Editor's note: Because it's "Workbench Week Internazionale" I decided to tie up a loose end from my book: "Workbenches: from Blah, blah blah to Yadda yadda yadda." On page 57 I discuss Thomas Stangeland's bench and point out how the best woodworking I've seen has been built on the most minimal of workbenches.
Helpful reader Tom Moore visited Stangeland's shop recently and snapped the above photo of the bench. Below is the story that goes with that workbench.
In 2006 I taught a class in handwork at a school where Thomas Stangeland, a maestro at Greene & Greene-inspired work, was also teaching a class. Though we both strive for the same result in craftsmanship, the process we each use couldn’t be more different. He builds furniture for a living, and he enjoys it. I build furniture because I enjoy it, and I sell an occasional piece.
One evening we each gave a presentation to the students about our work. One of the pieces I showed was an image of my French workbench. I discussed its unusual workholding devices and how the bench was a bit of a Thor Heyerdahl experience.
Thomas then got up and said he wished he had a picture to show of his workbench for the last decade: a door on a couple horses. He said that a commercial shop had no time to waste on building a traditional bench. And with his power-tool approach, he just needed a flat surface and some clamps to work.
It’s hard to argue with the end result. His furniture is beautiful. 
But what’s important to note here is that you can get by with the door-off-the-floor approach, but there are many commercial woodworkers who still see the utility of a traditional workbench. Chairmaker and furnituremaker Brian Boggs uses more newfangled routers and shop-made devices with aluminum extrusions than I have ever seen in a shop. And he still has two enormous traditional workbenches that see constant use.
The point here is that a good bench won’t make you a better woodworker. And a not-quite-a-bench won’t doom you to failure. But a good bench in any shop will make many power-tool operations easier and open the door to permit you to try many hand-tool operations. The bench is simply another tool. It’s the biggest wooden clamp in the shop.
As Thomas was wrapping up his part of the show he showed an interesting slide of an enormous and thick slab of an exotic wood he had been stashing for years and years in his shop.
“I just need to find the right project for it,” he said.
“Hey Thomas,” I heckled, “that slab sure would make a great benchtop.”
He laughed. Next slide, please.
— Christopher Schwarz 
If you were charmed by Harrelson Stanley's Japanese workbench, then here is another variant for you that was built by Russ Merz of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Merz built this bench about seven years ago. The horses were built using scrap oak salvaged from pallets. The beam was built from 2x4 construction lumber.
"I read about these and just had to have one," Merz writes. "I think you know the feeling."
Here are the stats: The trestles are 20" high and 38" wide. Each foot is 21" long. The slab is 3-1/8" x 8-3/4" x 68".
So how does he like using the bench? Well, he doesn't. The parts for the bench usually sit below his European-style workbench. But for our benefit, he dusted them off, set them up outside and snapped these photos.
"Even though I never use this, it was fun making," Merz writes. "About a year or so after you make this (bench), brush off the dust, sign it, put it on eBay and donate the proceeds to your favorite charity."
— Christopher Schwarz
Woodworker James Oliver has built a massive workbench with French lines (tree trunk legs), English-style workholding (a twin-screw face vise) and some modern practicality (a quick-release vise in the end-vise position).
When I first posted photos of Oliver's bench in January, readers wanted to see more photos – not only of the bench, but of the shop. Oliver, who works part-time for Coastal Carvings in Coombs, British Columbia, obliged with these two other views of his bench and shop. Click on the photos to see the full-size versions.
The layout for a hand-tool shop is pretty sweet. There's a saw till at the right of the photo with planes above. The window directly behind the bench is also home to a rack with striking and boring tools. And check out the nice collection of chisels on the left.
For me, however, the best part is the floor. Our shop in Cincinnati has a concrete floor, as does my shop at home. Almost every year, I come up with some scheme to lay a wooden floor in both shops, but something (usually my love of eating meat once in a while) gets in the way.
Thanks to Oliver for these photos of another inspiring shop and bench.
— Christopher Schwarz 
Many readers were interested in Bill Liebold's sliding leg vise, which he installed on his Roubo-meets-Dominy-style workbench (I'm just going to call this form the "Bill Bench" from here out). 
Liebold liked the sliding aspect of the leg vise because when you used it in tandem with a fixed leg vise, you could clamp just about anything. Need to dovetail a 24"-wide case side? That's child's play for this set-up. How about planing an entryway door? Just as easy.
This sliding leg vise arrangement was shown in a plate in Andre Roubo's 18th century treatise on woodworking, but I've never seen one in the wild on an old bench. Perhaps that's because there is a weakness to the original design (or my employer is not funding enough trips to France for me). Liebold said the pressure applied by the screw could bow the front edge of the bench out. This occurred because the vise runs in a track on the underside of the benchtop. When hard pressure was applied, the tongue that rides in the track would push out in some cases, bowing the front of the bench.
Liebold, however, has now fixed that problem. The solution? Steel.
"Well, I just had to make my sliding leg vice work in a permanent way so I wouldn’t have to worry about it breaking," Liebold writes. He lined the track with steel (you can get this from a home center).
So how does it work?
"Now the weakest part of the vice is the parallel guide," Liebold writes. "I cinched down on a piece of basswood until I could hear wood starting to crackle. I was able to dent the basswood and I bent the brass pin in the parallel guide. Success!"
— Christopher Schwarz
One of my (many) blind spots in woodworking is Japanese tools and shop practices. Sure, I’ve read Toshio Odate’s excellent autobiography, plus “The Genius of Japanese Carpentry.” And I drool with great regularity on the Japan Woodworker catalog.
But I understand Japanese shop practices as much as I understand all the acronyms my 12-year-old daughter uses when texting. DFLA!
So I’m always eager to learn about Japanese woodworking from people who have studied and practiced it in Japan. One of those people is Harrelson Stanley, the owner of JapaneseTools.com and the man who brought Shapton waterstones to American shores.
Stanley completed the furniture program at the premier North Bennett Street School as a very young man and then went off to Japan to study the traditional lacquering and woodworking trades. He came back to this country with a Japanese wife and a deep desire to spread the traditional Japanese practices among Western woodworkers.
This weekend at the Northeastern Woodworkers Association's annual show, Stanley was demonstrating his new Sharp Skate honing guide, teaching people to sharpen edge tools and helping people learn to wield a handplane on his Japanese bench.
The bench consists of two trestle-style sawhorses that are topped with one massive slab of a top. Except for the teak planing stop, all the bench’s parts are made using Port Orford Cedar, Stanley says, a durable and strong member of the cypress family that grows in the Pacific Northwest.
