The following is excerpted from “Ingenious Mechanicks,” by Christopher Schwarz. This book is a journey into the past. It takes the reader from Pompeii, which features the oldest image of a Western bench, to a Roman fort in Germany to inspect the oldest surviving workbench, and finally to Christopher’s shop in Covington, where he recreated three historical workbenches and dozens of early jigs. (We’re down to just one low bench here now; it gets used every day.) – Fitz
Woodworking has changed little during the last 2,000 years. The basic set of hand tools, the joints we use and the need to hold things at the bench is the same as when the Egyptians constructed furniture.
Put succinctly: Workbenches need to immobilize the work so you can work on a board’s faces, edges and ends. Any workbench from any era can accomplish this task, whether it be a Roman bench, which resembles a log with legs, to a fantastical dovetailed German bench with a shoulder vise, tail vise and series of obedient metal dogs.
The challenge when designing your bench is to make it suit both your work and your personality.
If you are a furniture maker, any of the bench designs you’ll find in magazines, woodworking stores and videos will likely suit the work. As I said before, the work itself hasn’t changed all that much since Roman times. A hollow-core door on sawhorses can be pressed into service to make fine furniture.
But I urge you to find a bench that also suits your personality. If you are an engineer (or a recovering engineer), you might prefer a bench with metallic screws that move swiftly and smoothly to hold the work. If you are an apartment woodworker with little space or money, you might desire a Roman workbench that can also serve as a sitting bench at the dining table, or as a coffee table in front of the couch.
The rest of us are likely somewhere between these extremes. We might have tendencies toward gizmos. Or we might prefer bare-bones simplicity. There is not a “best bench” out there for all of woodworking, full stop.
This book exists to expand the array of benches and workholding ideas available for those who like to keep it simple. It is not a criticism of modern benches. I’ve built and used many of these. I have an early Ulmia in use in my shop. I understand their advantages and disadvantages. I definitely think they have a place in many modern shops. But they are not the end-all. Our ancient ancestors didn’t need them to make fine things.
I won’t rejoice if you read this book and melt your tail vise (unless you invite me to what would be an awesome party). Instead, I hope only to expand the range of discussion when it comes to workbenches, and perhaps give the engineering woodworkers additional options for holding the work when they don’t have a fancy bench at hand.
But before we do that, I think it’s only fair to discuss the ideal characteristics of all workbenches, young and old, low and high, simple and Steampunk-y.
Wood for a Workbench
You can use any wood to make a good workbench. Except for wood that is on fire. I do not think that would work. But other than wood on fire, use whatever you have on hand.
Our society of woodworkers is still in recovery from The Great Malaise of Steamed European Beech, a period during the 20th century when beech was seen as the only sane option for a would-be bench builder. (And if you couldn’t get beech, maple was the eyes-cast-downward-in-shame option.)
History has shown that Woodworkers of Old used almost any species for a bench, from white pine to purpleheart. (The earliest surviving bench we know of is made from oak.) The wood doesn’t have to be dry or knot-free. To be sure, however, there were some species that were desirable because they were cheap, heavy, strong and readily available.
So, if you lived in Pennsylvania, maple would meet those characteristics. In Hungary, beech was the thing. In France, oak. In England, whatever could be gotten off the boat. In South and Central America, the choices were incredibly vast.
Many woodworkers, myself included, like to use dense softwoods for benches because they are incredibly cheap, available everywhere and (if you choose the right softwood) heavy and plenty strong.
So, please don’t fret over the wood species. Any species will do.
Ditto on all points! Good wood is the wood you have and that you know and go for mass.
Which low bench remains in the shop?
A third one that I built last year.
When I started woodworking in 2015, I lacked the confidence to build a workbench. As such, I bought a high quality bench and yes, paid a pretty penny for it. I have thought about reselling it as I could likely get what I paid for it back. Here’s the funny thing, I’ve grown used to working with it and it holds the wood just fine. I can’t be bothered at this point. I would rather make furniture. Oh, it came with a tail vise and I love, absolutely love my tail vise. Could I work without it? Sure. Yet, it is so handy I’d rather not.
Someday I’ll build a new bench, but the minimalist woodworker bench I built when I was just starting still serves its purpose plenty well. I modified the design and used two layers of 3/4″ plywood for the top because I wasn’t yet confident in my planing ability to flatten it. I have a screw to make a face vice for it, but have never gotten around to that. I come up with various ways to get wood to stay still. I love a beautiful workbench but at the end of the day, it’s a tool and the one I have does its job.
I’ve had plywood benches, pine, fir, oak, and recently bought a bench made by Laguna (I had no idea they even made benches until the guy led me into his barn and said “Well. There it is.”) which I only bought because the guy was charging less than it would have cost me in lumber and time to make it out of white oak and beech to say nothing of the vise hardware. It’s my first commercially made bench, which is odd. I’ve never had a tail vise before; we’ll see if I’m sending out invites to a Burning Vise Party next year. Anyway… one thing that is true about all of them: the furniture I made on the all looks the same. The work doesn’t care about the bench that held it.
You would never know that if you look at the Lie- Nielsen or the Benchcrafted websites. The marketing machine rolls on.
Is the compass he’s holding and the two squares on the bench a reference to the masons ?
He’s flashing a gang sign.
Might be, but they’re also tools of his trade.
You’d have to ask him. I find that masonic imagery and workshop symbols overlap quite a bit. Every time I post a picture of a bee, the Internet jumps on us for our masonic imagery. Bees can mean a lot of things. And sometimes a bee is just a bee.
I promise we are not trying to send you a coded message. And I don’t know if the individual in the picture is, either.
Considering those are the symbols of masons because… they started as literal masons. Those were the tools they used. Which overlap with a lot of the tools of woodworking.
Sometimes a compass is just a compass.
To me the issue is less species but quality. Big box stuff in my world is Doug Fir which works fine but it is loaded with knots and twisted. Other than that lumber mills are far and few between.
I used a compass like that in a high school math class. I also used a compass, dividers, etc. in a drafting class I took in college. Personally, I would focus on all the wood shavings that, to me, give a much better indication of what he is doing.
Seems like a great resource. But thought the original goal of “Lost Art” was to provide free content?