diff --git a/src/Mod/Path/App/TooltablePyImp.cpp b/src/Mod/Path/App/TooltablePyImp.cpp
index ef250a7bc1..63e4adfdaa 100644
--- a/src/Mod/Path/App/TooltablePyImp.cpp
+++ b/src/Mod/Path/App/TooltablePyImp.cpp
@@ -391,12 +391,18 @@ void TooltablePy::setTools(Py::Dict arg)
             } else {
               PyErr_Clear();
               Path::Tool *tool = new Path::Tool;
-              Path::ToolPy pyTool(tool);
-              if (!pyTool.setFromTemplate(value)) {
-                PyErr_Print();
-                throw Py::Exception("something went wrong");
+              // The 'pyTool' object must be created on the heap otherwise Python
+              // will fail to properly track the reference counts and aborts
+              // in debug mode.
+              Path::ToolPy* pyTool = new Path::ToolPy(tool);
+              PyObject* success = pyTool->setFromTemplate(value);
+              if (!success) {
+                Py_DECREF(pyTool);
+                throw Py::Exception();
               }
               getTooltablePtr()->setTool(*tool, ckey);
+              Py_DECREF(pyTool);
+              Py_DECREF(success);
             }
         } else {
             throw Py::Exception("The dictionary can only contain int:tool pairs");