A few years ago, Walt and I were at a model engineering show checking out the many cool engines and tools. There were a couple of dealers who had older Gerstner tool chests for sale. I managed to sweet talk one of them down in price a bit and walked away with a rough looking but solid tool chest – for my studio.

A Gerstner tool chest is a work of art. They are wooden chests with lots of drawers for keeping you tools organized. They come in a variety of designs and woods. If you order a new one, you can pick number of drawers, colors of felt liner, and even brass or nickel hardware. Be sure to bring plenty of money with you, as a new one starts at over $300 and one similar mine would be over $1500.

The tool chest before restoration

The chest was not damaged in any serious way, but it was dirty, scuffed and the felt was peeling. Fortunately, there was no missing hardware.

If you are restoring a Gerstner tool chest, you can get parts from the company to replace missing ones. All of the chests have a label with the model number (or you can use their tool chest identifier). They started making this style chest in 1918. The label on the outside tells me that mine was made in the 1950s or 1960s. They also have an interior stamp somewhere which provides more information about the chest.

The label tells me the model 041C, and the style of label gives me the approximate date.
The interior stamp. The letter and number combination might give more info on exactly when it was made.

Preparing the chest for restoration

To get the chest ready to restore, I needed to remove as much of the hardware as I could. Some of the hardware was riveted on. I could have cut the rivets and taken the parts off, but I was concerned that I might damage them. I got a big piece of cardboard and wrote where each of the pieces I removed came from and kept careful track of all of the screws.

I used an iron to gently warm the glue that secured the felt to the inside. A heat gun would have probably worked as well, but I wasn’t as comfortable with using that.

I used a small travel iron to warm the glue on the old felt, so that I could loosen it carefully.

I needed to remove any remaining glue and bits of uneven surface before I could put in fresh felt. I sanded it and then cleaned up all of the sawdust.

The interior is sanded, any sawdust is removed and it is ready for new felt.

In the second part, I will discuss the things I did to restore the exterior and add the new felt.