Mike’s Cherry Chisel Rack

Viewer Project - By Mike M from Centerville, OH
Added on May 23, 2012

I have been building up my hand tool collection, starting with a upgrade of my chisels. Over a period of couple months which included a massive chisel sale at Woodcraft, I bought a complete set of Pfeil Swiss made chisels, 1 or 2 at a time. I decided that I need something to safely store all my chisels that would look good, and show my skill as a builder as well. I designed the chisel rack in sketch-up, though I did make some minimal design changes (changed a few dovetail joints to mortise and tenon joints). The drawing was a huge help in the over all build. A lot of the initial work was done with power tools. However, as the project progressed, I ended up using hand tools more and more to make sure each joint fit as best as possible. The 9 short dadoes in the bottom piece were done mostly by hand with a little help from the drill press, as were all the mortises. The glue-up was a challenge, and took the better part of a Saturday afternoon to complete. Once the glue was dry I spent several days with card scrapers, hand planes, and sanding to get each joint smoothed out.

This was the first project that I built using cherry, not counting the projects I did 20 years ago in Jr. High Shop. I decided to try to bring out its color. The finish consists of a coat of boiled linseed oil wiped on, and two coats of Bullseye’s clear shellac sprayed on. This was my first experience with either of these finishes, and the first time I have used an HVLP sprayer.

Once I clear off some wall space, the rack will be hung on the wall using a french cleat. Ultimately I will be building a tool cabinet that this will go into as well, but that is a project for later.

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