This particular bench was built by James Blauvelt, a Connecticut cabinetmaker, joiner and carpenter who runs the company Bluefield Joiners. But is this bench typical of what would be found in a Japanese workshop?
“Actually, it’s a little too nice,” Stanley says. “In a Japanese shop they would use something more makeshift.” 
Harrelson Stanley demonstrates how the notch in the top is used to true a plane's sole.
Here are some of the critical dimensions: The trestles are made from 3-1/2” x 3-1/2” stock throughout, with an overall height of 23-3/4” from the floor to the top of each sawhorse. The top is 3-1/2” thick, 10-1/4” wide and 8’ long. The working height of the benchtop is 27-1/2”, which is fairly low by modern Western standards.
The slab rests on the sawhorses and is held in place by a single cleat below the top that fits against the top of one of the sawhorses. Gravity and the force of the work keeps the top in place.
The top is considerably narrower than the sawhorses, which prompted me to ask why. Is that where stock was placed before or after it was worked? Not really, Stanley says. Typically, the Japanese woodworker would place a thin board across the two trestles and place the tools he or she needed on that board. Because this board is thin, it typically kept the tools out of the way of the work.
Another interesting feature of the benchtop is a triangular notch cut into the slab up near the planing stop. This notch holds Japanese planes with their soles facing up so the craftsman can dress the tool’s wooden sole with another plane.
As I was taking a few photos of the bench, one of Stanley’s daughters, Abby, demonstrated her planing skills on a piece of Port Orford Cedar (that wasn’t part of the workbench). After taking a couple warm-up passes, she pulled off a beautiful shaving that was almost entirely full width and full length. And, as you can see, the bench wasn’t too high for her.
— Christopher Schwarz
The last place I ever expected to stumble on Andre Roubo’s handiwork was next to an Art Deco radio and underneath some old water jugs. But on Saturday, I walked into an antiques store in Ottawa, Canada, and there was a worn but functional Roubo-style workbench perched patiently under a window.
OK, let me back up a minute: I was in Canada (actually, as I write this I still am in Canada) to judge a tool-making contest for Wood Central. The judging was held in the corporate boardroom at Lee Valley Tools, and at one point Robin Lee, the president of the company, and Doug, one of Robin’s old-tool conspirators, took me aside.
“Do you want to see a Roubo workbench?” Robin asked.
My reply was something along the lines of what bears do when in they have natural urges in the woods. So after we wrapped up the judging for the day, we headed out to the antiques store. We opened the front door, and it was sitting right there – underneath some metalware, stoneware and an old sled.
So I dropped to my knees and (I know you think the next word is “prayed”) poked around the undercarriage of the bench. I can’t say how old this bench is, but I can give you some interesting details about its construction and dimensions. 
Overall, this Canadian Roubo is 8' 8-1/2" long, 17" deep and 28-3/4" high. The top is 2-3/8” thick and the consensus among the group is the top is pine. There is no planing stop evident in the top, but there is lots of evidence of holdfast holes that were plugged. The top is made of two pieces. A very wide front piece and a narrow piece at the back that is joined with a square-shaped spline.
The joint is at the exact point where the rear legs pierce the top of the workbench. The rear legs are slanted (as you can see in the photo) and join the top with the exact joint that Roubo shows in his landmark 18th century woodworking book – it’s basically a through-dovetail combined with a through-tenon.
The front legs are joined to the top using this same joint. All the legs are 3" x 3" and look to be some sort of oak. The legs join the stretchers of the bench about 4" from the floor and each joint is pegged with through-pegs.
To plane long boards, there is a long stile that runs from the benchtop to the stretcher at about the midpoint of the bench’s front. The stile is pierced by numerous small holes for pegs that will support boards on edge. The far right leg is also pierced by a couple holes, though these holes were larger in diameter than those on the stile – perhaps they were for holdfasts. 
The single drawer in the bench pulled right out. Inside was one small till and sliding tracks for at least two more (which were not in the drawer).
The leg vise (in the face vise position) was traditional in structure. The vise screw was wooden and quite worn (though it still worked). The nut at the rear of the jaws was detached and needed to be reattached.
The leg vise had a parallel guide that pierced the rear jaw, though its pin was long gone. The leg vise’s position on the top was quite interesting. The top cantilevered off the bench’s base on the bench’s left side by 24". On the right, only by 4". The leg vise was roughly centered on the cantilever. The lower part of the vise’s rear jaw was secured to the front leg with a strap of metal.
Overall, the bench was incredibly sturdy and showed evidence of heavy use and age. One of the members of our party asked if someone could have faked the bench or aged a newer example to look old.
While that’s always a possibility with antiques, the bench was selling for $2,000 Canadian, so if it was faked, the faker wasn’t going to be getting rich off this bench – it’s a lot of wood and there were a lot of wear marks that would have to be faked.
After about a half an hour of me making geeky statements (“Look you can see how the shell bit tore out the grain as it pierced the leg!”) I could tell it was time to go. All the members of our scouting party were standing around looking at me like my kids do when I’m on a lunatic woodworking speech.
There’s more bench news from this trip. While Lee and I were eating breakfast Saturday with Ellis Wallentine (from Wood Central) and Clarence Blanchard (a fellow judge from The Fine Tool Journal), Lee said two words between mouthfuls of eggs that has me sketching wildly this evening: “furniture” and “workbench.” More on this later topic next month.
— Christopher Schwarz, who this weekend picked up tips on teasing people on the Internet from Robin Lee, master taunter.
One of my favorite things about the Holtzapffel Workbench I built for Issue 8 of Woodworking Magazine is the monster twin-screw vise with wooden vise screws. The wooden screws move the vise's chop quickly, engage the work firmly and are quite durable.
Plus, they're wood. And I like wood.
Now there's a new source of wooden vise screws that I can heartily recommend after inspecting the finished product this weekend. Woodworker Joe Comunale of Romeo, Mich., has started a new business called BigWoodVise.com to sell vise screws, nuts and handles for woodworking benches.
While I was teaching a couple classes at the Sterling Heights, Mich., Woodcraft, Joe stopped by the store to show me the screws, which he has been selling for some time to friends and fellow woodworkers in the Detroit area.
The screws are as nice as I have seen on any bench. The threads are crisp, with no visible chipping or tear-out along their entire lengths. The hub, which is the large end piece on the end of the screw, is finished as well as any piece of furniture. One style of hub that Joe makes, which he calls the "Classic" style, has crisp black lines burned into the hub. 
