Bench Q's for Chris (and others)

Patternmaker's benches

mike recchione

>This is an excellent example of something, I'm not sure what. Although both Adam and I and a hypothetical chairmaker do everything by hand (except for turning), our needs are different. Adam's are closer to the needs of a joiner, mine are closer to the needs of a patternmaker (my stuff lately seems to be small pieces that involve more carving and turning, rather than big casework). And the chairmaker's are the needs of, well - a chairmaker :-).

One of the reasons I'd sooner listen to Adam than the hypothetical patternmaker is that the patternmaker didn't typically do stock prep by hand, and almost never had to do big casework. I need to do the former all the time, and the latter sometimes. My solution has been to have multiple benches (with no powertools, there's shop space to devote to specialized benches instead). I have a high bench for carving, a dedicated metalworking/sharpening/messy work bench, a more-or-less joiner's bench with face vise and end vise, a sawing bench (if that counts), a shaving horse, and a new little bench that's based on Drew Langsner's chairmaker's bench.

I've been really enjoying this last one a lot lately. It's only 4'X 2' or so, has a metal face vise mounted inboard of the legs and proud of the face of the bench, and 2 Record holdfasts. The vises and holdfasts are used in the usual way, of course, but one of their main functions is to hold other specialized workholding fixtures - other vises for carving, a twin-screw vise for wider stuff, bird's mouth, etc. I'm amazed at how versatile and how much fun this little bench has turned out to be.

I'm probably going to replace my existing joiner's bench sometime in the not too different future, and I believe the Roubo bench might be just the thing. However, I'm not sure about the crochet. It seems to be a way to do repetitive edge work quickly, which is something I almost never need to do. I think I'd find a leg vise or a traditional face vise more convenient. Maybe even a twin screw vise. I'm leaning towards something like a cross between the Roubo bench and the Hancock Village bench on the cover of The Workbench Book. My own experience with the end vise has sort of soured me on tail vises in general, so I probably won't have one on my next bench. Although, if the d@mned thing had worked the way it should have, I might feel differently.

Re: Who do I trust

Jeremy Osner

>And note: just because I listed the names I did, was not meant to exclude the many other people from whom I have gotten good advice about technique on this forum and whom I trust (in at least this regard). Those were just the first names to spring to mind. Today I was thinking about other people who might read that message and think well, what about me?

Re: Bench Q's for Chris (and others)

DaveK

>MAybe we could trust ourselves as a colletive group. Since we are all re-learning in a sense. Seems we could could come up with a list of ideas. Allowing us each to put together a hybrid that would work for each persons situation. If you want to build a racing machine it may have Ford or Chevy on the front but its got something of the best of everthing underneath.

Re: Who do I trust

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>In general, you can't trust the advise offered by any one of us, because you can't know where we have been before you, and where we just think we have been. None of us, and myself in particular, have already explored everywhere you might want to go in woodworking, and in many cases, we just might have gotten lucky, and the first or second time we tried something, it just happened to work out OK.

There is not one right way to do something. Unfortunately, there are lots more wrong ways than right ways. Some of the right ways work out better than others. Some of the wrong ways are easier to fix than others.

We forget our failures much more easily than we forget our successes. Hopefully, we don't get mixed up too often over which is which, and hopefully, arrogance doesn't blind us to our shortcomings.

If you are planning to make one or two of whatever, OK is probably good enough. If you are planning to put them in your catalog and sell them to all comers, you had better have a much higher quality and efficiency standard. That's why I have so much respect for Rob and Thomas, and some other, unfortunately herein left unnamed, tool designers and builders. Another reason is that they manage to inspire everyone across their whole organizations to exemplary performance.

Re: Geez, gettin kinda Krenov-like

Greg B

>

It was not a stupid question (longish)

Ian in Sydney

>Adam

To answer what I think was your original question. The only person you can trust in terms of the how to only working with handtools is yourself.

Even in the days of apprentices, journeymen and master craftsmen it was a case of only trust yourself.

An apprentice was there to do the menial work, to toil for the master if you will, while they learnt the basic skills.

The journeyman jobbed where he could while he accumulated the experience and reputation he needed before he could call himself master crafstman.

Once acknowledged as a master craftsman it was up to him alone to solve the design / construction / finishing challengers posed by his customers.

We no longer have this system of training and recognition.

You will not have spent seven years as an apprentice, one year of which (working 15 hours per day) was spent learning how to sharpen plane blades, with another year learning how to flatten a board and square an edge. So in a sense those who have dispensed with electrons are still learning how to use their hand tools.

In this regard Toshio Odate relates a tale from his own apprenticeship where his master confiscated (never to be seen again) Toshio's prized plane because it was "too good" for a third year apprentice. Modern makers do not have this constraint, they can buy a L-N or LV plane whenever they want, BUT on the other hand once they receive it, it is up to them to learn how to really use it. There is no master who will criticise and critique until your grip, stance, stroke and speed is just right.

sorry, if I rambled on a bit.