January's Book

All images via Lost Art Press

We are kicking the off the new year with one of my new favorite books: “The Anarchist Tool Chest” by Christopher Schwarz. I don’t often compare books to movies, but a particular scene pops into my head while I’m reading this book. As a millennial, the movie “The Matrix” had a significant impact on me, especially the scene where Neo is in the Matrix downloading all his karate skills, bulking up his arsenal of weapons, and, most importantly, instantly understanding the ins and outs of flying a Black Hawk helicopter. Although not instantaneous, like in the movie, one month of reading pales in comparison to Chris’s 30 or so years of experience that pour out of this book. When reading it, I feel just like Neo; I know which weapon to pick up when I need to cut a groove or which fighting technique works best when flattening boards. Then, finally, to bring our downloaded skills and weapons to summation with the building of the case to carry it all, the Anarchist Tool Chest.

For anyone who didn’t understand my sci-fi babblings of the hit 1999 film, this book has more information packed in than most I have come across. Not only the straightforward information about tools, but the intention of building properly and with meaning behind every push of the plane or turn of the auger, that’s what made me most energized to get out to my shop and create something to last a lifetime.

I read the revised edition, which apparently is an even more slimmed-down arsenal of tools from the first, along with some edits to the construction of the chest itself. I did notice right away that the weight of the paper is outrageous, to the point that the first few pages I kept checking to see if I was accidentally skipping a page because the paper felt so thick. A luxury I haven’t experienced before. Another thing out of the normal realm of publishing is that this book is available for free as a PDF download, which makes this accessible to nearly everyone, leaving us excuseless to be the most knowledgeable at the local swap meet while sifting through junk for a gem.

Chris Schwarz, the purveyor of paper, sultan of Stanley, merchant of merit, aimed to write a manifesto and hit the nail on the rosehead. My crystal ball shows an ATC in my future. The meeting will take place on Sunday February 1st. at 7:00 PM EST on Discord

Meeting Link: https://discord.gg/GaFfr2eJx7?event=1458211703799025798