About three years ago, I got tired of never being able to find the basic tools that I used the most. I kept them in a couple of cans at my workbench, and they ended up all over the place by the end of the day. I decided to first analyze which tools I actually used the most, which turned out to be a tiny fraction of the tools I had, and devise some kind of storage so that I could easily reach and immediately put back when I was finished. Although it took a bit of time to do this, I estimate it saves about 5-10 hours a year in time spent looking for tools, which is significant. I constructed this holder out of two pieces of eight quarter cherry. I also made a travel box for working on-site that has a similar system built in.
In case anyone is interested, below is a list of the tools that I use to accomplish about 90% of my normal tasks, and a few comments. Not pictured are brushes and larger rulers.
ON THE TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT
-Needle nose pliers
-6″ Mundial embroidery scissors (small, yet the tips can cut through a double layer of aero linen)
-Osborne “E-Z Cut” scissors (these can cut through binders board)
-Medium lifting knife
-Covering knife
-Small lifting knife
-Large lifting knife
-Large teflon folder
-Olfa knife (the ones with a knob are less likely to pull out when cutting something thick)
-Bench Knife
-Two large bone folders
-Two small dividers (less than 4″, leatherworkers ones that operate by friction are easy to adjust)
ON THE BOTTOM ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT
-Starret pin vice (the octagonal plastic handle keeps it from rolling off the bench)
-Four Dumont & Fils tweezers, #2a, #10-00 and 2 #5’s ( #5 is a sharp point, #2a a wide thin point for tissue, and #10-00 a convex / concave points for gripping)
-Insertion tool
-Small awl
-Japanese awl
-Rigid scalpel (good for scraping)
-Italian microspatula
-Two plastic handle scalpels, #11 and #15 blades (plastic is slightly flexible and more comfortable than steel)
-Rigid scalpel
-Japanese brush pen, 50/50 ethyl alcohol and water
-Two small bones
-Hacksaw english style paring knife
-.5mm mechanical pencil
ON THE BOTTOM
-Four rulers (one thin cork backed for tearing tissue and trimming endsheets, two thicker steel often used as spacers and to tear tissue more ragged, 7/8″ wide aluminum which is turn-in thickness)
BEHIND THE STAND, mounted in a recessed area
-A brass 4 inch triangle
Peachey Conservation 