The screws he sells come with the matching nut, the handle and round ball-shaped caps for the ends of the handle. The two nuts I tried moved smoothly and rapidly on the screws and showed very little slop in the mechanism. Joe says he wants to tighten up the fit of the nuts on the thread, but I think they're great as-is.
His vise screws attach to your vise's wooden chop with a garter system. Garter systems confuse many woodworkers who have never seen them, but they are really quite simple. The job of the garter is to secure the chop to the screw so that the chop will move out when you retract the screws.
The garter itself is a small piece of wood that is mortised into the chop of your vise and held in place with friction. One end of the garter nests into a groove in the screw.
The 2"-diameter, 2 threads-per-inch screws from BigWoodVise.com are made from ash. The handles I inspected were made from maple.
Joe has just launched his web site recently and is having a "March Madness" sale that ends March 31. So if you are in the market for vise screws, you might want to place your order soon. The "Classic" vise screw, nut and handle are on sale for $99 for each set this month – the regular price is $150 for each set.
This business is a side job for Joe, who is a mechanical engineer, but he plans to keep several screws in stock and promises (at most) a four-week delivery time. He also is happy to do custom work if you have something special in mind. Contact Joe at joe@BigWoodVise.com for details.
So if you're tired of getting grease marks on your work from your metal-screw vise, or you are building a bench with an old-school look, then definitely check out these screws from BigWoodVise.com. I don't have any plans for building another bench (where would I put it?), but if I do, I'm definitely going to buy a set of these screws myself.
— Christopher Schwarz
When I first built my French Roubo-style workbench, I put a sliding deadman on it to help support doors and long panels. But I have long intended to replace that deadman with a sliding leg vise.
Roubo actually shows this arrangement in one of his volumes, and it is a tempting morsel. However, as you will soon see, it is also an engineering challenge.
I'm tempted to build it because it would be the final solution for dovetailing and working on the long edges of boards. One end of the work would be held in the regular leg vise (located on the left leg). And the other end would be grasped by the sliding leg vise. With a long bench (mine is 8' long) you could hold almost any piece of wood you would find in a furniture-making shop.
The engineering challenge comes when you try to build it so it is sturdy and won't damage the bench. It can be done, of course, but adding the sliding leg vise as an accessory requires some careful thought.
Luckily, industrious reader Bill Liebold has built the sliding leg vise on his 12'-long Dominy-style workbench with an end vise. He is smitten with the functionality of the sliding leg vise, but is still working out the engineering aspects of it.
The real issue is that the sliding panel moves in a groove that is routed into the underside of the benchtop. When you really cinch down the sliding vise, it can bow out the front edge of the workbench.
"I was able to bow the front edge of the bench top but that was with far more pressure than I need to hold a piece of wood," Liebold writes. "I did it to see what would happen if I overtightened the vice. I like to experiment."
If you are considering adding a sliding leg vise, you are going to want to change the groove in the underside. Personally, I'd locate it as far back as possible from the front edge of the benchtop. Liebold thinks it would be best to have the groove start 3" in from the front edge, and to use a 1"-thick tenon on the sliding panel. I think that sounds about right.
There are lots of other ways to go about this, I'm sure. And now I'm toying again with the idea of adding a sliding leg vise if I can just get the engineering worked out in my head.
— Christopher Schwarz
On the cover of "Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use" there are a couple low sawhorse-gizmos parked beneath my French-style workbench that look like Munchkins from the Lollipop Guild could have used them to build the set for the "Wizard of Oz."
Those are Japanese sawing trestles that I built five or six years ago based on plans from Toshio Odate's "Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit, and Use." I built the trestles to do some hands-on research on Japanese sawing methods after several people had mentioned that Japanese saws weren't designed to be used at a high Western-style workbench.
After I built the trestles, I pushed my current bench aside and started sawing on the floor of our shop. To make joinery crosscuts, you place the work across the trestles and kneel on a mat (I used a moving blanket). To make rips, such as a tenon cheek, you prop the work up on the trestle, stand on the work and cut the cheek. (See the photo.)
I have to agree that the Japanese saws did cut more efficiently this way, especially the ryoba. But you do have to be in better shape than a typical Western woodworker. That's because you are the woodworking vise. Your weight and your muscles immobilize the work as you saw. Plus, you have to tune your sense of balance a little finer.
After I finished with that experiment, I kept the trestles around because they're quite handy. I use them primarily for assembling things on my benchtop. With my work resting on the trestles I can easily clamp all around the work and under it.
My trestles are cherry and made from 2"-thick stock – I built them entirely by hand from some stock we had harvested from a co-worker's back yard. Also, just for fun, I built them without glue or metal fasteners – I remembered something about that detail from college when I studied the Shinto religion. You don't want to mess with the kami. It was a fun afternoon project. The trestles are 16" long and 6" high. If I had to make them again, I'd probably make them 18" or 20" long – sometimes they are a bit small to hold casework.
— Christopher Schwarz
The most common question I’m asked these days (right behind “Could you please get me some chocolate raisins at Trader Joe’s?”) is this one: “What is your dream workbench?”
It’s a fine question. And when Craig Stevens at Woodworkers Resource asked me the question for this podcast interview, I stumbled around and answered that it would be something like a Roubo Workbench (a French design), with the workholding of a Holtzapffel Workbench (designed by a German living in England).
A bit of a Euro-mash workbench, I suppose.
Well today, woodworker James Oliver of Vancouver Island, B.C., sent me a photo of that exact workbench, which he has recently completed building. The bench is 112" long, 27" wide and 32" high (James reports that he’s 5'7" tall). The majority of the bench is structural fir; the vises and sliding deadman are ribbon-figured African mahogany.
The twin-screw vise is even larger than mine – 25-1/4" between centers. And the jaws are lined with saddle leather. And my favorite detail is the little oil cup on the left side (made from walnut) – Andre Roubo would love it (if he were alive and had a broadband connection).
The bench took about a week to build. James builds furniture for Coastal Carvings fine art gallery using only solid stock, no plywood or veneers.
I think James’s bench is an excellent design. Bravo.
— Christopher Schwarz
One of the best things about building old-style workbenches (like Andre Roubo's bench above) is that there are little lessons you learn by using them. At times, you learn the lesson unconsciously and it takes a couple years for you to even learn that you learned it.
This morning I was flattening the panels for the blanket chest I’m building for the Summer 2008 issue by planing them directly across the grain — what Joseph Moxon calls “traversing” in his book the “Mechanick Exercises.”
So I’m minding my own beeswax while traversing, and I notice something I’ve been doing for a while without really thinking. While traversing, I wedge my left foot under the stretcher, and I use that foot to help pull my body back on the return stroke.
