>I'm designing a "cabinet" in which to store my hand tools. I'm looking for ideas on how to store my saws (Western and Japanese, 7 or 8 in all) in a way that makes them available quickly, doesn't take too much wall space (depth is not an issue here, footprint is), and won't damage the saws.
Right now, I think that a slotted board in which each saw would slide vertically would be the best option, but I'd like to see what others have done...
You do not want to see how I store my personal saws--trust me.
But Tony over on the UK Workshop forum recently added a small footprint saw storage to his tool cabinet. As for his Japanese saws, I would alter how they sit in the cabinet, but I think it is a nice add-on to his tool cabinet.
There are also a couple other nice examples if you search there.
Attached is a link to an idea for the Japanese saws. I used a slotted board, as you suggested. I angled the slots at about 45 degrees--in my case, it was to give the saws a low profile against the wall, so the blades weren't out over the bench. In your case, I would still suggest angling them, so you can see what they are. It starts mattering once you get a bunch of them. Which brings up another point--provide for twice as many saws as you think you'll ever have. That'll carry you for about 18 months, and then you can figure out the next thing to do.
The main thing on the Japanese saws is to hang them in tension--don't let them rest on the blade or the butt of the handle. On large Japanese saws that don't fit over the bench, I have just drilled a hang hole in the end of the handle and put them on a thin peg--one day I'll put a raw hide loop or something in there.
On the western saws, I like the saw till designs where the saws sit handle down, with the horn hooked on a rail, and the blade has a slot above to fit into. Dave Anderson did a nice one--maybe he'll be along. And there are good designs in the archives over on OLDTOOLS.
>Seems to me I've seen lots of pics. Mine hang from the ceiling except for one or two that lean against studs in one stud bay behind my bench - and, since the ceiling is 10 feet high, this isn't real convenient - so I read every one of those posts for ideas.
Many of the solutions have the saws leaning on their blades, in various fashions. Doesn't that risk distorting the blades over the long term, or is this an unwarranted concern?
My inclination would be to hold the saws by the handles in some fashion, and let the blades hang freely. Any reasons for not doing that?
I only put saws with full backs in my nose-down till. The backs should prevent any distortion I would think. I haven't noticed it, anyway, and I have been using it for a while.
Here's mine. It works for me because I don't have much space. The only disadvantage is that my big western saws have the teeth pointing out. It doesn't bother me because my till is up high tucked in a corner, out of the way.
>I think you would want to grab the saw and put it back by the handle, not by the blade. (That's what the handle is for, right?) Depending on how long your saws are, and how high on the wall you are planning to hang the till, handle down has a better chance of putting the handles at a more convenient height. Also, by putting the handle down, you don't have to tilt the saw quite so far back to keep it from falling out of the till, and you don't have to cut the kerfs so deep to hold the saws in position.
If you hang them handle up, you have another structural problem. Cutting very deep kerfs, to hold the wide part of the blade near the handle, usually means one or more of the teeth in the support beam has a better chance of breaking off, if you were planning to join the beam to the sides of the till and glue it to a thin back. Otherwise, you will need to run the grain of the support bar perpendicular to the back so you don't have a short grain situation. That probably means you will want to mortise and tenon the support to the back, requiring a thicker back and a lot more joinery work.
>I made my wife 100 or so of them for a project whe was involve in at one time. I cut discs off the end of a 1" dowel, stained them, put the "tuit" on the in gold ink and glued a refridgerator magnet to the back. I think there are still a few around here somewhere. They are kind of fun to hand out. ;-)
>I took some 2 by stock, bored 1" holes all in a row, ripped the board through the center of the holes, then rounded over all the edges with a router (electric, sorry). A cleat on the back and a couple shelf brackets and done. I had to crop this pic in half to get it under 40kb - it's twice this big.
