Clinching and the Tool chest 

I don’t know but I strongly suspect that the woodworking craftsmen of 200 years ago would be both pleased and proud that their techniques lived on and were being so magnificently demonstrated to people today. Brilliant refreshing and truly impressive watching you work. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Only a woodworker would be entertained watching a chap drive nails for 15 minutes. I was entertained. Agree that paint was the way to go.

He is the consummate woodworker. Love the no-nonsense approach.

I never would have thought that watching a bloke hammering nails would be so engrossing! Seriously though, your videos are great and really inspirational - please make more!!

I know we all search for perfection with our tight dovetails, but that is a thing of beauty. (actually preferred it before the paint). Clinch comes from the same root as Clink. Clinker boats took us over the planet.

The English Woodworker does such a fantastic job on his video's, I wish there were more!

Richard, Thank you for your initial guidance in this fine art so many years ago. This was the first thing I ever built and to be honest it is really crappe but after all these years (10) it still holding together and provides a home for all my saws. I'm older now with a myriad of problems but I still get out to the shop once in a while and build things. As things happen I became mostly a carpenter, building my own deck for the yard, a shed for the garden, repairing stairs but your lessons have been the inspiration for all the work and I did get better...sorta sideways but none the less. After all these years that chest is still with me and I currently use it as a saw bench for cross cutting as well as saw storage. Once again thank you and I look forward to you next video, maybe on that saw till and shelf for the inside. Merry Christmas 2023!

My dad taught me the same nail blunting trick with this added: Put the head of the nail on the spot you want to drive it in. Then blunt the nail. This tears and compresses the fibers for a bit, lessening the tendency to split even more.

never knew about that technique. a thing of honest rustic beauty

Richard, this is the best tool chest video I've seen. I love the simple, functional approach. Thank you for showing these classic techniques like the axe-riven battens, nail clinching, and unhinged lid. The "battleship grey" colour looks great! I can't wait to try to build one myself.

I’m watching this 9 years after it was made. I got an old shipping trunk that belonged to my wife’s grandmother. It was almost beyond saving. All parts present but not attached. It was constructed with clinch nails. Hand made I think. Twenty three were beyond reusing and needed to be made. I used horseshoe nails as they had very little carbon content. It took most of a day to cut, repoint and head them. They clinched till flush and that allowed me to use some old wall paper to line the inside of the trunk. It turned out quite nice and was perfect application for clinch nail. I’ve seen it used on small boat and ugly to both the eye and touch.

Man, I'm absolutely hooked on your content. Glad to have found it!

This is awesome... finally a channel that shows how to work with wood without having to buy every single Festool and Makita tool there is. Just simple, good old woodworking that’s based on knowledge and skills and not on crazy 2000€ chain mortisers

Love the use of old techniques. Thx for the great tutorial. Also, like the paint and the "no hardware" lid.

Absolutely hooked, watching you work reminds me of time spent learning wood working from a great man in my life. Now I'm able to relive that giddiness as if for the fist time, I genuinely smile and get excited now as I did back then. Excellent channel mate.

Rex Krueger sent me here. Subbed.

My favourite woodworking channel. Paul Sellers is good but this is a whole different ideology.

Good to see a bit of easy approach to wood working. Gives me hope. It looks great BTW.

A proper job with proper tools, excellent, and I vote for rope handles

MORE VIDEOS PLEASE!!!! Yes, I'm yelling. Love the 7 that are up...some of my favorites and the best on youtube. Keep'em coming.

I subscribed purely for the phrase "Shabby Shite." Not sure how this translates but in the UK it works great! It is funny how the things we hated doing as the apprentice we find joy in later in life. I guess our hands just work so much better with experience and the joy is in that. Nice video

Beautiful work. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and skills..It almost seems wrong to be watching this on a damn computer......maybe I'll stitch a few nails into the key board, through the desktop and clench em back round the mother board. That'll fix it!

Wow! Woodshop teacher when I was in school, 1959, taught this and I thought no one used it now! Fantastic job!

OMG! What an awesome video! I am restoring an old wardrobe trunk that was assembled with clinch nails and split rivets, made before screws were readily available. This video will be a great help. I am looking forward to watching them all. I may have to make a tool box as well, this is an inspiration!