So I paused and I pulled my left foot out from under the stretcher and tried planing with both feet planted on the floor instead. That felt a lot like working. So I wedged my foot back under the stretcher and returned to work.
Did Roubo design this workbench with this little detail in mind? Likely, no. But the stretcher’s location has always been curious to me – it’s only 5" off the floor. Other benches I’ve worked on (and constructed) put the stretcher considerably higher off the floor. If you have a low stretcher, give this a try and let me know what you think.
— Christopher Schwarz
Probably the silliest thing about woodworking journalism is the "in a weekend" project that we promise readers on the cover of the magazine: "Build a John Goddard Highboy With Four Sticks and Pocket Knife – In a Weekend!"
(And trust me, it's the exclamation point at the end of that sentence that makes you buy the magazine and puts food on my table.)
Anyway, loyal reader and blogger Eric Seidlitz sent me the above photo of his Roubo-style workbench that he built over a holiday weekend. Eric, who works in Malaysia, said he's been frustrated with his bench-building efforts lately and has been having trouble finding good material and getting his tools to work. So he absconded with his children's Christmas present and built the above bench.
I think it's lacking in the mass department, but otherwise he did a fine job.
What would really improve this photo would be the addition of some Lego Frenchmen with frilly cuffs and collars at work at the bench. I checked the Lego web site, and though you can get Lego dudes dressed up like knights, astronauts and Indiana Jones, Lego doesn't appear to have any 18th-century French Joiners in its product line.
I think the Lego Pirates would be a good substitute. However, their eye patches aren't going to help with their sawing.
— Christopher Schwarz
Mark L. Wells writes: I've read your book and the extra chapterr. Both are great. You provide so
much more detail than anything else I've read, and I almost feel guilty
for not having to work it out myself.
Anyway, I am going to rebuild my bench soon and I plan to put a leg
vise on the front. When attaching the top, I assumed I would have to
use mortise-and-tenon joints because of the tremendous shearing force
generated by the leg vise. I'm concerned that the vise would just push
the workbench top right off the legs. However, when I saw the simple L-brackets in this chapter, I started wondering if those would be sturdy
enough to resist the force of the vise. The L-brackets would certainly
be a lot less work!
Have you tried attaching the workbench top using L brackets when the bench has a leg vise?
Answer: Good question. My gut says that two L-brackets on the leg with the leg vise would
probably do the trick. However, just be safe, I would probably put one
stout 1"- or 1-1/4"-diameter dowel in the top of that leg. That should
provide all the protection against shear forces that you need.
Hope this helps, and good luck with your bench design.
— Christopher Schwarz
When I travel with some of my old-school workbenches, it looks a bit like a 19th-century British caravan to India. Since 2005, I’ve strapped my French Workbench into the bed of a tiny Toyota Tacoma pickup truck. I’ve driven it across town with its hinder hanging out the back of a Honda. And I’ve crammed the English Workbench into two too many mini-vans.
These workbenches don’t knock down flat for shipping and weren’t designed to. Society was a lot less mobile when these benches were in favor. And while I prefer these workbenches the way they are – built as one monolithic structure – sometimes you need to build your workbench so it knocks flat.
Though I discuss some bench-bolt schemes in “Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use,” I didn’t cover the tricks to installing the hardware. I’ve installed quite a few of these systems in workbenches and beds.
So I’ve written an additional 10-page chapter that covers bench bolts and other systems of making your benches knock down flat into five pieces. Anyone can download this chapter here, for free, whether you’ve purchased the book or not. (The chapter is about 3.5 mb, so you will have an easier time if you do this on a computer with a broadband connection.)
The chapter discusses the pros and cons of the various ways to make your workbench’s base knock-down, including:
1. Solid-wood tusks driven into through-tenons that pass through mortises in the legs.
2. Drawbore pins
3. Lap joints secured with screws or lag bolts
4. Hex-head bolts, bench bolts or threaded rod.
Then I detail how to install the two tricky bits of hardware: hex-head bolts and the Veritas Special Bench Bolts, which I quite like. In addition to discussing knockdown workbench bases, I also discuss some of the different strategies for attaching the top to the base so you can easily remove it.
There might be a little surprise in here for you if you’ve read my book. All of benches feature very stout joinery, yet, I think it’s quite possible to really overdue it when it comes to attaching the top to the base. Most people focus on controlling racking forces when they attach the top. In a well-designed bench, you really should be more concerned about shear forces instead – and those are much easier to manage. Dec. 20 update: Three typos fixed in file below. Thanks for the copy editing!
WB-Chapter9-appendixR2.pdf (3.49 MB) — Christopher Schwarz
P.S. A shameless plug: You can order a signed copy of the book with a companion CD of extra bench-building information from my personal web site.
 A couple readers have pointed out a problem with page 81 of "Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use" (Popular Woodworking Books).
The two columns of text on that page were transposed during the layout process, and I didn't catch the mistake before we went to the printer. All the text is there, and the story will make sense if you read the right column of text first and then the left.
Of course, that's not a good solution in my book (pun intended).
So I've prepared a corrected page that you can download, print out and stick in the book if you like. The page is in pdf format. If anyone else has any errors they have spotted, please e-mail them to me and I'll see that they are corrected in future editions (assuming that there are future editions).
NewPage81rev2.pdf (906.22 KB)
Sorry for the mistake.
— Christopher Schwarz
 When the first copy of “Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction and Use” arrived on my desk from China via airmail, I couldn’t stand to even look at it. I stuck it in my satchel (which my wife fondly calls the “manpurse”) and took it home.
Before dinner that evening, I took the book out and showed it to the kids. Maddy, 11, took the book and started paging through it.
“Wow. This is great dad,” she said. “Will you autograph it?”
My heart swelled a bit. I had impressed my daughter that I was an author. But something didn’t quite seem right in her tone of voice.
“Why do you want me to sign it?” I asked.
“So I can sell it on eBay,” she said. “Someone might pay me extra if you sign it.”
Ah, Maddy, my little bourgeois capitalist. Since then a few other people have weighed in on the new book. A few people have said the book is a bit of a rehash of principles I’ve discussed on my blog and in print. That’s fair to a degree. My blog has been a place where I explore ideas in rough-draft form. The book is the summation of more than a decade of ideas and experiences, polished and complete. Well, that was the plan.
This week I got my first review on Amazon, which sells the book at a very competitive price, I might add. I don’t know the reviewer personally, but he read the entire book and grasped the message I was trying to transmit. Below is that review in its entirety, reprinted with the permission of the author.
