An Obsession
I recently went on my honeymoon, and to occupy my woodworking brain while a few thousand kays from my tools I took two books with me: Honest Labour, and Virtuoso: The Tool Cabinet and Workbench of HO Studley.
I didn’t read a single word of Honest Labour. To say the Studley Tool Cabinet captured my imagination is a savage understatement. I pored over this book obsessively, at every spare moment, just trying to fathom the depth of skill required to conceive of, and execute, this obscene piece of functional art.
And, of course, the wheels started turning about making my own Studley Cabinet. Especially when I reflected on this monstrosity: a ‘prototype’ (unfinished) that I’ve been looking at ever since I got sick of rummaging around in a chest every time I needed something.
Clearly something needs to be done.
‘Just get it done’.
The usual advice from other woodworkers is that a professional has no time to waste on extravagant shop fixtures: just get it done, and get to work. I get it. I don’t have time to waste on extravagant shop fixtures.
But tool chests of old, while usually innocuous on the outside, were fabulously over the top on the inside:
These elaborate and intricately designed chest interiors served as a portfolio to a shop master: this journeyman has some skill, and something to prove it. So investing the time and effort into elaborate marquetry was not a waste, as it led directly to employment.
But wall hung tool cabinets, for some reason, seem to have escaped this sort of treatment. Most examples I’ve found – both modern and old – are best described as… utilitarian.
I chose these examples because they represent some truly excellent craftmanship. None of them are “bad” by any means. Well, apart from mine. In fact, a couple are rather good. Yet none come close to artistry of the Studley Cabinet. Every time I look at these now all I see is wasted space and a lack of imagination. Which is hilarious, because my own example is the worst offender of the half-arsed “just get it done” mentality.
So, if I invest $30,000 of shop hours into a tool cabinet, will that time be wasted, or will it signal to potential clients that they’re in good hands? Time will tell.
In the absence of a showroom, all I have to show prospective customers is photographs and a flash business card. Hopefully this will provide something they can touch, and perhaps impart a fraction of the awe that the Studley cabinet imparts on me.