Clinching is a pretty cool technique. It is nice to see it in use with the tool chest build. I see you have a "helper" dog in the corner.

Wow, great job! I have never heared of the techique of clinching nails before! Just love your vids and your style of working! Keep it up!

Love this guy

That was so interesting, and seeing your dog wander in was cool too! I'll be making one of these chests soon!

Excellent work sir. Very professional. I look forward to more videos and seeing the renovation of your new site. Thank you.

Great project!

Great video, you really nailed it.

Now , that's fantastic idea for a tool chest , very neat design indeed , I might make me one .

Nice work Richard! Well done! Brutally functional, and built like the proverbial brick outhouse, thanks to the clinch nailing, which was until very recently the standard way to fasten the planking and much else in working small craft, such as fishing boats, diving tenders and pram dinghies used to access yachts kept on moorings, Also on some classes of clinker-built sailing dinghies. Probably still used wherever clinker construction is used, as no one has yet come up with an economically viable alternative, as marine grade glue is expensive and time consuming, so is not commonly used in clinker construction. The grey paint is just the job. It emphasises the tradesman like look of the box, and that lid closing and support are cracking ideas, again well done. My tools currently live in a couple of leather bags, tidy stowage and good for taking the tools I need, to the job. One for tools to take, one for whatever isn't needed on the day. But I like that box of yours so will build one of my own, an odd times project that can fit in the gaps between the other stuff. It won't get done as quickly as your Sunday afternoon project, but it shouldn't take too long, and I like the prospect of doing things as they were done in yesteryear. You are right about regional pronunciation, down south (Sussex) we called it clench nailing. But what does it matter how we say it. Its the doing that's the interesting and important bit. Btw, great video, a super instructional, and hugely entertaining, so, many thanks, and if there's time in your schedule, please do put some more up, you're a natural teacher and effective communicator.

You totally nailed it!!

Now this is my kind of woodworking. Think I'll use the clinched nail technique for the shutters on the 125 year old house I am working on.

I'm fairly certain the reason you bend it over the grain instead of with the grain is because you would be putting the tip through the same grain line close to each other. In drier woods this can cause the board to split. Another thing to know is if you're using oval/cut nails it's not a bad idea to predrill a small hole to prevent the wedging of the nail from creating splits as well.

I like that clinching technique! This has given me some ideas for future projects! I wouldn't have painted it though, just some oil would have been perfect for me.

this is really nice work and well explained and demonstrated.

I do enjoy all your videos thank you

I'm going to build this! It reminds me of things I I built as a kid, watching my Dad build rabbit hutches!

If the non-Brits in the audience are looking for these particular nails, "oval wire nails" searched on ebay yields the correct items :-)

Brilliant! Part way through making a ledged and braced door for a poultry house and thought I'd try nailing and clenching rather than using screws. Great presentation style, to the point and no waffle! I've been using RU-vid for years, why has it taken me so long to find your channel??

Great, i have subbed. Never thought of working with nails before, but i think i will try it.

very cool, that's the kind of "rustic project" I absolutely love. Interesting comment when you were remarking that it is the equivalent to particleboard. I agree, obviously it takes a bit longer this way, but that toolchest will last a heck of a lot longer than one made out of pb. many might find the hypothetical "pb version" cleaner, but this is so much more beautiful, precisely because how it looks is not the very important at all, function is what counts here.

"Think about what's for tea" Love it Guvn'r 15:31 Dog's board GREAT STUFF

Have you thought of putting chisel holders or a saw holder on the lid. that way when you prop it up they'll be easily accessible and also protects the edges of the chisels from being dinged up inside the box.

I,ll be clinching my next ledge and brace door!

I love his patient wee helper....who arrives at 14:53

It's nice to see that some of your projects look just like mine.

hahaha, cute dog! Looks like mine but more brown :) Love the toolchest, this will go well in my new handtool woodshop :)

Superb video, thank you!

Good technique, predrilling is a good way to go, prevents splitting and makes the job a lot easier and not tear outs.

love this one... nice tips... thank you!

i actually liked the wood before the grey, i would have maybe put on some darkbrushing wax or such, thanks for showing this old forgotten technique, i shall bear it in mind, much better than screws!

It reminds me of a Japanese tool box. I made something similar to this but I used plastic boards on the bottom cross pieces to avoid rotting.