The book is now available most everywhere. If you would like to purchase an autographed copy (along with a companion CD of additional material), you can visit my personal web site. I can't compete on price with the big booksellers, but I can sign the book (and occasionally one of the kids helps by adding a small smiley face on the title page).
Those books with the smiley face have got to be worth something on eBay some day.
— Christopher Schwarz
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truly remarkable woodworking book
November 17, 2007
By Landscape W. Shipwreck (Island J, Brigstocke Township, N. Ontario)
As an avid reader of Christopher Schwarz's various articles and columns in woodworking magazines, I've been awaiting the publication of this book with anticipation. Now that I've read it I have to say that it's better than I expected, and my expectations were very high.
I've read a number of books and articles on workbenches (notably the ones by Lon Schleining and Scott Landis, which are valuable for what they are: surveys of various styles of workbenches, with info on how to build a few of them). This book is different. Not just a little different. Radically different.
Schwarz is not just a good writer. He is an extremely good writer, vastly better than the majority of writers about woodworking; better than most writers, period. He is not merely capable of explaining things clearly, or of organizing his text coherently. His writing is actually enjoyable to read. He has the ability to combine highly technical information with a kind of narrative structure, within which personal experience, historical research and theoretical conceptualization come together almost seamlessly. One could describe the book as almost an essay in the classical, Montaignesque sense: a personal, spiraling account of a particular subject, whose compelling structure takes the reader along on a wide-ranging voyage of discovery, and makes the reader a companion of the author as he works out his own thinking. However, this should not be understood as saying that the book is in any way vague, for it isn't. I mean to underline its powerfully engaging quality. I believe somebody who wasn't a woodworker, who had no plans whatsoever to construct a workbench, would enjoy reading it.
Schwarz is also a gifted scholar and theoretician, a trait not typical of woodworkers, of writers about woodworking. The evidence of his thorough research and profound thought on his subject abounds in the book. His conceptualization of the workbench as a tool for holding lumber so that its 3 different surfaces (edges, faces, and ends) can be worked is a recognition that you won't find anywhere else, and one that animates the entire book. It may sound simple, even obvious, but so does the second law of thermodynamics.
The book provides designs and construction overviews of 2 very different benches, which may seem a paltry number of options. It is not. Schwarz has distilled years of research and bench-building into these 2 designs, and offers plenty of options along the way as to how one might alter them to suit one's own purposes. The illustrations are abundant, clear and useful. Numerous sidebars provide detailed and helpful insight into a variety of sub- or side-topics (eg. Find a source for yellow pine; Pattern-maker's vises: friend or foe?; The Stanley No. 203 - better than a peg). The index is extensive.
Anybody familiar with Schwarz from his hand-tool courses and DVDs knows that he is a formidable woodworker and teacher. Those qualities resound through this book, as does his engaging ability to be personal, as does his earnestness, as does his good humor. I've always learned easily from him, and this book continues that trend.
The first bench I ever built was from an article of Schwarz's called "The $175 Workbench," published in Popular Woodworking in 2000. I still have it, and use it every day. I will be building another one soon, using an adaptation of one of the designs outlined in this book; this book which will accompany me along the way, like a friend. Perhaps this sounds a bit loopy, but read the book and tell me you don't share the feeling.
Shipping begins very soon for my new book "Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use" (Popular Woodworking Books). The book has arrived in our warehouse from the printer and will be shipping out soon to bookstores and specialty retailers during the next two weeks.
The book features plans for two old-school workbenches (a French and an English bench), but those aren't the core of the book in my opinion. The central idea in this book is that there is no such thing as a perfect workbench – there are hundreds of them.
But before you can make a good workbench, you have to understand the different kinds of workholding devices – from single-point planing stops to Emmert patternmaker's vises – and what they are useful (and not useful) for. Then you can select the vises and devices that suit the tasks that you want to accomplish.
The two workbench plans in the book are merely the simple skeletons that you can then flesh out to your satisfaction. These two benches are easy to build. And while they are far less complex than most modern benches, they are just as effective.
The book is going to be available in at many bookstores, online retailers, in the WoodWorker's Book Club and directly from the publisher, F+W Publications Inc. (though it is not live on the site as of this posting on Oct. 31). You can even pre-order copies in advance right now from some online sellers, including Amazon and Books A Million.
In addition to those traditional sellers, you will soon be able to buy the book with a companion CD from four specialty woodworking sellers: Lee Valley Tools, Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, Tools for Working Wood and from my own site, where I sell books and DVDs (pardon the digital dust; it's still under construction).
The companion CD includes 3D electronic models of the workbenches in the books, slideshows of the construction process and a searchable, electronic version of the book so you can print out construction drawings for the shop or find sections that interest you.
If you want a signed edition of the book, the easiest way to get one is to buy the book from my site. I sign all the copies I ship out (unless you tell me not to!).
One final note: I'd like to thank the readers here who encouraged me to write the book, plus the staff at Popular Woodworking magazine and Woodworking Magazine that endured my bleary eyes during the writing process and my company, F+W Publications, that had faith enough to actually print the thing.
— Christopher Schwarz
Preparing small tabletops or irregular-shaped tops for finishing can be difficult with handplanes. If the top has a lot of mass, you can usually count on friction to help hold the top in place. Or you can screw it down from the underside – assuming the underside is not a show surface.
But sometimes the best solution is to make some cauls to grip your work, which is what I did this morning in the shop to plane the top of some 18"-diameter tabletops for the next issue of Woodworking Magazine. The cauls are made from the scrap parts that fell off when I cut the tops to rough shape on the band saw.
Then I skipped the scrap pieces through my planer to reduce their thickness (I also could have used a jack plane). Then I bored 3/4"- diameter holes in the cauls so they would press-fit over my 3/4"- diameter round dogs in my benchtop. Finally, I pinched the top between the two cauls using my wagon vise (though any end vise can do the trick).
When I've done this on workbenches with square dogs, the solution is to cut the pointy end of the caul so it is flat. Then you brace the flat against your square dog.
No matter how you rig your cauls, pinching the work between two cauls has some advantages, as long as you don't use too much pressure. With two cauls you can rotate the top to work cross-grain if necessary or move the top so it's more convenient to plane.
This arrangement works great with belt sanders. It's not necessary if you use a random-orbit sander to prepare your work. Then you can just place the work on a blanket and get to work.
— Christopher Schwarz
As the Holtzapffel workbench from Issue No. 8 has been making its way into the hands of readers, there have been a fair number of questions landing in my e-mail about the bench.
