The Mighty Moravian Bench

[Michael Todrin]

I have been meaning to build a Moravian bench to be used while doing site work and finally have had time to do it. Two slabs of 8/4 Hickory that I have been air drying for the last year and two 8 foot pieces of 16/4 white oak from my local saw mill took care of the materials. Took about 30 hours and was an quite enjoyable to do due to the variety of joints that had to be cut. I know Ken has been singing the praises of this style of bench and I now see why. Fun and fast to build and rock solid. Even before the wedges went in the stretchers it was remarkable how stable the setup was. Also, with the rakish angle it is quite elegant to look at.

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One thing I did that is slightly different is to add a five inch strip to the 14.5" slab by means of floating tenon for adjustable extra width and clamping and saw and chisel holding in the gap.
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[Tony Shea]

That's a great looking bench. I really need to pony up and re-make myself a new top for my Roubo style bench with some as dense as that Hickory top you have. That Hickory slab looks like it was a very large tree and looks great. Should be a perfect bench for doing site work. Nice work! What is the plan for vises?

[ken hatch]

I have been meaning to build a Moravian bench to be used while doing site work and finally have had time to do it. Two slabs of 8/4 Hickory that I have been air drying for the last year and two 8 foot pieces of 16/4 white oak from my local saw mill took care of the materials. Took about 30 hours and was an quite enjoyable to do due to the variety of joints that had to be cut. I know Ken has been singing the praises of this style of bench and I now see why. Fun and fast to build and rock solid. Even before the wedges went in the stretchers it was remarkable how stable the setup was. Also, with the rakish angle it is quite elegant to look at.
...
One thing I did that is slightly different is to add a five inch strip to the 14.5" slab by means of floating tenon for adjustable extra width and clamping and saw and chisel holding in the gap.

Michael,

Congrats on the new bench, it will serve you well. If you decide to add a face vise the BC Classic with crisscross is the best I've found.

ken

[Michael Todrin]

Thanks Ken and Tony, I am excited to put it to use. It was a big hickory, about 28" at chest high and still 20 inches 28 feet up. It came down in a storm.

For vices I am will probably use the BC that Ken recommends and the little veritas inset vice as a tail vice.

[David Eisenhauer]

Nice looking bench Michael. Glad to hear it is rock solid as was expected and I also have had good luck with the BC leg vise.

[Tom Bender]

Bet the top was a bear to plane.

[Michael Todrin]

You would certainly win that bet Tom. Although I found the hickory a little easier to plane than the white oak. Both required a very fine edge and frequent sharpening though.

[William Fretwell]

Michael I notice the tusks are at quite a vertical angle compared to the angled legs. This gives you very little contact area above or below. There is also very little to hit at the bottom of the tusk to dismantle the bench quickly. Have you considered matching the angle more to increase the length, contact and ease of use of the tusks? It should be an easy modification.

[Michael Todrin]

I see what you are saying William. I did cut the outside of the tusk mortise vertically and the wedge with one side vertical and the other matching the angle of the legs. What angle would you suggest for the outside of the mortise?

[William Fretwell]

I cut my bench tusk tenons with a 15 degree angle from vertical (straight legs). Yours would work at 15 degrees from the leg angle. That angle gives a nice long wedge that is very secure, both sides have some body to them for installing and removing. I used white oak but may replace them with hickory. If you plan to move your bench frequently I would go straight for the hickory.

[ken hatch]

Michael,

Will Myers is the go to guy for Moravian benches. He does not give a degree angle for the wedge but made his by copying the wedges from the original bench. I made my wedges using Will's method. I just measured the angle and it is ~9*. 15 degrees seems a little steep to me.

ken

[William Fretwell]

Ken, 9 degrees seems very shallow, especially for a bench that is supposed to be moveable. A wedge is a wedge regardless of the bench design. Very shallow wedges are designed to be driven deep and never removed!
In reality it’s about the wedge being strong enough, with enough contact area on both sides so as not to dent the leg, with a precise fit in the groove for even distribution of pressure.
The 15 degree wedge will be a little easier to remove but 10 degrees would work also. The depth of the wedge and wood type needs to be sufficient for strength and resisting fibre compression. The angle partly determines how readily the wedge works loose but the length of the wedge and the friction from the contact area is probably more important.
Small wedges with insufficient contact area will become crushed, the legs dented and work loose. They get tightened and further damage follows, the angle of the wedge in a given range is probably the least important aspect.
,
The splayed legs of the Moravian resist wracking but also always put continuous pressure on the wedge from the weight of the bench so it is less likely to come loose during use but that also makes the wedge strength more important.

The length and fit of the spreader tenon and shoulder size are also important to resist wracking. The longer and deeper the tenon and better the fit the less wracking left for the wedge to deal with.
If a wedge was to work loose I would first make it longer, not change the angle as it’s getting crushed beyond the elasticity of the wedge. Michael’s current wedge is not in the normal angle range and has very little contact area.

My long 15 degree wedges have an easy time as my stretchers and tenons are massive, a little tap on the wedge, it never moves.

When designing a wedge look at the tenon shoulder separation and area. As the tenon is narrower the wedge needs to be longer than the shoulders with at least the same contact area beyond the shoulder width.

[ken hatch]

William,

Will copied his wedges directly from the bench in Old Salem, I copied mine directly from Will. I have a rule in my shop that has worked well, "if I can figure out how the old guys did it I do it that way". Works almost every time.

ken

[William Fretwell]

Ken, I had a look at the benches, one with vertical legs might be 10 degrees but the rest all look more than that.

[William Fretwell]

First thing when I arrived at my workshop I measured a wedge. Talk about an optical illusion! They are 12.5” long and very visibly bigger at one end than the other. Yet when I measured the angle it was 4 degrees! That would never work with a narrow tenon but mine are massive.
So Michael compare your tenon depth with the museum specimen and adjust Ken’s 9 degrees slightly if needed!