Member
Perhaps he has done some steam rolling you are not aware of,Gabe. But,I don't think I have been the major steam roller here,and do not want to get back into stuff. No,I really have no desire to deface my nice beech workbench which I made from beechwood I had custom cut and waited years to dry. I do not consider it good workmanship,and there are better ways to get a grip on work. I did not say lemmings.
Member
Originally Posted by george wilson
And with that, I'm done with this thread. Hopefully these don't become the norm and ruin an otherwise amazingly open and unbiased forum.
Member
I clearly stated my reasons for not wanting to tooth my bench in post #27,and mentioned that this WAS NOT about personalities. Post 48 was a joke. I did think "lemmings" was a funny word to mention.
Contributor
I'll never forget the great projects those magazines had...MAKE A LETTER OPENER FROM AN OLD TOOTHBRUSH! Did that with my current toothbrush and my parents just didn't understand. Still didn't get much mail.
Guest
I count on Chris to not lie intentionally, and he has not done that so far as I know for a lot of years now. Have I built the tool chest? No. Do I follow his advice slavishly? No. Do I buy every book from Lost Art Press? No. But I always gain from reading his blog and articles and certainly appreciate the PopWW move into hand tools, led by him, so far as I know.
Member
I don't understand your position at all Gabe. First, unbiased makes no sense to me. Would you want to read the New England Unbiased Journal of Medicine?
How can any of us have anything personal against Chris Schwartz, we in most cases have never met him. We have commented on his suggestion that we tooth our benches for more grip. We have made many good points as to why this is silly or at least suspect. When you write with the intention of being read as a professional journalist you should be held to a pretty high standard I would think.
When I wrote presentations for business the content was scrutinized and criticized. It was understood that my position would be challenged. When you write something you have to be accountable for it and sometimes you have a battle, especially if you don't have it all right.
My question to you and the others who are so pro Schwartz in this thread is will you be toothing your benches? I am not jesting or making light, I'm seriously curious as to who will actually support their words with action and really do this?
Guest
I doff my cap in admiration and wonderment!Maybe it's just the latest in Tom Fool Idjit things to write another article about.
Besides, it's the LAZY MAN'S way to dress up your bench top. A real craftsman would CHECKER the bench top like fine checkering on a rifle stock.
Member
Well goodness, you chaps do get busy while a gal is getting her beauty sleep. Arguably you're time might have been better spent asleep too, however...
Oh, George, you went and brought in the government. How could you? And the 80s. It just gets worse and worse.
Not a thing, but I have complete confidence that opinions will be unerringly formed plus or minus any data at all, so I won't worry about it. And he might be Scottish. Or Welsh. Could be a very regional habit indeed, confined to a 50 square mile area of Northumberland, but only on alternate Tuesdays. I have no particular support or antipathy towards the advice, just merely providing information.
Okay, yes, I admit I am mildly amused that there are three sources who've presumably tried it and seem to like it, while half a dozen folks who haven't tried it are absolutely adamant that it's no good. So far I'm straining to hear anyone who's tried it and said it's no good. I'm slightly less amused that a forum born out of the good manners of the old Badger Pond allows quite such personal attacks on another woodworker, but alas, internet fora are not what they were. You have the floor, gentlemen; I am done.
Cheers, Alf
Guest
Any operation on a bench in need of gripping will need something more than a toothed surface to do the job. Battens, stays, dogs, holdfasts, hand screws, clamps, planing stops come immediately to mind. If these implements are used correctly by a reasonably competent workman no additional assist is needed from an abraded surface or anything else for that matter. History has proved it.
Last edited by Charlie Stanford; 02-19-2013 at 4:42 AM.
Guest
I think the adoration of Chris Scharz borders on the Stockholm Syndrome for some people. He is the Alpha and the Omega in their woodworking world.
Last edited by Charlie Stanford; 02-19-2013 at 5:04 AM.
Guest
What sort of woodworking problem are you trying to solve for which you think toothing your bench might be a potential solution?
Guest
If he's toothing in order to clean encrusted hide glue and other detritus from what amounts to an assembly table then that's another kettle of fish. Did Schwarz miss this nuance?
What I've had pictured in my mind is somebody taking a toothing plane to their beautiful Frid/Klausz work of art European workbench. That would be positively mad.
Last edited by Charlie Stanford; 02-19-2013 at 7:59 AM.
Contributor
That's actually my quote, Charlie...I think Zach must have tried to quote me and something accidentally got dropped. I'm not sure if that's how Zach feels at all. I'm personally not a pretty workbench kind of guy. Personally, I think Frank Klausz is a little nutty for having such a pretty bench, but I'm sure he'd think I'm a slob for having a messy bench. But yes, Chris sort of left that part out, and that's too bad because it's the part that makes it all seem very reasonable to do in a production workshop. If all you need is a bit more grip under holdfasts, there are so many other solutions that are so much simpler. I use my bench much like Edwards uses his. It's got all sorts of glue and mess on it. I'm getting ready to take it down to the local mill and have them put the top on their wide belt to resurface it. I may try a toothing it first as a quick and easy alternative.
Member
Guest
It is a huge difference, the difference between a bench used to process, to a reasonable degree of precision, components that will go to make an article of furniture vs. a bench (really an assembly table) used to glue and assemble said components. If a toothing plane is simply being used as a glorified scrub brush to clean the latter than that is really not even worthy of mention - certainly not worthy of an article, even a short article, in a woodworking magazine. The same thing could be accomplished with 60 grit and often is, I'm sure.
In other words, who cares how you clean scum off your assembly bench?
Last edited by Charlie Stanford; 02-19-2013 at 7:56 AM.
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