One of the most common questions has been about which bench is my favorite. The answer is simple, but it vexes many readers: My favorite bench is any workbench that can pass the simple Kitchen Test. I don’t care if it’s French, English or made out of termite-barf MDF.
But to give you a (I hope) more satisfying answer: I have the Holtzapffel bench in my shop at home. I have the Roubo-style workbench in the shop at work. And the English-style workbench I built in December is in the basement workshop of a close friend, after almost wiping out his stairwell wall during the moving process. I hated to give up the English workbench but it was just too big for my diminutive home shop.
The other question that is coming up quite a bit is: Do you have any more plans, photos and drawings for the Holtzapffel workbench? The answer is no, I’m afraid. I poured everything I had into the article in Issue 8.
However, there are some other great bench-building resources now on the Internet that can help you plumb deeply into the bench-building process in a level of detail I couldn’t achieve in a printed magazine.
Fellow Midwesterner David Pearce is in the middle of building a Holtzapffel-style workbench and is documenting the entire process in remarkable detail on the excellent WKFineTools.com site run by Wiktor Kuc. Pearce provides everything that my article does not: encouragement, details on alternate processes and additional step photos. It’s an excellent companion site to my article, especially for a first-time bench builder.
Another good site to watch is Miraboo’s “Sidney Woodsmith” blog. Miraboo has designed an interesting hybrid bench and is still in the planning stages of building his workbench. His current design is a little bit French and a little bit English. The design could change, so stay tuned.
And finally, Jeremy Burton’s blog at WolfpackWoodworks.com is also a good saga to follow. Jeremy has built a rough bench to experiment on so he can develop his plans for his dream bench (a good idea; wish I had thought of that). His current bench is a little bit Roubo with some other engineering involved. Check it out.
If you have a blog that details your bench-building experience, let me know and I’ll share it with other readers. Just leave a comment below.
— Christopher Schwarz
A few readers gave me a little grief about the SketchUp drawings posted here this week saying that the renders weren't as good as a completely dimensioned architectural three-view plan. And that the file posted here was little more than a sketch on a napkin.
While I like formal three-view drawings and make them for all my projects, I think that everything you need to build that bench is in the SketchUp file. If you use the Dimensions tool (it's under Tools in the menu), you can strike almost any dimension that you need. It's not as freeform as, say AutoDesk, but SketchUp costs a little less.
The joinery is there. Select a leg. Use the Move tool to pull it away and you'll see the mortises, which you can strike dimensions from. Disassemble the shelf to see how the tounge-and-groove is sized and exactly where the cleat below is located. SketchUp is quite the powerhouse for the price (free).
I like to think of these SketchUp drawings as akin to being cut loose in a museum with a tape measure. Measure everything you think is important to create the architectural three-view you need to build the piece. This could be a full set of mechanical drawings with the screw threads drawn in. Or it could be a few crude boxes inked on a TGIFridays napkin soiled with buffalo wing sauce.
Also, Wendell Wilkerson, the man who joined Mr. Roubo and Mr. Holtzapffel, is proud to announce their newest addition to the family: Little Baby Dominy. This bench has a more traditional twin-vise set-up, like Mike Dunbar's on his famed Federal workbench from the holiest of holies: "The Workbench Book." (Shockingly, despite my enthusiasm for it and my track record (see "Essential Woodworker"), Taunton has kept this book in print.)
Check it out. Take the SketchUp tutorials. And play with the Dimensions tool. Dominy_workbench_color~.zip (1.37 MB) — Christopher Schwarz
I wish there were a simple test to separate a good workbench from one that should live the rest of its life as a plant stand. You know, something simple like an instant pregnancy test, but without having to drag your bench into the lavatory.
I started developing such a test for my forthcoming book on workbenches and I got to try it out Saturday on a group of about 25 woodworkers during a four-hour seminar at Lie-Nielsen Toolworks in Warren, Maine.
You never know how these things will go. Sometimes the audience listens eagerly, sometimes they fall asleep, sometimes I pass out. This particular group of woodworkers was an interesting mix. First, I had Thomas Lie-Nielsen, plus two members of his crew who build workbenches for him. Add to that Dave Anderson, a very knowledgeable woodworker who runs Chester Toolworks; James Watriss, a recent North Bennett Street School graduate; and six students in the 12-week intensive course at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. As I was going to be critiquing a bunch of workbench designs and hardware (including ones made by Lie-Nielsen Toolworks), I was a mite concerned that this would be a feisty bunch. They were feisty, but it was in a good way.
During the first couple hours I reviewed a bunch of traditional (and forgotten) bench designs, I delivered my rant (which I didn’t intend to come out like a rant) on hardware. Then after eating some chicken curry wraps and oatmeal cookies (yum), I explained my test.
I call it “The Kitchen Test,” but I need to come up with a better name for it. In a nutshell, here it is: Pretend that you have three pieces of woodwork in your shop and you need to secure them on your workbench so you can work on their faces, edges and ends.
One piece is a kitchen cabinet door that measures ¾" x 18" x 24". The second is a kitchen drawer that is 4" x 18" x 18". The third is a piece of baseboard for the kitchen that is ¾" x 6" x 48".
Now pick two (or 10) workbench designs and pit them against one another. Which bench would grip these three pieces of work in each of the three positions (for working the faces, edges and ends) with the greatest ease?
Some benches require a lot of extra accessories (bench slaves, bench hooks etc.), and some don’t. But it really is quite surprising how a lot of benches fare in this test. There are significant differences. During the seminar we went through about a dozen designs. Some designs could handle all nine operations. Some could easily accomplish only about half.
At the end of the seminar, I braced myself as Thomas Lie-Nielsen walked up to my bench with a very tall and muscular man. I briefly thought that this might be my last visit to the Toolworks (better buy that mortise float!). But Thomas was pleased. And the muscle behind him? That was the manager of his workbench department. He asked me to sign his wooden motorcycle helmet. That’s either a good thing or a sign that I should always look over my shoulder when I’m running by the side of the road in Maine.
— Christopher Schwarz
With the release of Issue 8 of Woodworking Magazine now imminent, we’ve uploaded a free eDrawing of the cover project – a 19th-century workbench – for you to download and examine.
This interactive 3D- illustration can be opened and manipulated using a free program from eDrawings that is available both for the PC and Mac. Even if you’ve never used a CAD program before, I think you’ll find an eDrawing easy to use.
With the help of the eDrawing you can rotate the project around, make any part transparent and move parts around to examine the joinery. It’s an excellent way to figure out how a project goes together before you start cutting.
