The Anarchist's Tool Chest

This is a truly eye opening book, as a new wood worker - I hope that his tips will save me from myself and many mistakes.

A must have for me and I think anyone else just starting this fine hobby or past time.

(Posted on 9/7/12)

Schwartz is clever, competent and engaging. This is the best "WHY TO" book I've read since Krenov. Start at the first page, sit back and enjoy the ride, or skip to Chapter 20. Copy p. 459, tack it up on your wall as a manifesto; then go out to the shop, sharpen your tools, forget about Chris Schwartz, and just BUILD something.

(Posted on 8/26/12)

This book is a excellent read with valuable information regarding tools and their selections. Most importantly it validated my reasons for becoming a woodworker and encouraged me to pass it forward.

(Posted on 1/19/12)

OK, I am trying to write a GIANT screaming hot review in a small space that I could cover with two first class stamps. I'd better get right to it, Christopher Schwarz's, The Anarchist's Tool Chest is fantastic. Seriously, it's honest to the bone. He writes with a powerful voice as though he is in the room. He's humble, funny and completely over the top. Sure, it's about the couple score tools he thinks you need to play your part in protecting the hand tool craft and then how to build the chest to hold those tools. That book alone would be worth the price. But he then nests this book into another, subtler story. This story is about self-reliance, resilience and freedom, something he calls aesthetic anarchism. Let me just put it this way. Sometimes it feels like all is lost. Like America is made up of cowards who ignore impropriety while hanging on for their little piece of baksheesh. And then we mistake a novel detailing little crummy lives, Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, for a great novel. Screw that, I was raised on Hemingway. I want bold lives, bold people, people worth reading about. People with guts. Schwarz is worth reading because he lives a live worth learning from. He acts from his heart and when he writes it sounds like a bell being rung that we can hear far across the land. Bravo! Mr. Schwarz, keep publishing. I intent to be a serial buyer.

(Posted on 11/14/11)