While researching “Ingenious Mechanicks” Chris Schwarz and I found many workbenches with face vises and some of them actually had vise nuts.
In the montage above there are selections from paintings from Spain, Italy and what is now present-day Ecuador. As you can see, they range from the basic steering wheel to the curvy hurricane. The nut on the lower left is the shape Chris chose for his Holy Roman/Löffelholz workbench (and he provides the pattern in the book).
My particular favorite is a form that may have originated in Spain and made its way to Spain’s New World colonies: the double-bunny ear. The double-bunny ear provides an easy grip for tighting or loosening the vise.
The top right image is from a 17th-century Spainish painting. The next two vice nuts on the right are late 19th-to-early 20th century from Guatemala and Mexico. The vise nut on the left is of a similar date and also from Mexico.
“Ingenious Mechanicks” explores a multitude of workholding methods early woodworkers devised to enable them to work more easily and efficiently. The book offers the modern woodworker options, including what form or shape you chose for vise nuts.
The book is $39, which includes free domestic shipping and the instant pdf download. After Thursday, the pdf will cost $19.50 extra if ordered with the printed book.
The No. 1 question about this book has been: What the heck is it about? Basically, I took my short book on Roman workbenches that we published last year and expanded it greatly with lots of new research done on the ground in Italy and Germany.
And, in the process of expanding it, the book became more about the ingenious early workholding that Suzanne Ellison and I dug up than the benches themselves.
If you’d like to read a free preview of the book, check out this entry.
Soon we’ll have a complete list of our retailers that will carry the book.
I have one last-minute opening in next weekend’s Dovetailed Silverware Tray class (April 7-8) – so if you have a free weekend and want to spend it with me, my lovely assistant (Chris) and five more of your soon-to-be-closest friends, click the link below to register.
The class is at the Lost Art Press storefront/shop/horse garage, 837 Willard St., Covington, Ky. The fee is $275, including the stock, which is cherry, and lunches, which will not be Jimmy John’s (apologies for that to last month’s Dutch Tool Chest Class). It’s free to register – I’ll ask that you bring cash or a check to the class 🙂
During the last five years, I’ve made considerable changes to the innards of the tool chests I build for customers. Most of these changes are details, really, but they are informed by the fact that I work out of a tool chest every day.
The most significant of the changes is in the runners for the three tills. On the original chest, the runners for the lower till didn’t extend all the way from front to back. They stopped at the saw till (see above).
The reason for this was to imitate several historical chests that also had a door to the lower parts of the chest. After building the chest with the door, I found it silly. So I removed it. But I was stuck with the runners.
Now when I build a chest, I make all three runners run from the front to the back.
The other change to the runners is that I now bead the top edge of each runner. It looks nice, and the rounded edge prevents the runners from splintering in service.
This is quick work with a 3/16” beading plane.
Next up: The sawtill. It’s smaller and has less room for your weed stash.
The Playfair Hours, MSL/1918/475 fol 1r, French, 1480s. Copyright the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Medieval homes were sparsely furnished, and each piece usually would have more than one function. One of the intriguing bench styles that can be found in many manuscript images is the bench with a flip-able back rest. The form seems to have become popular in the early part of the 15th century.
The manuscript and the real thing. Top: February from the Hours of Henry VIII, Tours, MS H.8 fol 1v, France, ca. 1500. Morgan Library, New York. Bottom: Bank mit Faltwerk, Gothic, Kunstgewerbesammlungen, Berlin.
To make the bench even more useful, the base could be a storage chest. In manuscripts, the bench is normally seen in front of a fireplace. Warm up facing the fire, and when you were warm enough and it was time to dine, flip the backrest and face the table.
Décaméron de Boccace, MS 5070 réserve fol 314r, 15th c. Bibliothèque de Arsenal, Gallica BnF.
Banc à Tournis The France banc à tournis (or banc-tournis) typically has a thin backrest that turns inside the side panels. Although they are found in manuscripts, I did not find any French versions with the lower storage chest.
16th c. Northern France, probably Normandy, oak. Sotheby’s.
The side panels serve as the legs of the bench and often bear the only decorative element, in this case, linenfold carving.
16th c. Northern France, oak, from Chateau de Cornillon, Loire. Sotheby’s.
The pair above with carved panels on the side are a bit longer and a central support is added.
Here you can get a better look at two versions of the turning arm. The center dowel in the pivot does not pierce the side panel. In the (sharper) photo on the left it is easy to see how the side panel is constructed to include a vertical stop for the turning arm of the backrest.
Saint Barbara, 1438, by Robert Campin, Flemish. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Flemish artists were notoriously good at fine details. In this painting which is the left side of the Werl Altarpiece, Saint Barbara sits on another French-style banc à tournis. In this case the backrest is an six-sided bar with a metal turning arm and mounted on the outside of the side panel.
Banc à tournis, early 15th century from Tour sans peur, Paris.
The open sides of this bench preclude mounting the turning arm on the inside. Another feature of these benches is a footrest. They can be hard to see in paintings due to the voluminous clothing worn by the bench occupants. The footrest is also one of those pieces that gets broken off – or intentionally taken off – as these benches moved through the centuries.