This eDrawing was prepared by Louis Bois, a draughtsman and good friend of Woodworking Magazine. He also prepared all the construction drawings for the workbench that will appear in issue 8 (which is available in printed form, a digital downloadable version and a bundled version that includes both).
In addition to the eDrawing, we’ve prepared a slideshow of the construction process, which I posted earlier on our blog at Popular Woodworking. I’ve also linked it here for readers who might have missed it.
— Christopher Schwarz Holtzapffel Final Bench Assembly.zip (2.48 MB)BuildingtheHoltzapffel.pdf (1.64 MB)
Whenever I go to one of the big woodworking shows (such as the International Woodworking Fair), I always like to see the big CNC machines where the operators put a sheet of plywood in at one end and a desk comes out the other.
You might think I'm exaggerating. I'm not. In the late 1990s, one of these CNC companies was giving away full-size plywood chairs to attendees that you could assemble without glue, like a big puzzle. Though I like working with solid wood, I have always been floored by the coolness and efficiency of these CNC machines.
This week, industrial designer and furniture maker Aaron Hines sent me some fascinating renderings of a workbench he is programming for his company's CNC machines that is based on the English Workbench design I built for my book and the cover of the June 2007 issue of Popular Woodworking (for a basic sketch of the bench, visit our blog at Popular Woodworking).
Aaron designed the bench to be made using three sheets of 7/8"-thick plywood. The CNC machine will cut all the joints and make the bench ready to assemble. All Aaron will have to do is to drill some dog holes and do some work on the leg vise. The plywood isn't stiff enough as-is, so he's considering a solid-wood jaw or making the jaw a plywood torsion box.
I spent about an hour studying the design last night, and I think it's going to work quite well. Aaron is making the workbench for his home workshop, not for his company to sell. But I think it would be a very cool product to have on the market. Aaron says a flat-packed kit would be possible, though the shipping would be more expensive than the material. But he suggests that a retail outlet might be a better solution.
So don't try ordering one just yet. First Aaron has to get his bench built and see if the thing really flies. He promised to send photos of the finished product and some notes on how well it works. I can't wait to find out.
To see more renderings of Aaron's bench, visit his flickr.com page.
— Christopher Schwarz
While we were shooting the cover image for the next issue of Woodworking Magazine, our Photographer Al Parrish and Senior Editor Glen Huey came up with a great idea: Let’s shoot some video of the bench that shows off its cooler features.
So we did.
I pulled on a stinky old shirt that was coiled below my desk (good thing the video isn’t scratch ‘n’ sniff) and tapped out a script. Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick was in charge of make-up (there wasn’t any). And Senior Editor Robert Lang was Best Boy (he drank coffee and watched).
Glen shot the video and edited it the same night (he’s a workhorse, like all the willing slaves who work here). And here it is. A couple notes: The bench is 34" high. Really. It’s I who am freakishly tall. The bench is not too low. In fact, low benches really help with handplaning because you use your leg muscles more.
Check it out here. And look for more videos in the coming weeks on the topics covered in the next issue of Woodworking Magazine, which goes on sale on July 24.
— Christopher Schwarz
 Good news: The next issue of Woodworking Magazine goes on sale on July 24. The new issue will be bigger than the last seven issues – 48 pages instead of 36 – and will be available in both printed and digital versions through our web site.
However, this new Autumn 2007 issue will not be available at newsstands. The only place you'll be able to purchase the issue is through our secure server on our web site. We've decided to forego newsstand distribution for the new issue for a variety of reasons, including the recent poor newsstand sales of all magazines and the general wastefulness of the process (all the unsold copies are thrown in the dumpster).
Here are the details on pricing and availability: Starting on July 24, you will have two options for buying the new issue. For $6, you will be able to instantly download an enhanced pdf version of the magazine. This enhanced pdf will be much like the pdfs on our CDs, which have links embedded in the stories that take you to expanded content on our blog, web site or on other outside sites. The digital version will feature a full-color cover and the same rich sepia-toned photos inside.
For $8, you will be able to purchase a printed copy of the issue and it will be mailed to your house directly from our warehouse in Wisconsin. The printed version will be on heavy #70-pound paper stock and will be true black and white throughout.
I know that many of you are wondering if we will be offering subscriptions to Woodworking Magazine in the near future. The honest answer is that we don't know yet. Our circulation and accounting analysts are still preparing a report. Theirs is a difficult task because our company has never published a magazine like this one, and the playing field is a crowded one. I can say that our executives will be paying close attention to how this new issue sells. So your continued support of the magazine is appreciated and might even sway their decision.
Below is the important stuff: The stories we're working on right now for the issue.
The Holtzapffel Cabinetmaker's Workbench
Author: Christopher Schwarz
In 1875, when the world was balanced on a precipice with its rural past behind it and the modern age spread before it, this bench was published in an English book: “Holtzapffel’s Construction, Action and Application of Cutting Tools Volume II” by Charles Holtzapffel. It’s a tremendous book even today and is crammed with details on working wood and metal with both hand and power tools.
The Holtzapffel workbench is the third archaic workbench that I’ve built and put to use in a modern shop. Each of the three benches had a deep connection to the culture that developed it. The bench from A.J. Roubo’s 18th-century books is as French as béarnaise, strong coffee and berets. The bench from Peter Nicholson’s 19th-century “Mechanical Exercises” is entirely British. The only other place this English bench shows up with any regularity is in the Colonies.
The Holtzapffel is a cultural mongrel. The Holtzapffels were Germans who settled in England. And the bench has features of both cultures that, in my opinion, create a bench that is outstanding for cabinetmaking.
Wall-mounted Tool Rack
Author: Robert Lang
One of the most efficient ways to work at a bench is to have all your common tools in a rack right in front of and above your bench. We've built a number of designs, all of them simple and taking no more than a couple hours to build and mount. The trick is in knowing how to space the elements of the rack to accommodate the widest variety of measuring, marking and cutting tools.
Tool Review: Flush-cutting Saws
Author: Glen Huey
Flush-cutting saws allow you to trim pegs, wedges and through-tenons without marring the surrounding work. Well, that's the theory, at least. Some of these saws stink. Some are nutty expensive (more than $100), and some seem a good balance of price and performance. We bring in half a dozen of the best examples we can find and give them a workout.
Tool Techniques: Cutting Flush
Author: Glen Huey
There are a wide variety of ways to trim pegs, wedges and tenons flush to your work, from a trim router with a planing bit, a special saw, a chisel and a gouge. We examine all the methods and find the ones that require the least set-up and the best chance of success.
