Wood choice for visual appeal

[Victor Edwards]

My next big project is building a Split Top Roubo (STR) workbench. I am trying to select wood that will have great visual appeal. Yeah, I know, it's a workbench, but I'm a cranky old guy who wants the centerpiece of his workshop to have the "WOW" factor. I have looked at internet images until by eyes went blurry trying to decide on wood choices. Hard maple and walnut seem to almost be the de facto choice. I've seen inlay and insets done that jazz the appearance up. the carved leg chop for the front vise I saw was pretty impressive. I'm thinking a contrasting front board on the top might be nice but what would be a good wood for that? The expense per board foot is not the issue. The visual appeal is my concern.

What would be your suggestions on wood selection to jazz up the appearance?

[Jim Becker]

While you reach for that "wow', be sure to keep in mind practicality...there's a reason that most traditional benches are made from "hard" hardwood and that's durability. Maple, Ash, Oak, etc., for domestics get chosen for that reason and maple also has the advantage of being very close grained. Walnut is nice for an accent, but it a bit soft for larger surfaces, IMHO. If you are willing to go into non-domestics, there are additional hard and durable woods. I used some 8/4 purpleheart that was gifted to me a number of years ago to do a large portion of my bench, supplemented with cherry and one piece of white oak I had on hand.

https://snz04pap002files.storage.live.com/y4m-VZy93Vxc26Q894eriH5NIHavb1GauG2JlIe4sGl5VekEkl1--iF3q18ZlHszz_PZnbe51lqBhl6pywKmXf76SJzHxm3E_ype3qn 6VmjMcxRj0an1ZTiqCydp09RvVG6UR_RT6vB97QntpoyWqAIxU Oo6CsFZhca3DppPj-4GjFRxJS3qG3C_6CZcpQhl6X7?width=660&height=495&cropmode=none

[Ron Citerone]

I have built 3 benches with Tops 3” x 24” x 60” for my shop and for gifts for my son in laws. 2 of them I made with geometrically even spacing of poplar and cherry and maple. The last one I made of random white oak, red oak, maple, cherry, with one 2” wide piece of walnut for the accent. The random seemed to be liked the most. My own taught me that the outside pieces definitely should be very hard wood. I would not use walnut as an apron piece. If you want a dark apron piece and money no object I would go with a harder exotic. Maybe someone here know a good dark exotic to suggest.
BTW, poplar has held up ok on my bench except on the front apron. If I was doing it again I would use hard maple for the aprons.

[Mark Woodmark]

This sounds nuts, but birdseye maple and waterfall bubinga. Perhaps some inlays for bling.

My workbench doubles as an outfeed table for my saw. It is made from aluminum extrusion and has a thick plastic top. The plastic is cushiony enough to help eliminate damage to wood and the plastic allows me to easily clean off glue and finish that may get on it. Ya I know I'm nuts

[Andrew Seemann]

From a "practical minded" cranky old guy, I'd recommend going with a light wood for the majority of the top, as it makes it easier to see things on the bench. A harder wood will help it look nicer longer, but no matter what if you actually use your bench, it will get dinged up.

Woods like hard maple, beech, and birch are popular since they are light colored and hard. Unfortunately, the are also a bit seasonally unstable, which may not be ideal for a Roubo style, although I know that people do use them for that purpose. One of the harder species of soft maple (e.g. not Silver) would also probably work well enough, and they often have a really nice figure, and are more stable than hard maples, the trade off is that they are not as hard or heavy, plus you generally don't get to pick the specific species.

Walnut looks nice, but is is softer and dark and, for much of the country, ridiculously expensive and hard to find large pieces of good quality, none of which are ideal in a bench top, but you could use it if you really wanted. It would probably work best as an accent, though.

Depending on where you are located cherry could be an option, here it is about the same price as maple. It is a little softer and darkens with age, but it would definitely look nice. Unfortunately you would temporarily lose the patina whenever you flattened the top.

The oaks are generally stable (assuming they were dried properly), usually not too expensive, and quite hard, but they can be too visually busy for some people. I think a white oak bench would be kind of neat, but when I built my last bench, maple was better priced and much more readily available in quantity and quality.

You can mix woods as long as they are all roughly the same density and porosity. Hard maple with cherry accents tends to be popular, and the woods are structurally compatible.

