My workbench. His name is Wolfie. The idea for this thing came about studying the benches of Lost Art Press, Roy Underhill of The Woodwright’s Shop, and countless others. I conceived the design while I was running a CNC routing machine for a trailer parts factory. and we had these seven inch leftover pieces of quality OSB 1″ thick plywood. I turned them up on end gluing them together with Titebond III and there you have the meat of this monstrosity. Throw in some one by eight pine placed at strategic intervals and you get the dog holes which the lumber goes up against for planing. I glued some two by fours together to make four by fours for the legs then squared them on all sides. I then cut mortised and tenons for the frame that it sets on and notched the thing then ran eight teen inch bolts through those legs and bolted them down twice on each side. He is seven feet long and eighteen inches wide after I added the skirt board on the sides to give it even more stability. I then planed the top and sides down dead square with each other added the bench vise and eight months after I had started I had my first real work bench. It weighs as much as I do but it gives a good solid foundation on which to build stuff and there on to chisel, cut, plane leaning into the work with every thing I have. You see, if you could listen to this thing for a little while you could hear some of the thoughts and aspirations that I confided into it some prayers sent up to the Great Spirit, and every Bob Dylan and John Prine song that there is played back to you soaked into its fibers from countless listenings.
The tail vise on the end there, I finally installed the other day, and it has greatly enhanced my endeavors as I continue to build my tool chest. More on that in the weeks to come. Also coming up is a baby crib though I do not have a fully conceived notion of what that will look like yet. I am thinking maybe a place for a baby then a kid to sleep on top and a bank of drawers on the bottom but we will see. I look forward to the things I will build on my bench and the various shops it will sit in, places to make into spaces where I can feel fully inspired to make things (where it is now being the first such place). Old tools tell a story; everyone who uses them says that. To music, to laughter, to love, peace, the ending of all war, strife, and hardship I raise my mug, and give a smile, a wink and a nod to all and sundry.
Jeremy Stoltzfus
Old World Carpentry and
Restoration School of Woodworking
Seeking with my companions to restore a sense of yesterday’s skills to modern sensibilities.
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acorncarpentryandjoinery.com 