Dave Anderson NH
07-17-2007, 12:56 PM
Last Saturday I drove the 150 miles up to Lie-Nielsen Toolworks in Warren Maine to attend a 4 hour workbench design seminar presented by Chris Schwarz the Editor-in Chief of Popular Woodworking and Woodworking magazines. Over the years Chris has built 13 benches in an assortment of styles and has spent considerable time researching historical designs and how they effected woodworker methods of plying their craft.
I arrived early at about 9:15 for a 10AM start time and spent the slack time drinking coffee and eating pastry while perusing the offerings in the showroom. The cash register was open and a few folks were taking advantage of the 10% discount offered to seminar attendees. (We won't discuss what I spent) Promptly at 10 Tom Lie-Nielsen intorduced Chris and the show began. The first hour was spent primarily on a historical perspective showing slides of benches from Egyptian time up through today. All of this was carried on within a context of how clamping and work holding designs influenced how people carried out their tasks. The commentary was interspersed with Chris' often wry and opinionated observations. While all of the seminar was from Chris' point of view and expressed his opinons, these were well founded observations based upon a lot of time spent both on the research and in actually using 3 historical reproduction benches he has built.
Later parts of the seminar went on to cover how to select lumber for benches and why certain choices are good, better, or alternately bad. Chris put forth his "kitchen test" criteria for whether a bench will effectively hold most common types of work. Simply put, a bench must be able to hold a cabinet door so that the face, edges, and the whole door can be clamped effectively. It must also be able to hold a drawer for joining,planing and fitting and also be able to handle stock up to several feet in length for face, edge, and end grain planing. While my explanation is an oversimplification of a demonstration done with a bench and the appropriate props, hopefully it contans the kernel of the idea.
Other topics discussed and considered were vise choices, holdfast choice, placement, and use, and Chris' latest bench, the Holtzapffel design from the mid 1800s. The Holtzapffel was the bench on display and it was used as the main prop for most of the day. I've included some pictures below of this very effective design. While folks were asked to bring pictures and plans for benches they used and/or were interested in building, few did. Interestingly I had left my plans for a new bench on the kitchen counter at home and during the day sketched hurriedly so that I could have something for Chris to discuss and critique for me. If the ultimate test of how smart a man is can be distilled into how much he agrees with your views.... Chris is a genius.;)
This review is obviously inadequate to describe the proceedings of a 4+ hour event. Every conceivable topic related to bench design and its relationship to use was covered. I was entirely satisfied that the time was both worthwhile and well spent. I came away with a lot of new knowledge and a few new useful insights. This seminar and the new book Chris has written and which will be available in October eliminate the large void left by other publications. While many other bench books cover design and construction and show plenty of pretty pictures, NONE adequately address benches in actual use. It's almost as if the other authors are writing a coffee table book.
If you are building or plan to build a bench and this seminar is offered anywhere ever again, Go to it. You would do yourself a great disservice by missing it.
I arrived early at about 9:15 for a 10AM start time and spent the slack time drinking coffee and eating pastry while perusing the offerings in the showroom. The cash register was open and a few folks were taking advantage of the 10% discount offered to seminar attendees. (We won't discuss what I spent) Promptly at 10 Tom Lie-Nielsen intorduced Chris and the show began. The first hour was spent primarily on a historical perspective showing slides of benches from Egyptian time up through today. All of this was carried on within a context of how clamping and work holding designs influenced how people carried out their tasks. The commentary was interspersed with Chris' often wry and opinionated observations. While all of the seminar was from Chris' point of view and expressed his opinons, these were well founded observations based upon a lot of time spent both on the research and in actually using 3 historical reproduction benches he has built.
Later parts of the seminar went on to cover how to select lumber for benches and why certain choices are good, better, or alternately bad. Chris put forth his "kitchen test" criteria for whether a bench will effectively hold most common types of work. Simply put, a bench must be able to hold a cabinet door so that the face, edges, and the whole door can be clamped effectively. It must also be able to hold a drawer for joining,planing and fitting and also be able to handle stock up to several feet in length for face, edge, and end grain planing. While my explanation is an oversimplification of a demonstration done with a bench and the appropriate props, hopefully it contans the kernel of the idea.
Other topics discussed and considered were vise choices, holdfast choice, placement, and use, and Chris' latest bench, the Holtzapffel design from the mid 1800s. The Holtzapffel was the bench on display and it was used as the main prop for most of the day. I've included some pictures below of this very effective design. While folks were asked to bring pictures and plans for benches they used and/or were interested in building, few did. Interestingly I had left my plans for a new bench on the kitchen counter at home and during the day sketched hurriedly so that I could have something for Chris to discuss and critique for me. If the ultimate test of how smart a man is can be distilled into how much he agrees with your views.... Chris is a genius.;)
This review is obviously inadequate to describe the proceedings of a 4+ hour event. Every conceivable topic related to bench design and its relationship to use was covered. I was entirely satisfied that the time was both worthwhile and well spent. I came away with a lot of new knowledge and a few new useful insights. This seminar and the new book Chris has written and which will be available in October eliminate the large void left by other publications. While many other bench books cover design and construction and show plenty of pretty pictures, NONE adequately address benches in actual use. It's almost as if the other authors are writing a coffee table book.
If you are building or plan to build a bench and this seminar is offered anywhere ever again, Go to it. You would do yourself a great disservice by missing it.