Traditional Woodworking Bench Styles

The classic continental style workbench uses a trestle design and dovetails in the aprons and vises to create a bench for the ages.

Traditional woodworking bench styles. My bench will basically be pretty close in design to the frank klausz bench that has been well documented in both the workbench book by scott landis as well as in fine woodworking issue 53 july august 1985. Woodworking workbenches design building use. Go light by building the torsion box tops and. 3 money saving workbenches the mix and match workbench.

Don t need vises or a heavy duty workbench. Sketching i finally decided on a pretty traditional design. I still need to add holes in top and skirt. We ve produced more than two dozen articles and videos about benches and assembly tables ranging from a simple but workable plywood bench to a classic hardwood bench complete with vises.

Small point but i believe it s inaccurate to call this a scandinavian style. The main difference between my bench and franks is the front vise. But like you i hunger for a traditional woodworking bench. It consists of a 2 6 frame under a 1 in plywood slab old laboratory shelving and 2 6 legs and stretchers.

A workbench needs to be stable and strong and traditional designs are still the most successful for this. It has what i consider to be a metal working vise and is barely sturdy enough for most of what i do. Who has built a tremendous english style nicholson workbench featuring a face vise. The english workbench often called the nicholson workbench is a favourite of mine as this design is simple and practical to build in solid wood and gives you a workbench that will last a lifetime.

Whether you re setting up a new shop or upgrading your old one a sturdy workbench will almost surely be central to your plans. The entire bench is also made out of cherry and she s a beauty. Traditional french workbenches had massive tops 6 thick with legs that were big enough to be called tree trunks. For my money this danish style is the most user friendly of all workbench styles for doing woodworking because of the unique vises sturdy construction and versatile design.

Later workbenches relied more on engineering than mass. As shown at right this cost effective approach includes buying a laminated maple benchtop. Our latest workbench idea comes from quentin w. Primary construction of my modified nicholson english bench is complete.

If you plan on doing your woodworking with hand tools then you need a bench that s stout and won t wobble about or require chasing around the workshop every time you take a shaving. The workbench really is the heart of your workshop.