The Living Tools Project – FineWoodworking

Access to tools remains one of the most significant barriers to entering the field of green woodworking. For many aspiring makers, the difference between instruction and a viable career comes down to something simple and tangible: having the right tools in hand.

The Chairmaker’s Toolbox (CMT) created the Living Tools project to address this gap directly. By collecting donated hand tools and redistributing them to makers who need them, the program transforms dormant tools into active ones, placing them back into daily use in workshops across the country.

The Living Tools project welcomes donations of all sizes, from a single spokeshave to a complete Windsor chair shop or set of teaching tools.

Particularly in demand are drawknives and spokeshaves in good condition, as well as specialty seat-carving tools like inshaves, adzes, and travishers, essential tools that are often difficult to source and usually prohibitively expensive when found.

Since 2023, CMT volunteers have collected, tuned, and redistributed donated tools to benefit more than 50 individuals and organizations. Some recipients have received full toolkits that help launch careers in chairmaking, carving, or luthiery, while others have received individual tools or small assortments at critical moments. Access to even a single well-made tool can determine whether someone is able to continue in the craft, build the chair living inside their head, or have enough tools to teach a class to others.

Every tool is gifted with the promise that it will remain in use and never be sold but instead passed along to other makers who have been excluded from or underrepresented in our craft.

The idea for CMT came from Aspen Golann, a furniture maker and artist whose work will be familiar to most FWW readers. Her furniture is now held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Loewe Foundation Collection in Madrid, among others, and she might never have launched her career without an unexpected act of generosity. When Aspen graduated from North Bennet Street School in 2018, she had the training and skill to pursue chairmaking but lacked the means to do so. That changed when Peter Nisen gifted her a collection of hand tools. These tools became the foundation of her studio practice and, ultimately, the seed for CMT itself.

When Aspen was later selected for the John D. Mineck Fellowship from the Society of Arts and Crafts, she used the award to establish the Chairmaker’s Toolbox. CMT’s work continues to focus on building community around green woodworking while addressing persistent gaps in access to tools and education for marginalized and historically excluded makers.

In addition to tools, CMT also offers scholarships for chairmaking classes to support training opportunities.

We are still only scratching the surface of the need. Woodworking tools, especially for green woodworking, remain difficult to access for many. The Living Tools project exists to lower that barrier and ensure that more people can build lives in the craft.

Please consider supporting our community of makers in any way that you can. Our volunteers are ready to receive the travisher that has been collecting dust on a shelf, a spare set of chisels from someone with an overabundance of sharp edge tools, or well-loved hand planes from someone who is scaling back their time in the shop. Together we can further the craft by collaborating in an economy where generosity and gifts fuel the next generation. If you cannot donate a tool, you can financially support CMT’s work in any amount that feels sustainable.

You can learn more about donations to our 501c3 here:

You can learn more about our project here:

And reach out to our tools coordinator, Rebecca Juliette-Duex, at this email address: [email protected]

Made You Look: Plane Wellness

Jamie Harpster, founder of Plane Wellness, generously provides free woodworking classes to people navigating mental and physical disabilities.

Build small to design big

If you want to learn how to design furniture, Aspen Golann recommends testing ideas on small objects, like she did with her wooden bench brushes.

Make a wooden brush

Just because a bench brush is made to tackle a mundane chore, that doesn’t mean it has to be boring.