I have photos of two historical workbenches but there is a feature on both of them that I don’t understand.
In the right hand side of each picture, there is a series of holes running own the front “leg”, with a probably movable block in the hole. What is the purpose of this?
you slide a peg into it to support the right side of a long board while planing,chopping mortices, etc… The clamp holds the left side.
The bench hook in the top was also useable in these holes to clamp long boards when jointing an edge with a plane.
BTW, that looks like a French style bench, circa 19th century, as opposed to an English or German styles from the same era. Most benches sold today in this country are german style with face vices as well as tail vices.
Called a “Deadman” I think. Often designed with a sliding capability, i.e not on the leg but a movable part that slided across the front.
Roubo
You are correct. I wanted an italian style bench but it doesn’t fit my plans exactly so I’m going with a French-style bench.
EDIT: Since what I had selected is clearly identifiable as a French style, maybe I had better rethink using the Italian style, which seems to have a face vise.
Nope, a deadman was a movable piece that would slide along the bench to accomodate short boards.
As long as you slide it back WHERE YOU FOUND IT!!! I am OK with this.
Face vices are fairly modern inventions. FYI, I have never seen a historial Italian bench other then the ancient Roman ones.
You’ve never seen the work bench Pinocchio was built on?
That looks like classic WD style. Though it is hard to tell considering how messy his shop is. Who knew geppeto was a DMS member!
Allegedly 17th century Italian.
These folks seem to think he was messy, too, but different than WD…
How do you make pizza on this?
Interesting, that seems to contain combinations of English and German designs, with a few Scandenavian elements mixed in.
You may want to contact Christopher Schwartz and see what material he has. He seems to have spent a great deal of time researching historic workbenches.
Geppetto was a carver, and they use very different style benches then the cabinet maker benches shown.
Looks like the Balducci workshop in Florence …
So MY question is are you building a full-size bench or an eensy tiny one?
The latter. I sculpted a tiny Gepetto and he needs a workbench.
That figures…
