Vintage Workbench. Lots of Pic's and very long!

[Thomas Schneider]

Hi All, just thought I'd share a story my most recent find. I got a call from someone answering an ad of mine for vintage tools.The woman lived 60 miles away and was getting ready to sell a house that has been in her family for four generations. Now 60 miles on Long Island for me is an easy 2 hour drive and is usually a deal breaker, but I asked her to send me some pictures when she got a chance. She told me she no longer lived in the house and it would be awhile. About a week later I got a few very dark pictures from a dimly lit basement.
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After blowing the pic's up and taking a close look, I didn't see much that interested me but the bench had promise. So we set a date for me to come look and after seeing it all live (with flashlights) I made them (she had a brother) an offer and they accepted it. Turns out the basement needed work done and had to be cleaned out in less than two weeks. So after enlisting my 2 sons, renting both a 12' box truck and a 10 yard dumpster, we went and loaded every last piece of hardware and tool on the truck and got it home.

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Now the deal I made with my wife was, in part, to resist my hoarding tendencies and throw out all the "junk", hence the dumpster. It took us 12hrs of back breaking labor to load it all so unloading it would have to wait for the next day.

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Now as hard as it was to not keep everything, it would have been even harder to throw away so much good stuff (I can't stand waste!). So I made a pile on the side of the dumpster and made a quick "curb alert" on Craigslist and in less than 2hrs it was all but cleaned out!

Now for the bench!

From what the family tells me it belonged to an Italian immigrant (their Grandfather) who worked for Steinway in NYC around 1890 - 1910. They say he was a piano builder and from some of the tools I found (that's another post) I believe it.

This is the bench in its new home.

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It's 82" long by 31" wide and 32" high. Has both a front and a shoulder vise. There are 11 dog holes with 10 in line with the shoulder vise and one I can't figure out what the purpose is. The top sits on 4 "pins" located, one each, on the 4 legs and weighs about 200 lbs. The base is 38" wide by 22" deep and is held together in part by 4 heavy duty bed post bolts. It weighs about 100 lbs.

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Ok, so I hit the picture limit, that tells me it's time for bed. I will post a few more pic's tomorrow and a few questions I have for you bench aficionado out there! Sorry this post is so long but I warned you!

[Frederick Skelly]

That's a neat story and a really cool find! With patina like that, I'd have to think a while before I'd even flatten the top. Maybe just wipe it down carefully with Murphy's Oil Soap.

(Ok, I thought about it a while. If it's significantly out of flat, I'd flatten the top. It's just too hard to resist putting that beauty back to work. But I wouldn't refinish it or anything, if it were mine.)

[Andy Nichols]

Glad you could help them out and save a wonderful bench.....I would put it into use, and flatten if required, to me that honors the original owner.


Andy

[Jim Koepke]

Great story Thomas, I have never heard of a "curb alert" but it makes perfect sense.

jtk

[george wilson]

The bench would clean up nicely with enough sanding an scraping. Too bad people have to get PAINT on everything!! But,maybe you like the patina. It takes maple a long time to turn that dark! Especially in a dark basement. Must have spent many years in a workshop with sunlight coming in.

I'm wondering if those drawers were re used from a piece of furniture?

[Mike Baker 2]

This is the bench in its new home.

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This right here took my breath away. George mentioned patina; that right there is "experience".
I love "experienced" things. Were that mine I would do whatever was necessary to ensure it was stable to be used, and work on it.
Working on an old bench like that would be such a joy to me that it isn't possible to explain it to anyone.
Absolutely gorgeous old fellow, there.
Congratulations, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I would.

[glenn bradley]

Great story and a great bench. I would flatten it and use it. The drawers do look like they may have come from something else. Of course maybe someone lost the key and added the hasp later. Either way, unless they have sentimental meaning I would replace with more, shallower drawers. You could use the drawer fronts for material for the new drawer fronts and maintain some of the look if that suited you.

[Stew Denton]

Hi Thomas,

+1 to what was said above, a wonderful old bench, and it would be a joy to work on a bench like that.

I am with George, in that the patina would go and I would sand and scrape then refinish the bench, and also plane the top if it needed it. It would still look like an old bench, but it would be much lighter color when I was done, and you would be able to see the grain nicely. Clearly some above want it to stay dark and keep things a lot "as is." To me that is part of the neat thing about being a woodworker, you can keep it primarily "as is," maintaining the exact character or clean it up to make it a whole lot lighter, what your taste is.
At any rate congrats on the bench, you have a beauty in my view.

I am glad I wasn't there to look through the stuff, I might have been in hot water when I got home, buying more stuff that I have no place to store and not good for the budget, a good way to get in trouble with the better half.

Stew

[Rob Luter]

I would leave it alone. Plane/scrape/flatten the top if you can't get the results you need. Wax the drawer guides and the vice screws, and give her a good wipe down with some mineral spirits to clean up the grime and show the patina in all its glory. This old girl has earned her stripes and has the battle scars to prove it.

Patina is what draws me to old tools. Nothing makes totes, knobs, and handles glow more than years of body oil, sweat, and honest work. A shiny tool is one that wasn't used, and the good stuff got used. I often look at some of my vintage tools and ponder all the various craftsman that used them. I'm hoping I can do them proud and keep the quality up.