Rope handles would fit that. Nice work and great vid

Really enjoyed watching this, you have a new subscriber. I'm building a rabbit hutch soon and think i'll give clinching a bash.

Fantastic! Loved it👍👍

Oh no, paint, noooo. Great work, though. I love to see how woodworking was done in the early days. Makes me admire and respect the whole craft even more.

I hope you make more videos they are of amazing quality :)

Nice work Richard

Absolutely brilliant.

Great job on the box. The tool marks are subtle but a great detail. How often did you need to sharpen any of your planes during the process? Tremont Nail Co. here in the states, still makes square cut nails. Their clench nails have a rectangular cross section that give a nice effect when clenched.

Very nice, thank-you. I specifically was interesred in knowing if you drive the cut nails with their longer side across the grain or with the grain. It looks as though across the grain is best for the cinching. And with the grain otherwise: noting the bluting tip when close to an edge. Again, thank-you!

Learned a new technique I never new existed ! Nice one ! I agree with the paint comments tho , I would have stained and waxed it .........

Very good

fantastic video. thank you for uploading

Nice. I like the Emma Wallace background music.

So, where would I get OVAL nails? Should I tap the shank on a hunk of steel? Handsome box! I always say that half the beauty of a design is the design!!

Get into a rhythm and think about what's for tea. Clinched it for me, subscribed.

Cool box, I haven't use a nail with a hammer for decades, I use screws or pneumatic tools only, faster, economical, stronger, but nothing wrong with your system, I admire you for that, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to get flack for that.

"Used to hate this job,but now I love it" is it because you see the art behind the chore?

Nice project. Fun to watch you going at it. Paint is the best way to go with that type of construction. Nails like those don't look good bare.

absolutely LOVE this! I will be making one :-)

Was there ever a follow-on video from this showing the wall cabinet's door finished?

Eric Sloane in "Diary of an Early American Boy: Noah Blake 1805" wrote about clinching as "deadening" the nail. I think that's where the expression: "deader than a door nail" originated

I’ve never done much planning work to know what I need and what I don’t. I’d love older tools with wooden frames but I don’t know what to look for.

will bending the nail in the direction of the woodgrain spit the wood?

Fantastic! Instant Subscribe!

I was listening to your cutting tools. The sound says all your tools would make a razor seem blunt. Any sharpening tips?

wonderful lesson thank you

Love this chest, mate. What kind of nails are those and where can I get them? Thanks for sharing this.

Clenching is what a Smith (Farrier if you are French) does when attaching shoes to a horses hoof, so it is still a widely used technique

Good work ......

Where did you get your cut nails from?I’ve looked a little on the web and they all seem to be very expensive.

Great thanks for sharing. I think it looked fine when shabby shite too...

That bench of yours is very steady for the apparent size of it. It looks very light but it stays motionless under the movement of planing the boards. Or is it somehow fixed / anchored to the ground? Your videos are very good. New subscriber here. Thanks.

How about riveting? Is the base metal isn't wide, it will also be able to adapt partially to the wood I guess, at least better than screws. But with the nails, it give it a more utilitarian look to the toolbox. However, for a jewelry chest that might be a little to utilitarian.

I like the look, and I managed to build a box, but super tedious and inconsistent results. I used the thinnest easily available nails in Canada, which are 3" bright finish spirals. Maybe your nails are softer, but mine bent on more of a radius instead of tight angles, and liked to back themselves out for the final clinch. Had to re clinch nearly every one one an anvil.

Any recommendations or type and material for nails? I know boat builders love copper, but that seems a bit extravagant for a tool box.

Is there a "Part 3" for the cupboard, where you fit the door?

Hi nice job When are you going to show us some more projects

What plane were you using to cut your rebates with? Looked like a Veritas plow plane or a skew rabbet (rebate) plane.

love it...

Outstanding job! But i'm not at all sure I like the clinched nails on the box face- they look unprofessional - but perhaps if they were more even and in line vertically it would work.

Love the tool box! I have never seen a oval nail in the States. Is that made specifically for clinching. Square nails are available here.

P.S. I agree with the comments below about the finish. A nice stain would've made the box look great.

Great Tutorial, Richard. What ever happened with this chest?

Richard, took a look on the blog, did you ever fit it our with racks?

Great little project! What kind of nails are you using?