Nice Workbench Build

[Rob Luter]

Caught this on YouTube. It's a nice bench, and the build is well documented. Enjoy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCuvdv8FO54

[Allen Jordan]

That is an incredible workbench build. How did he attach the top to the legs? Would there be problems with wood expansion in the top if it's m&t?

[Rob Luter]

That is an incredible workbench build. How did he attach the top to the legs? Would there be problems with wood expansion in the top if it's m&t?

At about the six minute mark, he's gluing up the top and you can see the mortises in the underside at the corners. More like large pockets for the flat tops of the legs to nest in. I'd guess the mass of the top is sufficient to hold it down.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Wow thanks for sharing that. It's great to see people going in their own direction with details like pegged tenons and that amazing locking dovetail joint for the sliding deadman.

I was considering using wedged tenons on my bench. This makes me want to do them, and I may have an idea of how to do it on the end caps and also have the dovetail on the edge. Hmmmm.

[Rob Luter]

Here's a video where he goes into more details on construction. It's a very well thought out bench.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB0-F6yq8zM

[Brian Holcombe]

The samurai carpenter shtick is really goofy, but he does do really good work.

[Reinis Kanders]

I definitely like the bench, but the process was opposite of where I like to be. He seems to be dressed for a battle with the wood, while I like to hang out with it:)

[Adam Cruea]

Fairly spiffy, even with the overuse of tailed tools. :-P

Though for some reason, the number of times I saw him pushing a chisel toward a body part made me cringe. I'm generally "meh" when it comes to safety. Maybe it's the bourbon.

I do like the non-standard covers on the twin-screw vices. Kind of make me want to do that for my LV one (the LN one I have has all the guts in the moving chop).

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Though for some reason, the number of times I saw him pushing a chisel toward a body part made me cringe.

Yes, I saw that and cringed. I learned that lesson the hard way once.

[Phillip Mitchell]

That bench is impressive, beautiful and inspiring, but that fellow is pretty cocky and annoying to listen to. I watched some of his other videos and enjoy watching the work he does, but man is he arrogant!

[george wilson]

He showed a great deal of skill in making the bench. It came out extremely nice. My only disagreement is the tool holder down the center. I would think that he would often have to remove the tools if making large projects,or even guitars.

I love building workbenches myself,but by now I just can't lift the heavier components,and I have no handy helper living close to me. Certainly I have NO ROOM left for another bench anyway!:)

He built his legs similarly to what I did. He terminated his bottom cross piece the same as I did,with the quarter round ends. I guess that is pretty standard,though.

On my bench,I used large double mortise and tenons on the tops and bottoms of my legs. But,for the long runners across the bottom of my bench,I cut a slot on the back sides of my beechwood 2" x 6"'s,and used a 1/2" diameter rod of cold rolled steel that goes through the legs.and has washers and a nut to tighten down very securely on each end.

He certainly did a great job on the sliding deadman. It really fit nicely on the inverted "V" track. Very nice indeed!

Where was he arrogant? I did not pick up on that. Maybe on his other videos? He made an extremely well thought out bench,and did a good job of demonstrating it for anyone who might want to build one.

He might be using the name "Samurai" as a joke-a reference to the old Saturday Night Live "Samurai Tailor" and other skits.

Personally,I see no need to load myself down with the large number of tools he has hung all over himself on that leather (where did he GET that thing?) outfit,if I'm working in my shop where everything is near by. Perhaps out on a construction site would be appropriate.

[Jeff Heath]

The samurai carpenter shtick is really goofy, but he does do really good work.

That's exactly how I feel about him. I tried watching his youtube channel, but I can't get past all the annoying attitude stuff that is unrelated to the actual work. Too much "zen attitude" from a young guy who is also hawking makita lunchbox planers.

[Doug McKay]

I see a young family man who has amassed some very serious skills in a very short time. He is a fine finish carpenter by trade, probably puts out more woodwork in a week than most here do in a year.... Attitude? I have one also but with only a 1/4 of those skills!

[george wilson]

I haven't watched his other videos. But,as the saying goes: "It ain't bragging if you can do it"!

[Phillip Mitchell]

Different strokes, I suppose. The workbench video didn't really illustrate the aforementioned arrogance and attitude, but some of the other videos certainly do. I actually really like the content of some of these videos, it's just hard for me to listen to someone who is arrogant for very long. The dude has some seriously awesome tools and skills, but nobody wants to hear him tell us how awesome he is because he has such awesome tools and skills.

IMO, there's something to be said for restraint and modesty that somehow makes someone who is very skilled, appear even more so with those traits exhibited because it shows maturity and perspective. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter, because that is an awesome bench, and that's the point of this thread.

[Pat Barry]

I thought it was a pretty interesting video and website for that matter. Thanks for the link.

[Brian Holcombe]

I see a young family man who has amassed some very serious skills in a very short time. He is a fine finish carpenter by trade, probably puts out more woodwork in a week than most here do in a year.... Attitude? I have one also but with only a 1/4 of those skills!

He does it for entertainment purposes I assume, but he does quality work...very high quality, so much so that I think the presentation style does him a disservice. The bench build is somewhat recent, so it is possible that he has actually been toning it down and presenting the information in a high quality format.

Now that he has caught the limelight I also think he should go by his given name rather than 'samurai carpenter' which is mildly offensive, patronizing the culture he hopes to honor.

[Kirby Krieger]

He does it for entertainment purposes I assume, but he does quality work...very high quality, so much so that I think the presentation style does him a disservice. The bench build is somewhat recent, so it is possible that he has actually been toning it down and presenting the information in a high quality format.

Now that he has caught the limelight I also think he should go by his given name rather than 'samurai carpenter' which is mildly offensive, patronizing the culture he hopes to honor.

