There is a type of woodworker for whom the arrangement of hand tools on a wall is as much a craft as the furniture being made. The hand tool wall is functional art – a display of well-chosen, well-maintained tools arranged in a system that reflects both the owner’s work practice and their aesthetic sensibility. We asked readers to share theirs. Over sixty responded, and the range of approaches was genuinely inspiring.
The most represented style was the traditional tool till: a shallow cabinet, often with a hinged front panel, holding chisels, planes, saws, gauges, and mallets in a dense, organized arrangement that closes up when not in use and opens to reveal a full kit at a glance. Several readers built their till before they built their first piece of furniture – the till itself was the project that taught them joinery. One reader built three tills over eight years, each more refined than the last, as his understanding of what he needed from it evolved.
The most striking submission was from a Japanese-inspired workshop in Vermont: no wall storage at all. Every tool lives in a handmade wooden box, sorted by function, stacked on a low shelf. The workshop itself is nearly empty until a session begins, at which point the necessary boxes are brought out and arranged beside the work. When the session ends, the boxes are closed and returned. The simplicity is striking. The discipline required to maintain it is considerable.
The most practical submission was a simple magnetic strip arrangement supplemented by three tiers of chisel racks and a dedicated plane shelf at workbench height – total build time about four hours, cost about $35, and the builder has used it daily for four years without any changes. Sometimes the simple solution is the right one. Share your hand tool wall – from spare and simple to beautifully obsessive, we want to see them all.