Visit my blog at Popular Woodworking Magazine here for a full-resolution version of the full plate from the above detail. And it’s not a discussion on man-boobs. Promise. (Look at those! Wow.) Maybe that’s not a man?
— Christopher Schwarz
21 thoughts on “Alert for Workbench Nerds”
Comments are closed.
“Man boobs”… or a woman sweeping up woodworking debris???
gutter
Nerd am I ? whatever ….off center to right on top. I would elaborate but I must rush to to retrieve my jigs before the garbage man gets here…later
I am deeply impressed by the person (in the larger illustration) standing atop the bench and swinging what appears to be an adze with an air of abandon. The (possibly) female customer is probably a customer giving detailed advice on the construction of the chest being made for her whilst she tidies up the bench
The earliest account of the woodworking diva?
Very cool. Having spent grad school staring at early Italian Renaissance art, my gut tells me this is c. 1400, not 1300 as the French book says (according to your PopWood post). Even if it’s 1425, it’s still the earliest woodworking scene involving screw vises I’ve ever seen.
Josie the Jointer, The great great great great great great great great great grandmother of Rosie the Riveter.
This also says something about workbench hight. They only go up to their knees so whoes up for making a 4′ x10′ that’s 24″ high?
Not universally. Some of the benches go up to thigh-high. Look closely.
Chris: do you have a high res image of the 4 housewrights standing in a a field with their tool boxes open? Jeff posted that some years (?) ago and the pic has stuck with me.
Bill,
Give me a date for the post and I’ll ask Jeff if he has one. I do not.
may 8, 2013
Hey Bill,
Have you talked to Jim Bode? He is the one with the photo.
http://www.jimbodetools.com/
He’s easy to reach….
Thanks for the suggestion Chris. I followed up and got a 13X19 download of the image which I am arranging to have printed out on photo paper. Fascinating!
That’s one heck of a Moxon
To the earlier posts about workbench height. Perspective in art isn’t really codified until the 1400’s with Brunelleschi… and this drawing really doesn’t show much understanding of perspective. There’s some axonometric-like drawing in it (workbenches), but I wouldn’t take any bets on the scale being perspectively correct from front-to-back in this.
What’s with the guy and what looks like a hewing axe? He looks like he’s standing on the board doing one (swear word) of a roughing job.
The super-long vises are pretty cool. I’ll stick with my viseless Nicholson style for the time being, but that is way sweet.
It strikes me that it would not be particularly difficult to retrofit an aproned bench for the occasional use of such features. Simply make a screw that can go through the apron (make it like a very large bolt, perhaps, or with a cross-bar piercing the screw fixed between braces on the back of the apron), a large handled nut, and a parallel bar that also goes through the apron. Finally, take a board of the correct dimensions and pierce it as necessary. It wouldn’t take much work and you would only have a couple of extra holes in your bench apron.
More than likely that photo is just showing fabric pulled up out of a belt and sagging and not boobs. T-tunics (basically dresses) were pretty common clothing for the working classes (men and women) in the 1300s and they’d cinch them up with belts to keep them out of the way. If you do a lot of reaching, the fabric invariably is pulled upwards and then would sag if you don’t reach down and yank the hemline back down.
But that’s not as funny. And history should be hilarious.
Am I the only one wondering at that block plane?