Workbench Porn

Let me immediately apologize for the title of this post. I am going to shamelessly admit right away that I am looking for ways to increase viewership and subscriptions to the post. My evil mind says that views might increase if I use provocative posting titles to drive views. If this works you may be proving my worst fears about how the internet actually works - but who am I to judge?. I will only say that the "Politics of Antiques" post set a small but noticeable up tick in view traffic.

For those of you that are disappointed in seeing pictures of older tools on a workbench that I am restoring, well I really not sure what to say - workbench porn - really? Anyway, I got up early so that I could take advantage of the morning light that comes into my garage through the south facing windows and started to take some pictures of rusty, worn and used tools on top of the workbench. 

The first photo was of the the bench top with a few handmade house wright chisels that a timber frame builder might have had in his or her tool box. I also threw a few Stanley scrapers and spoke shaves in the tool tray. Most of these tools are used regularly for legitimate wood working projects. Most are also from the period that the bench was probably manufactured. I liked that way they looked so at home in their new "old" setting. 

The photos are all taken on an iPhone so the quality while ok could be a lot better. I am nowhere near done cleaning up and restoring the bench but I could not resist taking pictures to show what the bench might have looked like while the woodworker that owned it was using it. 

I also could not resist putting a piece of oak between the bench dogs in the clamping position. The wood was held tight and I could see that the bench was going to be fully functional when I stop messing around and start to actually use it. I am not sure of the practicality of clamping such a small piece of lumber for any real useful task but I was pleased that the bench dogs still worked as designed. I was also impressed that the wooden screw used in the vise still tracked almost perfectly. Someone really knew how to harvest and dry wood properly - especially maple.

Once I get a little further along with the repairs to the base of the workbench I will try planing some larger pieces of stock to get a feel for the stability of the bench in action.

Another shot of a rusty old tool, a caliper that I dug out of an old barn a few months ago. The caliper is also period for the bench but it also needs a bit of cleaning and rejuvenation to be of use.

I will leave you with a wider shot of the chisels, an older scraper, a few scribes in the tool tray and an older German jewelers saw.

I think that the bench rescue is coming along well. The colors of the bench top are looking like 100 year old maple should look. 

As one can see in the pictures this bench was made of two wider boards laminated together unlike the much narrower strips that one sees in contemporary bench top construction. One board is 8 inches wide and 68 3/4 inches long, the other is 6 1/2 inches wide and the same length. The two boards are a full 2 1/4 inches thick. The banding around the front and sides of the bench is 2 3/4 inches wide and 3 1/4 inches thick. 

The overall length of the bench top is 74 1/4 inches.  The width of the bench top is 25 inches. The height of the bench is a full 35 inches from the floor to the top. The front vise is 18 inches wide, 2 3/4 inches deep and 7 1/4 inches high. The end vise is 4 inches thick, 15 1/2 inches wide and 5 inches thick. The "L" leg of the end vise is 22 1/2 inches long and 5 inches wide.  All in all a very well made piece of history.