Lost Art Press

French Workbenches: Old and in the Birth Canal

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Jameel Abraham at Benchcrafted has been scouting in Georgia to see if there’s enough massive old French oak to put on another French Oak Roubo Project (aka FORP) in fall 2015.

Jameel’s account of his visit to Georgia with photos of big oak can be found here.

If Jameel and Bo Childs do manage to organize a second French Oak Roubo Project, you can bet I will be there to take another chance to work with this amazing material. It is more akin to timber-framing and is both exhausting and exhilarating. The size of the material makes every construction step a challenge.

After last year’s event, I have come up with some techniques to make construction easier and the joinery more precise. So I want another wack.

Stay tuned to this blog and the Benchcrafted blog for details on this event.

While Jameel was in Georgia, he also got to inspect a Féron & Cieworkbench that Childs imported from France. Féron, which branded its products “a la La Forge Royale,” produced tools and workbenches in France.

You can download an early 20th-century Féron & Cie catalog here:

Forge Royale Compressed

This workbench has some interesting details to consider if you have a workbench on the drawing board.

1. No flush surfaces. One of the most striking things about the bench is that the stretchers, front legs and benchtop are not in the same plane (a feature common on earlier French benches). The benches in the catalog are drawn similarly, so I don’t think this one is a fluke.

Make what you will of it. I suspect the non-flush surfaces made the bench easier to manufacture. Personally, I want all those surfaces in the same plane to make clamping doors and long boards a lot easier.

2. A splined or tenoned slab benchtop. One of the details from Jameel’s photos is that the slab benchtop is in (at least) two pieces. Along the seam there are pegs. My suspicion (and Jameel’s) is that there is a spline or loose-tenon in there, and the pegs keep everything together and aligned.

English benchbuilder Richard Maguire uses a similar detail on his benchtops, and he drawbores the loose tenon to keep the seam shut. After talking to maguire and seeing the detail on this Féron bench, I am itching to try it on a future workbench.

3. It’s a knockdown design. The top can be removed from the Féron bench. The top sits on tenons on the legs and is secured with a threaded wooden post.

After looking at the joinery in Jameel’s other photos, I am wondering (but am not convinced yet) if the bench was sent to the customer in pieces and the customer glued up the bits to the base and then attached the top. That is how I’d do it. And it’s how Plate 11 Bench Co. does it. But this is speculation only.

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4. Nails in the planing stop. This feature shows up on old benches in place of an iron toothed stop. The benches in the Féron catalog show a planing stop that is just a shaft of wood. No nails. No toothed stop as best I can tell.

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5. A simple parallel guide. The parallel guide in the leg vise is held in the chop with an open notch. This is a time-saving feature for the builder.

Thanks to Jameel for the photos and background information on this important bit of bench-building history.

— Christopher Schwarz

International Jack Plane Day

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If weasels, doughnuts and diseases can have an official day, then why not the jack plane? I’d be hard-pressed to name a plane that is more useful to me (the block plane would be in second place).

My $12 jack has a heavily cambered iron. And yes, I still use the plane’s original iron and chipbreaker. In fact, except for the engraving, my jack is all factory equipment.

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The engraving, which was done by Catherine Kennedy, has elicited some surprising comments from students. But my favorite one – and the dude was dead serious – was this:

“It was lucky that you found a plane that has that square already engraved on it.”

Today I’m working more on installing the Benchcrafted Crisscross and Classic vise on my Holtzapffel workbench, which lives in our sunroom. I’m taking this opportunity to make some long-time-coming modifications to this workhorse of a bench.

1. Tweaking the vise’s screw blocks for the twin screw so they cannot be pulled forward of the benchtop. This involved some planing, tweaking and shimming. And without the jack plane the process would have been a chore.

2. Adding the leg vise, which will be swappable with the twin-screw.

3. Adding a long-overdue shelf between the stretchers.

4. Adding some additional holdfast holes and (perhaps) a little tallow dispenser below the benchtop.

5. Finally, toothing the benchtop with a toothing plane and enduring the slings and arrows of internet idiots when I do it.

