Adam Cherubini
>I think saw storage actually drives the length of a tool chest. A 28" saw might need a chest over 3' in length. You can't fit much of a saw in a 30" chest.

The 18th c chests in Gaynor's book, or at least one I'm thinking of, didn't have a saw till, but rather saws were attached to the under side of the lid. I had intended to do the same, but my stock just wasn't wide enough. You have molding planes on end in the bottom, then the till, then you need a couple more inches for the saw handle and the cleat that secures it.

As far as the earlier chests being lower in height and having fewer tills, I don't think there's any great mystery to it. The 19th c guys just had more tools than folks did in earlier times. Or at least, this is what probate inventories suggest. Look at the Seaton chest. That guy had close to 40 chisels, none of them carving tools. Oh, and the additional tools seems to be large sets of small tools- bits, chisels, stuff like that, stuff that needed to be stored in tills.

Adam