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Early this summer, Christopher Schwarz reported on the sad news that John Sindelar was moving his woodworking business and, as a result, packing his unparalleled tool collection into storage boxes (though he is still planning to open a permanent tool museum sometime in the future). But while you can no longer visit John’s collection in Michigan, you can see part of it at the Midwest Woodworking in America 2012 (Nov. 2-4 in Greater Cincinnati).
John has an amazing traveling collection, housed in a crazy-fancy custom trailer that he outfitted himself – it’s the perfect, almost-over-the-top wood-paneled and velvet-swagged backdrop to showcase just some of the many jaw-dropping tools he’s collected over the years. Last year, for example, he brought an unusual adjustable-height tool chest – a form we’d never seen before – and Chris shared a short video of the nutty chest on his blog. He’s also brought gorgeous dividers in all sizes; animal-head carved wooden planes; Japanese ink lines, gorgeous infill planes, gleaming trammel points, weird and wacky shooting boards, chisels from across the ages, panther saws, intricately inlaid plow planes, marking gauges in wild styles, wee spokeshaves and massive drawknives, hammers and mallets for all kinds of uses, levels…and the list could truly go on for pages….
And here’s a video of what John brought to the Conference in 2010:
If you haven’t had the opportunity to see the collection before, it’s worth a trip to the Marketplace at Woodworking in America this year. The museum will be open on the show floor during Marketplace hours: Friday, Nov. 2 and Saturday, Nov. 3, from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (And as always, Marketplace admission is included when you sign up for the Conference, and the open to the public for a small fee – and advance Marketplace tickets are available now, for $2 off the on-site price.)
And for another preview, download the PDF slideshow below – Christopher shot these pictures for an article he wrote on the Sindelar Collection in the August 2007 issue of Popular Woodworking – click here to read that article, free.
Download a free slideshow of the Sindelar tool collection.
Hope to see you in (Greater) Cincinnati in just eight weeks (eight weeks?! Holy cr&p – I’d best get started on my workbench and benchplane class prep!).
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