My bench is hard maple, with some cherry, soft maple, and spalted maple as highlight pieces. It is a Scandinavian bench, as I like my shoulder and tail vises. I also don't spend a lot of time thicknessing rough timber, so most of the advantages of a Roubo style are lost on me. I still haven't gotten around to putting finish on the top, so it may not look as shiny as some other benches.

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[Alex Zeller]

Take a look at tigerwood. It's used for decking which is a shame since it turns gray when left outside like almost every other wood. It's as hard as oak and resists water very well as it's an exotic wood. It's not as heavy as ipe but otherwise has most of the same traits. It's a light colored wood with lots of dark streaks. Even unfinished the streaks still show up.

[Victor Edwards]

OK. First of all: Thank you. Some really good information shared and I appreciate it.

So the additional considerations are now
Hard maple or a light colored hard wood (oak?) for the top. I'm leaning towards hard maple but am intrigues by the idea of some birdseye maple. I'll have to check and see how they compare in hardness.
Hard wood for the aprons, walnut is too soft. This just saved me some aggravation, thank you. I get it.
Working some cherry in raises some interesting ideas.
I need to do some digging for info about exotics. A hardwood exotic apron could really take it up a notch. The point about seasonal stability comes into play.

So my thinking now is a hard maple top and go for the 'bling' factor on the legs and possibly end caps. Insets and/or inlay might be what makes the top look nicer.

Thanks again for some really good insight. I'm still developing the plan. I've built multiple benches in the past but they were are all built with little consideration to visual appeal.

[Ed Mitchell]

What would be your suggestions on wood selection to jazz up the appearance?

Visual appeal is in the eye of the beholder. Some thing maple and walnut is too much, others love it. Whatever woods you decide, as mentioned above, the front board and front stretcher should probably be curly/quilted/figured examples of whatever. Also, don't forget the contrasting houndstooth dovetails a la Frank Strazza:
http://nebula.wsimg.com/8932502710f762d3d488d50481e3baaf?AccessKeyId=5A891 8ED8C87814C0958&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

The chop should definitely echo the wood choices in the bench, and, if your name is Upgrayedd, maybe polish the wheel to bright chrome or get it gold-plated.
If you're not sold on a leg vise, Andy Klein's turbo vise also has very strong visual impact, and lots of people have jazzed them up, from polished gears to steampunk.

[Alex Zeller]

If you stick to the exotic woods used for decking stability shouldn't be a problem. The conditions a deck will see are much more of a swing that a bench will see.

[Andrew Hughes]

I think it’s a mistake to choose wood from a handtool bench based on looks. If you plan on handplane on the bench you’ll need to keep it flat once a year with a good bench plane. Adding exotic woods will make this process difficult.
I vote for Hardmaple with a the grain running out in the right for a left handed or right handed person.
Keeping the bench flat around the dog holes is very important.

[Jim Becker]

Take a look at tigerwood. It's used for decking which is a shame since it turns gray when left outside like almost every other wood. It's as hard as oak and resists water very well as it's an exotic wood. It's not as heavy as ipe but otherwise has most of the same traits. It's a light colored wood with lots of dark streaks. Even unfinished the streaks still show up.


Tigerwood is good stuff...I've had the pleasure of working with off-cuts from a deck guy for CNC boxes and it's beautiful, hard and stable.

[Victor Edwards]

Absolutely agree. Bench is going to be function first, pretty second. I'm pretty much sold on hard maple for the top. Hadn't thought about aligning the grain. Good idea.

[Jim Becker]

Maple for the top provides a very nice canvas for you to enhance things with almost any dark, but hard wood, and there are so many great examples of this out there in "bench land". How you add things like end-cap jointery, face and leg vices, the leg structure itself, can all make the "showpiece" you want while giving the worksurface you need. As you can see, my bench is all pretty dark and while it was practical to make it using materials on-hand, I can absolutely vouch for the fact that it's sometimes harder to see things on the surface compared to the maple top I had previously. (it had to be replaced because it was in horrible condition)

[Clint Baxter]

When I made my Roubo, I used hard maple and Jatoba. The Jatoba was used for the chop, the sliding deadman, and the strip in the top for the dogholes to include the moving portion of the wagon vise. It is plenty hard and contrasts well with the maple.
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Clint

[Victor Edwards]

Nice looking!

