Six Board Chest
The box or chest is one of the oldest forms of furniture; the basic receptacle for storing, safeguarding, and sometimes moving our stuff. Over thousands of years it has ranged from simple to ornate, petite to massive. One of the less complicated forms has come to be known as a “six board chest” (there are six sides) or just “boarded chest”, often used to hold blankets or other bulky items. This was a project that a man with a few tools could make himself, rather than hiring a joiner as he would for a chest of drawers or dining table. At the least, the village carpenter could build one at a reasonable cost.
Surviving examples are similar, but each chest is a little different due to the skill level of the maker, the available wood, the range of tools, and local design motifs. Many board chests have no ornamentation whatsoever, while others feature decorative moldings. Most were painted a single color, but some were as wild as patchwork quilts.
A few years ago I purchased through craigslist a collection of molding planes that once belonged to a late 19th century house and barn builder. I have decided to build a chest to hold the tools, and a fairly simple six board chest seems appropriate for what a house carpenter of the time might build. Most likely he had a proper tool chest, but the chest (as well as any saws or chisels or other tools) must have been separated from the planes long before they came into my hands.
Boarded chests were built from readily available boards from the sawyers. A century or two ago, wide planks of pine, poplar, oak or chestnut were common, allowing the construction of large chests where the sides were single boards. Today those wide boards are more difficult to find and more expensive. So I decided to use 1x12 yellow pine.