Become a Better Borer
Author: Christopher Schwarz
Cutting accurate, clean and square holes is a skill that will serve you well in making furniture. We examine the mechanics and ergonomics of boring by hand and by power and show you how to develop your freehand boring skills to a fine art.
Finishing Technique: Pumpkin Pine
Author: Glen Huey
One of the most desirable finish colors is what is sometimes called "pumpkin pine." It's essentially an aged, mellow and warm clear finish. Is shellac the best way to reproduce this finish on new work? If so, what is easiest and best? Is there some other technique that doesn't involve mixing flakes?
The Back Cover Poster: Sandpaper
We take a close look at this common but confusing abrasive. What is open coat? Closed coat? Stearated? P-grade? Garnet? We cut through the confusion so you'll finally understand the labels and make the right choice.
— Christopher Schwarz
I've been involved in hundreds of professional photography shoots in my journalism career, and each one is ridiculous in its own way.
Yesterday we shot the image for my forthcoming book, "Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use," which is scheduled to come out in early October. So at 7 a.m., I began cleaning up the shop, which was a wreck as a result of our struggle to finish up the August issue of Popular Woodworking. I pulled the bench out from the wall and began the archaeological dig through the mountain of shaving and sawdust (ah yes, something from the Creole Table Era, circa 2006).
Then Al Parrish, our staff photographer, came in to survey the scene. He didn't like the fact that the bank of windows on the right side of the bench didn't have a tool rack and you could see the cars in our parking lot. "Can we build a tool rack?" he asked.
Today? No.
So we put some of the parts from my sideboard project in the window to obscure the Chevy pickup truck. Then the designers came in. I braced myself because designers have asked for some pretty ridiculous things of me over the years. They had one change: Designer Terri Woesner went over to my broom, picked it up and walked to my bench.
What? Not clean enough?
Terri pushed the broom into the pile of shavings and dust and then artfully sprayed the mess across our shop floor. Then she walked around the bench, positioning the shavings in a thoughtful manner, using the bristles of broom to place them.
Then Al went to work. The image above was shot with our shop lights turned off (which is how I work anyway) and one strobe positioned off to the right of the frame. He also did a little work on the image in Photoshop. Anyone notice what he changed on the bench?
— Christopher Schwarz
One of the side benefits of writing a book on workbenches is that I got to see hundreds of variations on the traditional designs, both in person and in old books. I also dug up some dead-end designs – benches that looked liked a good idea at first glance but turned out to be much more like the 8-track of the workbench world.
Both of these benches are from "The Great Tool Emporium" (Popular Science) by David X. Manners, a 1979 survey of tools both modern and archaic. The book's section on workbenches was clearly an afterthought – it shares a chapter with Dremel-style rotary tools and glue guns.
Exhibit A: From an unsourced engraving (above). This bench has a leg vise mounted on the left end of the bench. It's a loony, but not entirely stupid idea. There's a pop-up dog on the leg vise that allows you to pinch your work between it and a dog in the benchtop. You probably could use the vise for crosscutting your stock without too much trouble.
But how in the heck are you going to clamp wide boards on edge? And why is the apron on the end notched to receive the jaw of the leg vise? This prohibits some basic clamping jobs. And one minor gripe: Having your vise on the end like this could be a recipe for disaster when planing. If you slip at the end of the stroke, your plane is more likely to go crashing to the floor. That's one of the reasons it's nice to have your planing stop several inches in from the end (mine's located 12" in from the end on the Roubo). I give this bench a D+.
Exhibit B: This is a Lervad 610 "Single Technology" bench made of Danish beech and once distributed by Leichtung Inc. Check out the shoulder vise on the left. It has two jaws! One is in the traditional spot to press against the benchtop. The other is outside the dogleg section of the bench. I suppose that this outside jaw is intended for working small parts and will allow you to come in at an angle with your rasps etc. and not hit the vise.
But this extra jaw seems vestigial, the gill slits of the workbench world.
And, once again, I think this bench lacks a way for you to work the edges of long boards and assemblies. I suppose you could clamp a bench slave in the end vise on the right, but that wouldn't solve all your problems when faced with edges.
What also is interesting about this bench is how the tool tray is so short. As tool tray ideas go, this one isn't too mad. Having the open section at the rear would allow you to do some clamping on the backside of the bench. I give this bench a C.
By the way, if you are a bench nut, you really should dig into the Lervad site. There's some really cool stuff here: • A Height-adjustable Bench: I want to try this bench. • A Height- and Angle-adjustable Bench: A bit like the Veritas carving bench, except that it is totally insane. • The Wacky Tool Well Bench: Why not put it here? • Benches for Schools: This could work, as long as you don't want to teach dovetailing.
— Christopher Schwarz
The dominant style of workbench in the Western world is what we call the European form. It's the bench that Ulmia made famous and the bench that built a million cabinets in the 20th century. It was, in fact, the first "real" workbench I ever worked on at the University of Kentucky, and I got along fine with it.
So it might seem blasphemous to point out limitations of this venerable form. After all, millions of woodworkers use this bench. They love this bench. They wouldn't trade it for anything.
But here goes.
Please keep in mind that if you like your workbench, I'm not encouraging you to chop it into firewood and give it a Viking funeral. You don't need a special kind of bench to do woodworking that is extraordinary. The following is intended only to make you think about what a workbench should do with ease. (If you're interested in delving deeper into the topic, check out my eight-page article on workbench design in the June 2007 issue of Popular Woodworking.)
Each part of every workbench has pros and cons. Let's start with the base of this bench.
The Base: Most European workbenches have a trestle design as shown above. These bases can be massive (which I prefer) or can be spindly. The nice thing about this style of base is that it can be disassembled (by removing wedges or bolts) to be transported. The downside is that the trestle-style legs are inset at the front and therefore can't act as a clamping surface for long boards, panels or door assemblies. You can build a so-called bench slave (a portable stand with adjustable pegs) to help perform this function, but many other simple benches don't require this extra equipment. And, I'd like to point out, that not all European benches were made like this. Some more Germanic-looking benches had the legs flush to the front edge of the top, allowing you to use the legs as a clamping surface.
The Tool Tray: Tool trays are great for keeping your tools at hand – and at collecting detritus. They allow you to use less raw material when making your benchtop, but they offer less support when you are working on flat panels. You don't have to have a tool tray to keep your tools close at hand. We use racks above our benches in our shop.
The Tail Vise: The L-shaped tail vise on the right side of the bench above is good for clamping panels for planing or sanding (I use a p
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