A comparison of the metal turning arm in the painted version and the real thing.
In the Sotheby’s notes about the two benches from Northern France it gave the 1589 inventory of a banc à tournis owned by Catherine de Medici: ‘un banc à dossier mobile e pouvant faire face à la chiminée ou tourner le dos.’ At the time (2007) this was the last known record of one of these benches.
Styrcsitten The German version of these benches are the strycsitten, identified by the turning mechanism mounted atop the side panel.
As with the French benches, there are variations in the side panels, decorative elements and whether there is a storage chest.
Pilgrimage to Santiago Compostella, part of an altarpiece, 1460 by Friedrich Herlin. Archive Gerstenberg-ullsteinbild.
The pilgrims are sitting on a plain styrcsitten with a narrow backrest and we can definitely see the hinges of the chest.
Two paintings by Gabriel Mälesskircher from Munich. Left: Saint John the Evangelist, 1478, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. Right: Mary Magdalene washes Christ’s feet, 1476, German National Museum, Nürnberg.
Based on his painting style, Mälesskircher was probably trained by Flemish masters. He shows us two strycsitten without chests, but with great decorative work on the side panels.
Tirol Landesmuseum, Innsbruck, Austria. Photo from St. Thomas Guild blog.
A plain bench with storage chest. The backrest is wider than what is usually seen in manuscripts and paintings and would likely be more comfortable.
Photo from St. Thomas Guild blog.
This second bench from the 15th century has a beautifully-carved backrest and, as you can see, a storage chest. There are color photos floating around that may or may not be the same bench. I have seen notes that the pictured bench may have been destroyed in WWII.
Mälesskircher’s painting vs. an actual bench (photo from St. Thomas Guild blog).
The turning mechanism of the strycsitten sits on the central point of the side panel. The two outside points serve as the rests. Variations will be the depth of the curves and height of the three points, and carvings or piercings on the side panels.
If you are shopping around for a flip-able bench to make and so far you aren’t wowed by the banc à tournis or strycsitten, let’s go north.
Vändbänken
From Hälsingland/Dalarna, 1800s. Photo Stadsauktion Sundsvall.
The vändbänk is a Swedish bench with some interesting details. No side panels to worry about, as much turning detail as one might want and a very cool turning mechanism.
These benches were painted in the folk tradition and the seat might have an apron. In the bench above you can still see remnants of paint. The apron is carved with a leaf pattern.
And here is how it turns. I don’t know the Swedish term for the turning arm so I am naming it Thor’s Hammer. Many examples have the same staked legs in what looks like the start of a ballet second position demi-plié. These benches have personality and turnings, lots of turnings.
1800s, collection of the Nordiska Museet. Photo by Skansen Digitalt Museum.
Another variation is a fence-like apron attached to one side.
When the backrest is turned to the other side the apron is left behind. Here you also get an idea of the heft of the burly turning arm.
Kalmer läns museum.
This bench appears to be older than the previous two and is from Norra Bäckbo. In the local dialect it is known as a rall. No turnings but a nicely figured backrest.
Dated 1680 from Junkboda Bygdea. Collection of Nordiska museet.
In the Junkboda Bygdea dialect this bench is a brudsärla and has a heavier build. The legs extend above the level of the seat and act as the stops for the backrest. The backrest is more solid than previous examples and has wonderful quatrefoil piercings while the apron has simple beading. The turning mechanism is the same but without any apparent decoration.
Two more non-Swedish benches with a similar turning arm are from Hungary and Russia.
Dated late 19th century.
The Hungarian bench variation has staked stick legs instead of the more substantial Swedish bench legs. The seat is also less substantial but has a nice frilly apron. The backrest has deeply carved and pierced panels. This may have had some repainting, however, it still gives us a good idea of the folk painting found in Eastern Europe.
This beefy Russian bench almost looks like a church pew, except for the legs. The back rest has a carved and pierced design that can also be found in textiles.
The bench shows another variation of how to turn the backrest.
With some similarity to the German styrcsitten the backrest turns atop the side panel and together they give a solid side to the bench end.
The St. Thomas Guild has been exploring the strycsitten for several years and they have a ton of photos of the benches (and other furniture) they have found. You can take a trip over to their blog here. If you get lost they have an alphabetic directory that will help you get redirected on their blog.
As with many folk crafts this bench is disappearing. Whatever your preference in style or decoration I urge you to consider making one of these versatile benches.
There are a few more examples of these flip-able benches in the gallery.
— Suzanne Ellison
16th century, Dutch.
16th (?) century, French. Linenfold side panels, noted central supports.
French, 15th century from Chateau de Martainville, Normandy.
Swedish, 1700s (?), from Kalmer läns museum.
Swedish, the other side.
Swedish, 1700s. Photo by Berit Bryntse.
Hungarian. Note similar backrest decoration as the Swedish bench.
Another Hungarian. Shapely turning arm. Did this backrest come from another bench?
Circa 1500, oak chair version of strycsitten with chest. Rijksmuseum.
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Update: Sold out. (But if you’re interested, 