Well said. Fwiw, I have watched many of his videos and learned a great deal. There is an implied irony (with all the difficulty that word carries) in his persona and presentation. (Someone indicated this earlier in this thread.) He knows it's a role and a masque, and he knows that you know, and that that makes it funny, both "odd" and "Ha ha". I think in the last half-year he toyed with coming out as Jesse de Geest (his real name), and dropping "Samurai" (he says in one video — apparently he got feedback that made him feel the need to speak — that he is _not_ a Samurai and that it was never intended to be taken with anything but light-hearted reverence), but having achieved fame with his character decided to keep it (and monetize his teaching). Overall, he comes across as a wholly decent highly-skilled fellow who loves what he does and loves sharing what he loves by teaching it.

TL;DR: He's a good guy who is making fun of the bipedal thorns who make most construction sites brier patches.

[Patrick Walsh]

I dont know, the samurai thing is kinda not to my taste but its just that "not to my taste". I am sure much about me is not to the taste of others.

Sure this guy has personality i suppose? I bet he is a nice and decent guy though. At least he has convictions and cares for what he is doing. It is clear he takes pride his work as it shows in the finished product. So few people these days take pride in anything they do. People taking pride in their work anymore is almost laughable as it has become so rare.

His so called personality is a hell of a lot better than the guys i work with both at present and the typical meat head i have worked with for nearly 20 years. These are the kinda guys that cant cut a stringer right and pack them out with plywood or worse "get em wrong and leave them". They have to build everything once to figure it out. In this proocess they also figure out they got none of it right. They then tear it all apart try get the measurments right this time but mostly fail again. Things are kinda level and kinda plum for the most part but at this point it looks like shit and always will. They see nothing wrong with this and just think thats just how it is. If you dare let on that they are hacks forget it you are a banished from meat head island and you dont want this type of guy on your bad side.

I would gladly share my day and work week with a Samarui than one of the meat heads i work with week in and week out.

[Brian Holcombe]

The two things are at odds, when I saw his videos at first I thought it was a joke and would be a very shallow presentation and was surprised that it was the exact opposite.

Point taken, as a youth I worked in a machine shop and very much enjoyed it because the owner/head machinist was like a professor. He was about 35 years in the field at that point and still searching daily for ways to improve his work. I was disappointed to find out exactly how rare the experience was.

So I should not be critical of this fellow, who is doing fine work, enjoying himself and constantly improving.

[Jeff Heath]

Here's another thought from me. It's my opinion only.

Criticism, and how we handle it, is what molds us in life. We can choose to go our own way, relying only on our trials and errors in life to learn from. Or (never start a sentence with "or" or "but"), we can listen to the criticism of others, both helpful and not, and gleam what we can to make ourselves more rounded.

This young man has an obvious talent, and loves what he does. Those two things will take him a long way in life. However, he's made it perfectly clear in a rebuttal video he posted on his channel, that he's making the video's to make money. He represents those low quality machines (the absolute opposite of the attitude of a "samurai" would have......dedication to the perfection, in every way, of one's way through life) because they pay him to do so. This is the part that is in conflict with the whole "samurai" theme. I'm sorry, but selling low-quality lunchbox big-box store tools is in total conflict with the whole "samurai thing" that he's got going on.

Young, talented guys and gals who are from the same generation of my kid's, who are in their mid 20's and early 30's, seem to want to apply the term "Master" on their resume's and business cards way before the long body of work required for such a
distinguished title has been earned. Everybody is in such a hurry compared to the good old days when, regardless of talent level at an early age, you had to put in the years and years of work. Nowadays, these young craftsmen and women want to slap their names on a lunchbox and sell it as fast as they can. Nothing wrong with that, but choose your titles carefully if you want your youtube channel to last more than a couple of years. Like any business, it needs to be built on a solid foundation of trust between you and your viewers/customers, and when you're pissing off just as many people as you are attracting new viewers, you're going to fizzle out long before you get to the pot at the other end of the rainbow.

My advice (and I'm qualified to give it because I've ran my own very successful business in this industry for over 30 years now) is that he should keep doing his work, and posting his video's, and doing more work, and getting better, and keep doing his work, and never, ever give off the impression that he think's he's a master of anything at ripe old age of (late 20's, early 30's.....I have no idea.) Young guys with too much attitude tend to aggravate us older guys who look at the body of work and see a young guy getting started, but also don't see any work that is really all that difficult to do.....except to maybe a newly starting hobbyist who has a day job and doesn't get to play in the shop nearly as much as desired.

I wake up each and every morning, putting my pants on one leg at a time, and tying my work shoes, one at a time, and I walk out the door, coffee cup in hand, and make the 450 foot trek up the hill to my workshop, hoping to learn something new every single day. In the end, all the people who I have worked for, and built furniture and cabinets for, and the few that I've made planes for, get to decide what title I deserve. For now, my business card says

Jeff Heath

Furniture and Cabinet Maker

[Luke Dupont]

That's exactly how I feel about him. I tried watching his youtube channel, but I can't get past all the annoying attitude stuff that is unrelated to the actual work. Too much "zen attitude" from a young guy who is also hawking makita lunchbox planers.

Zen attitude? Struck me as quite the opposite. His overall attitude and approach to work is pretty much the opposite of Japanese attitudes/culture, and philosophy on whole. I don't really care, but he doesn't seem very familiar with Japanese culture or language, and that coupled with the braggadocios/superficial samurai gig makes it even more of a turnoff, IMO. I do like his builds, though.

[Kirby Krieger]

Proudly being a shill for M***** is both a bad step and a step too far. I think he will come to the same conclusion in time. I completely agree with your finding and pointing out the conflict in his teaching and this practice.