Danniel

joe4liberty - you make some valid points and yours is a great and touching story. A loving family is everything. But I think the situations are not comparable.

You made a piece with a specific intent and that informed your whole creative process. It reminds me of a story of a piece that was the subject of an article in Fine Woodworking way back in the black & white days of publication. I think it may also have been a secretary but I can't remember for sure. It was a very fine piece of furniture, intricately detailed, and it took some inordinate number of hours to make. At the end of the process, the furniture maker slammed a four inch nail in to the front of it and left it protruding what looked like three inches. As I recall, it was a more an artwork that just furniture and he was making a statement about preciousness.

But that was not the brief here and there is nothing to suggest that this was the maker's intention. It is clearly over-designed and inappropriate. It's simply a piece of furniture that stores tools. I really don't think that qualifies as a tool chest.

This is my third post on this issue so I think I'll stop hogging the space. But I would like to echo Henning's sentiments about the use of rainforest timber. I've loved being a subscriber to FW over the nearly three decades that I have, but I've always been concerned about an absence of dialogue about the sustainability of the raw material used in this art or craft that we love. I make everything using recycled lumber (or timber as we call it here in Australia) or, if I can't find what I'm looking for, timber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, a body auspiced by, among others, WWF. It's work is about promoting environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests. I think it's time this issue was addressed by FW's readers and contributors.

Chezer - I couldn't agree more. I would have thought that, in designing a tool chest, consideration would be given to function as well as style and creativity. Sure, it functions as a tool chest - there's a place for everything and it's all logically laid out. But it's going to be used in a workshop where things get moved around and those things are often damaging, like lengths of lumber, long clamps, tools from the tool chest... need I go on? I'd be way too nervous to do anything in the workshop for fear of damaging it.

But, aside from that, it's just way over-designed for the item being made. It might be clever joinery which might look good on a secretary, but in this context - and I really don't want to be too harsh on Gregg Novosad who's clearly a skilled craftsman - it's kind of grotesque. It's completely over the top and inappropriate.