[Steve Hubbard]

Hard maple top, padauk for the legs, short stretchers, and end cap. Padauk is stiff and hard. Keep in mind that different woods move differently with changes in humidity.

[Wes Grass]

Bastogne Walnut. Some of that is pretty hard stuff.

If cost really is no object, I can hook you up with a guy that has a warehouse full of slabs. Most of it Claro though. Don't know how much Bastogne he's got.

If something like this is pretty enough for a bench:

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[Mel Fulks]

Agree with "soft" maple, used it for mine. Can't remember right now if 6/4 or 8/4 ,but I know I bought it from the
vendor around here, they don't shop price, they always buy from same reliable source for each species. After milling the
pieces I cut a dado in the center third of each piece about 1/16th deep as a precaution against ending up with the often
seen open joints on old benches. But certainly even with that precaution , a lot of damp rag wiping in every day use
could cause some " compression ring-set caused shallow open joints. So I avoid using overly damp clothes to clean it .
I first glued up separate sections about 6 or 8 inches wide, then carefully jointed those before making final glue up.
That was a long time ago. Put couple coats of Waterlox on it.

[Tom Trees]

If you're a bit of a bench fanatic you might slog it out,
I'm only saying as you mentioned the STR, I like that one ;)
There are loads of designs of them, with differing species to gaze upon.
Get a pen and paper ready to take down notes of the best pages as there is a few hundred to get through.
I hope your internet is half daaecent, as it will take some time.
Type into google...
"All replies on workbench smackdown"
You will get onto a compilation from a popular forum.

As for birdseye maple on a bench...... have a look at one of Rob Cosman's new workbench on youtube
"Workbench completed with Rob Cosman"
Yes it's a Scandi, but at least you get to see it used on a bench.
A bit busy looking for my eye's

Tom

[Jim Becker]

Agree with "soft" maple, used it for mine. Can't remember right now if 6/4 or 8/4 ,but I know I bought it from the
vendor around here, they don't shop price, they always buy from same reliable source for each species.

I wouldn't hesitate to do that, either...I've actually found soft maple to be a very cost effective and readily available species here for about the same cost as quality poplar or run of the mill oak. I've been using it more and more.

[Derek Cohen]

Absolutely agree. Bench is going to be function first, pretty second. I'm pretty much sold on hard maple for the top. Hadn't thought about aligning the grain. Good idea.

Victor, if you want a working bench, ensure the top is a light-coloured wood. My preference would be White Oak (mine is European Oak), as it is hard but workable. I would not use Hard Maple, unless you are a masochist! :)

You can make the base anything you like. Perhaps Black Walnut would be a nice contrast (mine is Jarrah).

https://i.postimg.cc/NffdYGd3/D4a.jpg

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Victor Edwards]

Hard maple top, padauk for the legs, short stretchers, and end cap. Padauk is stiff and hard. Keep in mind that different woods move differently with changes in humidity.

Interesting design. I'd be curious as to what lead to the design. The inlay is spectacular.

[Victor Edwards]

Bastogne Walnut. Some of that is pretty hard stuff.

If cost really is no object, I can hook you up with a guy that has a warehouse full of slabs. Most of it Claro though. Don't know how much Bastogne he's got.

If something like this is pretty enough for a bench:

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Breath taking wood! While I am blessed to not have this project solely by cost, even I understand the need to keep a teeny-tiny bit of reality involved .... lol

[Victor Edwards]

Derek

NICE bench. The top being light colored wood is a definite. One of the things surprising me about this process is how trying to 'make it pretty' has lead me down a rabbit hole on design. I initially thought I'd just get the Benchcrafted set of plans, build it and get on with life. I've decided that if I went that route then I could just use SYP (southern yellow pine) from the big box store. Crossing the line into 'hmm... I could spruce it up a bit' has lead to a rather major effort to evaluate each design element, whether construction or visual, very carefully.
Sure the houndstooth dovetail touch on the end.

[Rob Luter]

Derek's bench is awesome, and exactly the configuration I'll build if there is a "next time"

My first real bench was built in 2007/2008 out of found and salvaged lumber. It's a small utilitarian bench and not super pretty, but looked OK when new. Construction lumber underpinnings, hard maple top, soft maple aprons and vise chops. To my eye, the real visual appeal comes after about ten years of solid use when it's covered with stories.

https://live.staticflickr.com/2583/4103275307_f30a5080da_b.jpg