Category: Roman Workbenches

One of the interesting aspects of building this second Roman workbench has been how useless machines are to the process.

The benchtop is too big for a jointer and planer – and too heavy to move without a crane. But a jack plane trued it up quickly without any back strain.

When it came to the tapered legs, my plan was to cut away some of the excess on the table saw. I have a 3 horsepower cabinet saw, which usually can handle anything in furniture making. But the oak legs were too dense and wet. The saw bogged down and the thermal overload switch popped several times.

So I turned to the band saw with a fresh blade. Ditto. Once again, the jack plane and jointer plane did the majority of the work, and in fairly short order. (After wasting away a lot of material I did use my electric jointer to tidy things up with some light passes.)

Turning the tenons was like riding a bronco at a prison rodeo. I have a midi-lathe that I clamp to my massive French oak workbench. Even though I carefully balanced each leg between centers, the entire bench jumped and wobbled as I turned the 3”-diameter 5-1/2”-long tenons at 500 rpm – the slowest speed available.

Now comes the mortises. I hope that my corded drill is up to the task.

— Christopher Schwarz

While I call this bench a Roman model, perhaps I should call it a Holy Roman Empire workbench. It comes from a 1505 drawing in a Nuremberg codex, which discusses tools, weapons, clever doorways, instruments of torture and a love potion.

The workbench, as drawn in in 1505, is the same Roman form you’ll find in frescoes and stone carvings from the early part of the Roman Empire. The only difference is that this 1505 bench has been equipped with a lot of advanced workholding thanks to Martin Loffelholz, the author of the codex.

I’m trying to replicate the bench as close as I can to the codex’s drawings. The top is a single slab of oak from Will Myers and Lesley Caudle in North Carolina. The legs are massive tapered things that are staked into the underside of the top. The twin-screw vise will be made from wooden components (that I am making). The metal components for the wagon vise are being made by blacksmith Peter Ross. The wooden screw for the wagon vise is from Lake Erie Toolworks.

This week I got a good start on prepping the benchtop and the legs. This red oak is pretty green – I haven’t put a moisture meter on it, but my guess is that the components are somewhere about 30 percent moisture content (MC). Despite this, the top and legs are fairly stable. The slab for the benchtop (4-1/2” x 17” x 84”) was pretty flat so I dressed it on both faces in an hour. The long edges – also rough – took about 45 minutes to dress and true with a jack plane.

The legs are massive 6” x 6” posts, and I got those squared up and cut to rough size this morning before breakfast. I still need to taper them, which I’m going to do with a band saw and a jointer plane.

I hope by the weekend to be boring mortises for the legs and still be hernia-free.

— Christopher Schwarz

Today I finished up the first Roman workbench, which is about 18” high x 15” wide and 7’ long. After drilling all the holes in the benchtop (more on those in a moment) I added two coats of boiled linseed oil and called it done.

The only thing left to do with this bench is complete the workholding, which will consist of two 1”-diameter oak pegs plus three or four tapered stakes that I can drive into the holes in the benchtop. This bench will have no metal hardware.

I’ve been studying a lot of vintage workbenches that don’t have vises and have a long list of ideas and theories to test with my stakes and pegs.

Probably the most startling fact about this workbench (so far) is that it took only seven or eight hours to build.

Next week I’m starting construction of a far more complex Roman bench with vises, metal bits and other oddness.

Both benches will be at Woodworking in America next month. So if you are in town – be sure to stop by and give them a try.

— Christopher Schwarz