Chest Contemplation…

All the pressure and feelings.

Oct 27, 2025

(Disclaimer: This is one of those “out of sequence” posts I warned every one about in my “Recap” article. This Dutch Tool Chest build went on so long I had difficulty tying words about it into a cohesive narrative as I worked my way towards its completion.

This is the “oldest” post on my “edited recently” draft list. I figured I’d start at the bottom and get this plate clean when I can!)

Dear Good Hours.

Tonight. 9/8/2025. I took the tape off the DTC carving chisel chests after painting them. I know, I know. I haven’t filled in the space between then and now here, but this post isn’t about process, it’s about feelings.

So… if that’s gonna be tough, here’s a happy picture and you can skip this article and wait for the next.

I have, I think, 2 more things to do before handing them off to Tom Latané to do the hinge and latch hardware. I have to paste wax the paint finish, and sand the paint off the exposed nail heads and carefully darken them with gun bluing.

And still, tonight, as I took the painters tape off these pieces and marked the parts with an “O” punch for my chest and an “X” punch on Tom’s. I decided to put things together like the chests were already whole.

Look. I’m a… god dammit… I’m a contemplative man… at my least. (Honest, the ellipsis are actual breaths, working to find the words.) But seeing these chests built and nearly whole. Almost something I didn’t think I would ever see. I had some feelings I did not expect.

You gotta understand. I pride myself on being able to work fairly fast.

If I want to, I can build a complete DTC in ONE day in the workshop, give me 2 days and I’ll kit it out to hold specific tools and for use. Painting and paste wax is another half day of dicking around while doing other stuff like machine maintenance or cleaning.

A finished tool chest in a Friday after work and and two 8-hour a days! Done and done.

So why have these 2 chests have been an anchor on my life since I helped Tom teach this Combined Craft Class back in 2016?

Looking back, the experience of teaching the class was fantastic. I spent a few years teaching my day job, Surgical Technology, at a local technical college and I really enjoyed that job, with two exceptions: the benefits were great but the pay and hours sucked, AND, I was working for a terrible human being as my associate dean.

The teaching part, I really enjoyed. Building and organizing lectures, working on learning materials, delivering the lectures and figuring out what worked and what didn’t. It hit a lot of my creative fuzzy buttons.

Building this DTC class tickled all those same fuzzies. Teaching the class was just as cool. It was a wild fucking 5 days. I’m so thankful for the crew that attended.

Still. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and most of that involved making the school where we were going to work understand the differences between what a Blacksmithing class required, infrastructure and materials wise, (this was and is their bread and butter) and what a woodworking class required to work.

Especially when it came to student material costs.

If I’m honest, at the time, I felt beaten up and bent over about this class. (Tom. I’m sorry, I know you’re gonna read this and please, don’t worry about it one bit. Its of no worry to me anymore. Just a lesson I needed to be taught.) I was pretty naïve and excited about the process and failed to connect the material cost of the kit to the student cost when we were originally discussing things.

Yes, perhaps its something the school should have been forward in addressing, but again, I can take the responsibility that I knew it was a discussion to have, and I kept waiting for the school to bring it up and they never did. Inexperience is a killer.

Several weeks before the class, I agree way too late, I had an email exchange with the school owner about material cost for the “kit’s” I had assembled for the students. I was told my reimbursement costs on the materials was a a no go. I was told none of the students would take the class at that price and I was reminded this class was already The Most Expensive Class Ever!!

I admitted my mistake and said I’d cover the cost of materials out of my pocket, forthe sake of the class and to help me remember the lesson I just learned. In the end it cost me around 2.5 times as the payout I received for teaching the class.

Lesson fully assimilated.

Singular pain aside, I SO treasured and enjoyed the experience. I found a few good, long term friends in the class and learned a lot about myself through the week. All in, I consider everything a net win. But every time a “hey could you teach ______?” comes up, I cringe and pump the brake more than a little.

All I can hear in my head is the school owner, as I pulled up the evening before the class started, and unloaded the student “kits” from my van. She just kept saying - “That’s so much wood.” “That’s so much lumber.” and I realized how little she knew, and was learning too.

I’ve forgiven everyone, including myself, but I’ve had trouble forgetting. The experience has made pursuing teaching difficult.

I enjoy it. I’m pretty good at it. But I can’t pay money to teach other people. I’ve gotta break even at least.

*****

MERLIN: Hey Boss. Probably time to massage your earlobes and “WhoooSahhh” a little bit.

ME: Oh, ya buddy. Sorry. You’re probably right. Thanks.

MERLIN: It’s kinda what Chloe put me here to do.

ME: Right. Thanks Chloe.

*****

Apparently there’s a lot of feelings wrapped up in the debt I associate to these two chests. There is additional anxieties in their presentation.

Tom is a fantastic friend, a generous man, and just one of the most amazing artisans in this lifetime. The wide web of different and amazing designers and craftspeople who connect to Tom via shared interests and networking connections never ceases to amaze me.

I kinda want to write his Biography. Guys like Sam Maloof and James Krenov and so many other great craftspeople didn’t get one until after they left us. Those books lived on research and interviews with family, friends and cohorts.

Tom is still around and with us. Could I be the guy? I’m unsure. I’ve never contemplated something like that.

Now I’m building something for him to use personally. I got a little to far in my head with the idea I needed to pull off some of my best work possible, so to hold a meager candle to Tom’s effortless excellence. Look, he’s got 20+ years work, experience and vision in on me, and it’s not a competition, but still, this is a chest one of the best craftspeople in the world (IMHO) will haul around to different classes and such. I really wanted to pull off something worthy.

… and maybe I did.

I mean. Look at the amazingly whimsical nature of Tom’s shop. Look at the genuine smile on my face hanging out there, feeling like a complete imposter the entire time, but that’s also the nature of the beast.

There’s a shit-ton of emotion wrapped up in these two chests that took me 8+ish years too long to finish, but I’m finished now and they’re out of my hands and into his.

And he was overjoyed to see them.

And that felt so very good.

He’s only been waiting most of a decade for them…