Lost Art Press

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Publisher of woodworking books and videos specializing in hand tool techniques.

A 1781 Workbench and Many Questions

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The workbench shown above is featured in Johann Georg Krünitz’s “Oekonomische Encyklopädie,” a remarkable work of 242 volumes. I don’t have the translated text that accompanies this plate, so I’m going to make some educated guesses about this workbench. (In other words, you get what you paid for with this blog entry.)

This 1781 plate looks like a French workbench, not just in its form but also based on the handplanes shown on the floor (that tote is tres French). Also, this bench is shown on a page of “Oekonomische Encyklopädie” with other benches that are quite obviously Germanic, perhaps as a contrast between the forms.

My best guess is the engraver copied it from another work, which is why the bench is shown in reverse – the crochet and planing stop are on the right side of the bench.

Several things are notable about this bench. Briefly:

  1. It shows a “doe’s foot” in use on the benchtop, secured under the pad of a holdfast.
  2. And look: A fathom leaning against the wall to the left of the bench.
  3. The most titillating part of the plate is the double-screw device shown on the floor at bottom left. It looks like half of a Moxon-style vise that is missing its back chop. My best guess is that the screws thread into the holes shown on the left side of the benchtop. This is what Moxon’s engraver seemed to be showing in his 17th-century plate. I measured the distance between the two screws on this plate from Krünitz, and it matches the distance between the two holes on the left end of the benchtop. And this is exactly where I would put such a device.

For me this plate raises a lot of questions about the original source material. I have always assumed that Joseph Moxon copied his bench from André Félibien and modified the engraving to add a double screw vise and some other bits and pieces. This plate makes me want to search a little harder for French drawings of benches in the 17th century in addition to André Félibien’s. I know this sounds like a grassy knoll theory. That’s because it is.

— Christopher Schwarz

Fractions in the Real World

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Here’s a page from a forthcoming pamphlet I’m working on about the geometric truths that underlie – and led to the development of – all our layout tools, including (and ending up at) the sector. If you have kids around the house, you might find it interesting (maybe even enlightening) to put the sector into their hands to show them how they can physically (by hand and eye) manipulate a tool to illustrate the basic intuitive concept of the fraction.

As you’ll see when I get the pamphlet done, you can use every one of your layout tools to illustrate – that is, to perform – the reality behind the geometric math they are being injected with at school.

If you don’t have a sector, you can download (for free) a template to make one from the “shop” page at By Hand & Eye. Click here to visit that page. There you’ll find a manual for using a three-scale sector on the page as well…for a small fee to help George and I keep the lights on and the electrons flowing.

— Jim Tolpin, byhandandeye.com

Workbenches from The Empire of Germany/Holy Roman Empire and etc.

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Hellwag3One of the workbenches in Andre-Jacob Roubo’s French masterwork on the craft is called out as a “German” workbench in Plate 279 of “l’Art du menuisier.” It features a sliding deadman/leg vise, lots of storage and a complex tail vise.

While I am still searching, I’ve yet to find an historical bench that matches the image of the German bench in Plate 279 (in contrast, I’ve seen hundreds of benches that match Roubo’s Plate 11).

So what did 18th-century benches look like from the area we now call Germany? The answer, of course, varies. Here we’re going to look at a 1764 bench from “Hallens, Werkstätte der Künste” (I think I have that right; I’m not the best at reading German blackletter type).

This entire plate could occupy a book of discussion because there is so much to see and explore. But let’s stick to the bench for the most part.

It is drawn as being made from fairly thin components with joinery providing the rigidity. Tusk tenons do most of the work in keeping the base from racking. And lest you think tusk tenons are weak, please ready this fun article from Will Myers where tests them to destruction.

The first thing I noticed about the bench (besides that the tail vise was missing its dog), was the tool well. This might be the earliest depiction of a tool well I have in my archive – I’ll have to check.

Also interesting: the face vise. It’s a shoulder vise that looks like it hasn’t quite cast off its crochet origins. Check out the nice bead to the left of the hook, which is really the only ornamentation on the bench.

Finally, we have the system of dogs that works in conjunction with the tail vise. I usually curse modern manufacturers for placing the dogs and drawer so they interfere with one another, but it appears this is not a modern problem. Two of the dogs are in the way of the drawer. Sigh.

And finally finally, look below at Fig. 20. A bench like this (where the legs are not coplanar to the front edge of the benchtop) requires a board jack. And this is a nice one.

I hope you enjoy the plate as a whole – there’s lots to see here.

This is the most conventional of the German benches we’re going to look at. Next up, some vise mysteries.

— Christopher Schwarz

Who Has More Soft Wax for You?

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Katy has become a little owl-obsessed while reading Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” hence the stuffed animal in her photos.

She made about 50 more tins of wax last week but we sold a bunch at our storefront on Saturday (thanks everyone). This morning she listed the remaining 32 on her etsy store here.

I hope we can work on developing the black wax a little more (our carbon black showed up), but Katy is taking a class in screen printing this coming week, so the wax experiments might have to wait for a week.

— Christopher Schwarz

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