My Newest Invention for travel carving

[Graywolf71]

I've had bags, cigar boxes and buckets, among other things, to carry my knives and blanks. But none of these things were overly useful, do to the fact that it either didn't hold all that i wanted with me or it held too much and i had to dig to find anything at all. I needed some thing i could organize with what i needed while traveling and still be easy, not to mention practical, to carry and set up in any location.

I've had this idea for some time and when i found a discarded brief case i know what i wanted to do, just not how. After a couple hours of staring at the case sitting on my work bench and scratching my butt trying to figure out the best way to rebuild it, i carefully striped and rebuilt. This took me near to 4 hours, this was mostly experimenting with different fits and mounts.

But as you can see below i now have the workings of a practical traveling carving case. There are some other things i'm working on to mount inside, like some type of chip catcher/collector, but for now it suits me just fine. I still have room for wood.

Going to have fun showing off my new toy.

Michael Gray

[Joy]

Very clever! I never would have thought of glueing snaps on. I like the way the tools swing out for easier access.

[squbrigg]

Well done. It looks like a great way to carry your travelling tools. I use a similar rig, a laptop computer case for long travel and a small Samsonite accessories case for my "waiting bag". They both work well for me. I was tempted to convert my briefcase to a carving travel outfit, but I found the weight of the case just too much for me. To catch chips, I have a small apron folded up and packed in the waiting pack. It works great.

Bob

[Claude]

Michael:
Here's what you need for your briefcase to take care of the wood chips:

Coghlan's Tent Whisk and Dust Pan

Claude

[Eddy-Smiles]

Now you need to find another old brief case to carry around your work and extra blanks and roughouts! Then before you're done you'll end up needing a suitcase because you'll find that you never have enough tools! Ha! Ha!

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Hey Michael, that's pretty neat, great idea.

Dave

[cut up]

That's a great idea.
I used to carve while traveling, but my wife thought she had to have an HHR. So, now there's not enough room to scratch, much less carve.

[armsfam]

I use a wooden artist's paint box that I got on sale at Hobby Lobby ($10-$20). I hinged a plywood flap into it with a piece of leather where the pallet would go to keep things from bouncing around. I also replaced the plastic handle with a leather one, added adhesive feet so it could sit upright, and added a couple of leather straps to keep the lid from opening too far. It works great and looks good, too.

[Bob K.]

Nice looking case...looks very practical.

[Stan Curtis]

One big advantage! Slip on a sport coat and you could pass as a businessman, not a suspicious guy with a bunch of sharp knives. I don't know if this would fly-by TSA, but its better than my tool bag.