the trunk of my car ok if I fold the rear seats down, but it's way too big. Probably at fault is my desire to use 1by8 for the sides. To keep the length in proportion to the height it's just way too long. Maybe I'll try again sometime with 1by6 instead. That would make it only about 40 inches long by my reckoning. Compare the image below with the original painting above.

I'm also pretty sure I should be making my battens narrower, and probably from the full 3/4" thickness of board instead of my 1/2" planed-down thickness. As a bonus, here is an image of all the tools I needed to construct this Mark 2 chest, stored in the Mark 1:

There's not much you need, really, to build a simple chest.
 
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Took another stab at this project recently. Behold, the Mk3 14th-Century toolchest! I stuck with the half-inch thick pine lumber, but started with 1by6 for the sides. With the estimated proportions, this gives me a much shorter box overall (39") and a much closer match to the look of the toolchest in scroll.



Here's a comparison of the four boxes in this project, from
  1. proof of concept Mk0
  2. modern proportions Mk1
  3. 14th century proportions Mk2
  4. 14th century proportions and size Mk3
 

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They look good. I really like the horses you have there too.
 

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I like the fact that one can break them down. Been thinking about building a paddle board or kayak, and a set of these would be great, guess I need to get to the design board.

Nice Blog page you have.
 
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