Why a Wall Cabinet Earns Its Place

A wall-mounted cabinet does three jobs that a shelf or a drawer bank simply cannot manage. It lifts your best tools out of the dust and damp that gather at bench level, it keeps edges protected behind a door, and it puts everything within arm's reach of the vice. In a small workshop, that vertical real estate is often the only space you have left. The cabinet described here is 600mm wide, 750mm high and 200mm deep — small enough to hang between studs, generous enough for a set of chisels, three or four bench planes and a couple of tenon saws.

Building it with hand tools is not nostalgia for its own sake. Dovetails cut by hand fit the carcass tightly, and a tight carcass is what keeps damp air out and rust at bay.

Sizing It to Your Tools, Not to Your Wall

Before you cut anything, empty your tool roll onto the bench and measure honestly. Lay the longest plane (usually a No. 5 or No. 6) flat and note its length; measure your widest saw from toe to handle. Work from those numbers rather than a drawing in a book.

• Depth: the depth of your deepest plane plus 25mm for the door and clearance. For most kits that lands at 200mm.
• Width: chisel rack width plus plane till width plus 40mm of breathing room.
• Height: saws on the back wall, tills in the middle, chisels at the bottom where you can grab them without looking.

Sketch the layout full size on a sheet of MDF. It takes twenty minutes and saves a wasted carcass. Mark where your knuckles will travel when you reach in — a cabinet that fits the tools but not your hand is a cabinet you will stop using.

Choosing and Preparing the Timber

Traditionally these cabinets were made in pine, and that is still a sound choice: light, stiff, and kind to tools that knock against it. If you want something smarter, use poplar or a soft hardwood for the carcass and reserve oak or ash for the door frame.

Buy 20mm stock and thickness it by hand. A sharp No. 4 or No. 5 set fine, worked diagonally across the grain and then along it, will bring a board down in a few passes if you take the time to flatten one face first. Check with winding sticks before you thickness the second face. Plane the edges square with a shooting board, and keep the two sides identical in width by clamping them together and truing the pair as one.

Let the prepared boards sit in the room where the cabinet will hang for a week. Timber that moves after assembly will crack your finish and open your joints.

Case Joints You Can Cut by Hand

Through dovetails at the four corners are the right answer here. They are strong, they look right on a cabinet this size, and they need no hardware. Cut the tails on the sides first, then transfer to the top and bottom boards with a fine knife line rather than a pencil — a knife line seats a saw tooth and stops the cut wandering.

Aim for a 1:6 ratio in softwood and 1:8 in hardwood. Cut on the waste side of the line, chop out with a wide chisel bevel inwards, and pare back to the gauge line. Test each joint dry, and if it needs a tap rather than a push, pare the shoulder a whisker rather than forcing it.

For the mid shelf, cut stopped housings 6mm deep. Knife the shoulders, chisel a shallow ramp at the front, then saw and pare down to depth. If you prefer, use a plough plane and run a through housing, then cover the ends with a slip of matching timber.

Fitting Out the Interior

The interior is where a cabinet becomes a tool store rather than a box.

• Plane till: a sloping floor board set at about 15 degrees, with a 20mm lip at the front so the planes lean back and sit sole-down.
• Chisel rack: two horizontal rails with 25mm gaps sawn between them, angled slightly forward so handles face you.
• Saw storage: a shallow rebate in the upper back, or two turned pegs per saw with leather washers to protect the handles.
• Small items: a shallow drawer or two in the base for oilstones, gauges and spare blades.

Line the walls with 3mm ply or baize. Baize is the traditional choice and it does more than look smart — it cushions edges and holds a thin film of oil close to the steel.

Doors, Finish and Keeping Rust at Bay

Frame-and-panel doors keep the cabinet light and allow the panel to move. Cut the frame with bridle or mortise-and-tenon joints, groove the stiles and rails, and let the panel float with a 2mm clearance all round. Hang the door on brass butt hinges set into shallow mortises; a 3mm gap all round is plenty and stops the door binding when the seasons change.

Finish the inside before you assemble and the outside after. Three coats of shellac or a wiping oil on the interior, then a thin coat of paste wax on the metal surfaces once the tools are in. Add a silica gel sachet changed twice a year, and drill a pair of 10mm ventilation holes low in the back panel.

Finally, hang the cabinet on a French cleat screwed into studs — not plasterboard fixings. A cabinet full of chisels and planes is heavy, and it will be heavier than you think. Once it is up, stand back and take stock: everything visible, everything sharp side protected, and a workshop that suddenly feels a foot wider.