cool barn find sort of
 

I picked up an old carpenters chest I found online, it was too heavy for the owner to move around. from what I can see it was made by jl Thomas & co late 1800's its made of mostly mahogany though the outside has been painted. I figured it weighed about 150 lbs. what was inside I wondered? I didn't care since the price was right for even an empty chest.
I brought it home and actually picked the lock, inside were all the tools the original owner had!!
20 or so different socket chisels, 15 hand planes, ebony marking gauges, disston try squares, all kinds of stuff. Most of it dates from @ 1870-1900 every drawer had a surprise except the secret one I found lol!!! From what the owner told me his wifes great great grandfather was a finish carpenter for a railroad. I googled jl Thomas and they were a railroad tool and part supplier back in the day. ! recon the chest is about 150 years old at the most. I do woodworking as a hobby using only hand tools so this was a pretty good day for me.

Also found the spare key in the bottom.

Congrats on that find Pete. Especially with all of those tools. They were very cool tool chests. I had one like it back in the 70s and up to the early 80s, but unpainted and no tools or keys. I used it for a coffee table but had to part with it because of no room for it when I got married. If I'd only known.... I mean to not get married... I'd still have it today. ;) It cost me 150.00 for it way back then, but I didn't get anywhere near that much when I sold it. :(

Fantastic score! It's like a time capsule.
Right now I'm sitting about 6 feet away from a very similar chest. It also has the raised panel on the lid. My wife's grandfather made it during the 1920's to hold his tools when he lived in South Carolina. It measures 30" long, 13" high and 17" wide.

its a cool chest, 4 levels of sliding drawers, a couple other lidded drawers, saw holders. its 36x24x21 high.

Nice score!

Make sure to leave it just as it is since it's probably worth more as is and not restored. Funny how that works in most everything :)

Very true! Regrettably my father-in-law "restored" this one about 30 years ago.

Definitely do not restore it. Clean it up as best you can and enjoy it. Be careful if there's any bugs in that come to life. It happened with mine and it was a nightmare to get rid of them. At least they weren't termites.

Very cool. I'm a carpenter by trade and used to love collecting this stuff. And doing woodworking projects until I got bit by the car bug. This looks like something those American Pickers guys might find, but they'd probably pass it over for an old porcelain Esso sign.