Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
What is it? How old is it? Value?
Lisa Headley
>Hello,
My father-in-law gave us this tool table / workbench about 15 years ago. He collected antique tools and tables. I would love to know what it was used for, how old it might be, and what its approx. value is. I have many more pictures, especially of the vice if you would like them e-mailed. These are its dimensions: 59 wide, 36 high, 29 w/vice deep.
Thank you, Lisa Headley
Re: What is it? How old is it? Value?
Bill Houghton, sunny today yahoo in Sebastopol, CA
>It looks like a basic little woodworker's bench - possibly a homeowner's bench, but certainly not a specialized bench of any sort. The vise appears, from the murky picture, to be of a type called a "leg vise."
Since the heavy work - pounding and so on - on a bench occurs toward the front, the front board is thicker than the back one, which is lower partly so that tools have somewhere to rest slightly out of the way.
Neat looking little bench. I don't know enough to speak firmly to its value, but I doubt it's very high.
Store bought? Todd?
Adam Cherubini
>Lisa,
It has a sort of store bought look to it. Todd may know more. Didn't some hardware stores make these? Early 20th century? Look at the turnings on the cross bar on teh leg vise. It has a light duty look to it.
My feeling is that it wouldn't be very valuable. I'd be inclined to find a living history museum to donate it and take a write off. I know some folks are using these in their kitchens.
Adam
Re: Store bought? Todd?
todd hughes
>Looks to me to be homemade and probably started out as a work table or lightweight general purpose bench and then the vise was added latter. Probbaly late 1800s into the 1930s... Vise is a bit unusual how it looks like it is mounted , just stuck on. Looks like some Antique person used the ever popular polyurine finish on it which is a shame...I see lots of workbenchs at auctions all the time, price have gone up a bit in the last years and always hard to be sure what one will go for...I've seen simular ones go for between $5 and $500. A bench like this I think would sell on avarage for about $100-$150 at auction and maybe about a $100 more in an antique shop.....Todd