Some pure workbench aficionados would hardly consider the humble Workmate to be a workbench, but how wrong they would be. The style and quality of ones work cannot be measured by the weight or size of a workbench, any more than how many expensive holding devices it has attached to it. My wife inherited a Workmate from her dad a couple of years ago. I had never really though too much about it, but it actually is an incredible bench – not the same as a 300 pound behemoth, but neither was it ever meant to be. What does one work on when you don’t have access to a workbench, have a small workshop, or even need a travelling workbench?
The Workmate was the brainchild of designer and inventor Ron Hickman. Hickman, who was a car designer at Lotus in the UK was a weekend hobbyist renovator. In the early 1960s, after using a chair as a saw horseman’s and accidentally sawing it in half, Hickman set about designing a minimalist workbench which was small and portable. His first prototypes had both these characteristics, but suffered from not being collapsible, and retaining a somewhat heavy vise. In 1967 he decided to further his workbench design, designing the foldability aspects and incorporating a twin-screw vise into the bench itself. In 1968 he did the tour of manufacturers starting with Black and Decker, all of which rejected his ideas. After various design changes, he finally manufactured the Mark I Workmate through his own company, Mate Tools Ltd., using aluminum die casting for the metal components, and a beech work surface.
The Workmate had been conceived as a combination workbench, sawhorse and vise. After negotiations, the Workmate was licensed to Black and Decker (UK) in 1971. What followed were design changes which would result in the Mark II – holes cast into the aluminum to lighten the base, the bench was made adjustable to two heights (23” and 32”), and the beech work surface replaced by a 7/8” thick, 17-ply birch laminate. A longitudinal V-groove was added to both jaws, and two rows of round dog-holes were added. Production of this model began in the UK in 1972, with a North American launch in 1975 (produced at the Brockville, Ontario B&D plant ). With the energy crunch of the 1970s, B&D abandoned the aluminum H-frame, replacing it with stamped steel.
If anything the Workmate was designed for the handyperson, rather than the pure woodworker. It provided a workbench and sawhorse for the person who did not have the space for a traditional workbench, and who likely needed a work surface for the use of power tools. I have found immediate use for the bench. As my workshop is very small, the Workmate makes an exceptional outdoor bench for tasks that I traditionally had done through the use of sawhorses. I recently squared off the legs of my new workbench, 4”x6” ash
The most comprehensive write-up of the Workmate can be found in Scott Landis’s “The Workbench Book”, where it is certainly the outlier in a treatise devoted to traditional workbenches. But as Landis suggests, how often does one invent a workbench? An exceptional resource for Workmate’s can be found on Chris Wolf’s website H-frame. It includes a type ID flowchart and 79-001 type study, as well as links to replacement parts. Following this guide I found out my Workmate is a Type 2, although “Type 2” is stamped in ink under the work surface. There is also a number stamped there – 70252. This is the Brockville production code, and is deciphered here. According to the information this Workmate was constructed in 1977 (7), on February (02), which was a Friday (5) during the second shift.behemoths using the bench to holding them in place whilst cutting them with my Festool track-saw. It worked incredibly well, and the Workmate was super stable.
Is it the best portable workbench ever? Likely – it is a sawhorse, a bench tool support, and a wood vise. It’s likely the vintage benches are much nicer, mainly because they are better built, and built in North America.
working by hand 