A hybrid Victorian bench

By the late Victorian period, manufacture benches had made inroads into the woodworking community. There were still attempts to entice the furniture maker into building their own bench, usually with the addition of store-bought vises. The cabinetmaker’s bench described below hails from a 1884 issue of the English magazine The Furniture Gazette, (Feb.9, p.116-117). It was described as being able to “please the most fastidious workman”. It has a birch top, 90” in length, 16” wide, and 3” thick. The tool tray is made of pine and adds a further 8” to the width of the bench. The vises are bought ready-made: a double-screw wooden vise in the front, and a German (cramp) vise.

There are many things which make this bench quite unique. It also seems like a hybrid of sorts. Firstly the back legs are splayed, something that was probably somewhat of an outlier by the late 1800s. Next the top of the sliding deadman sits in a rail suspended between the right leg, and the double vise (why not the underside of the bench top?). The German end-rise is actually quite small, at about 8” wide, and acts more like tail vise. Finally the use of dovetails to attach the cross-rails is not something you see everyday.

Figure 1 shows a front view of the bench. The rectangular piece of wood with the five holes is known as the bench-pin holder, which slides on tongues prepared for it. Figure 2 meanwhile shows a plan of the bench. Notice how the screw-check of the double vise is spliced into the bench. Further detail for this is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 4 is a side view of the bench, showing the tool tray, and the splay of the back legs. The dovetailed cross-rails, shown in more detail in Figure 5. The mortice and tenon joint and bolting used to secure the front and back rails to the legs is shown in Figure 6. Finally in Figure 7, a cross-section of the top through the mortice holes is shown.

Specs:
Most of the bench is built of birch. (Length×Width×Thickness)
Front legs: 28”×4½×3”
Back legs: 32”×4½×3”
Front and back rails: 57”×4½×3”
Cross rails: 24”×4½×3”
Bench pin rail: 44”×2½×1½
Bench pin holder: (pine) 12×12×1½”

Tinkering with wood – tool kits for kids

There was a time when some tool catalogs sold tool chests, brimming with tools – some of these were aimed at the youth market. Where are these tool chests today? True, Lie Nielsen sells “The Works Joinery Tool Set”, and Dictum sells the “Tool Carrier” – but they pale in comparison to what was available once, and are not really aimed at the youth market. The set shown below is a small youths tool set. It was likely kits like this that got youth interested in woodworking. Nowadays though society is more concerned about wrapping them in bubble-wrap than letting them experience making something.