— Christopher Schwarz

Benchcrafted Instructions are Excellent

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When I installed my first woodworking vise, the only instructions were a grease-stained diagram without words. Just a crude drawing that was anti-helpful and full of errors.

After installing and helping to install a lot of Benchcrafted hardware on student benches, I can attest that this company has some of the best instructions in the business. They are on par with the outstanding Leigh manuals. I’ve had to learn to use Leigh jigs for tool reviews and they are the finest instructions I’ve ever seen for any device.

The Benchcrafted instructions are clear, concise and accurate. They were written by woodworkers and it shows. If you have ever thought you couldn’t install a Benchcrafted Tail Vise or Glide, check out their free downloadable manuals. Read them through and you’ll be on your way.

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I took a break this morning from editing Peter Galbert’s book and finished up the mortise in my vise chop for the Benchcrafted Crisscross. After following the directions, the castings dropped right into place like a rectangular peg in a rectangular hole.

Sweet. Now back to editing Galbert’s book. Almost done! Then it is onto the page-design phase.

— Christopher Schwarz

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Drill Straight Holes Without a Drill Press

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Despite my love of the drill press for building benches, you don’t need one to bore dead-straight holes for your dogs and holdfasts.

When I need to add a hole to a benchtop that is already assembled (or is a large slab), I use the jig shown above with a brace and auger. I call it the “Cletus Bore-drunk” jig because you can bore a hole dead straight even if you have been drinking (thanks to several people for the in-shop testing).

The jig is three pieces of wood: A flat platform that you can clamp to the benchtop, a thick block of wood (about 3” thick) with a dead-straight hole bored through it and a wooden fence that registers against an edge of the benchtop.

It is much like an oversized doweling jig.

The photo above is about 14 years old from when I was building the “$175 Workbench.” I usually make these jigs when I need them and then recycle their parts when I’m done, so I don’t have any of these jigs on hand.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Benchbuilder’s Poker

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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In “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” I call out the thickness planer and the band saw as the two most useful pieces of machinery in a shop that is focused on furniture.

But as someone who builds lots of workbenches, I would be lost (or at least, quite fatigued) if I didn’t have a beefy, accurate and tuned-up drill press. Because of the way I build benches, the drill press is what makes everything come together quickly and precisely.

Here’s why:

1. The mortises are too big for a typical mortiser. So I cut all the mortises with the drill press.

2. If the bench is a knockdown model, all the holes and counterbores have to be accurate to accept the bolts, nuts, washers and crossbolts.

3. Straight holes for 5/8” drawbores ensures there will be a lot fewer exit-wound explosions.

4. Mounting vises (especially those with crossbolts) is easy with a drill press. Holes have to be straight so vises don’t bind. Drill presses also make it easy to install a crochet. Drilling counterbores on a curved surface can be tricky with a brace.

5. Round dog holes are easy with a drill press and a big bit.

6. Holdfast holes are always better with a drill press. The more I use holdfasts, the more I understand this point. If your holdfast hole is even slightly off plumb, then the holdfast is likely to work in only about 180° of the possible orientations of its pad. This is also why a tight hole is better than a loose one. Both of these factors – plumb and tight – make it easy for the holdfast to wedge in the hole.

I don’t have a fancy drill press. Years ago I bought a Grizzly G7944 drill press, a 14” model with 12 speeds. The drill press is powerful enough for building benches (and for furniture, of course), but I long for an old Powermatic or something bigger that has a beefier depth stop (I am always bending my stop, or it loosens too easily).

The only modification I’ve made to my Grizzly is I added a large accessory table and fence, which makes drilling out mortises a snap.

Today I drilled out the first trench for the Benchcrafted Crisscross using some huge sawtooth Forstners in my drill press. Now I have to make the same trench in the leg of the assembled bench, which means I’m going to have to switch to a brace or (if I’m lucky) a corded drill.

— Christopher Schwarz