My carving chest provided a use for my first carvings of the most classic of all foliar forms, the acanthus leaf. They are to the design of Ian Agrell from a video he made. The chest was built it for two reasons: I needed somewhere safe to hold my tools, and I thought if they had a nice case, they are less likely to be thrown in a box and sold for nothing at a garage sale after I die. Too many times I have been lucky enough to purchase collections of chisels for next to nothing, thrown in a box in the garage at an estate sale.

Carving is a dying art. I think a great deal of the value of these old tools is lost when they are sold piecemeal, with the relationship of the tools required for a particular trade lost in the process. It is solid mahogany, finished in oil and wax. The drawer joinery is so precise that as an experiment, I didn't add glue. It has held together perfectly for about 15 years so far.