Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 25

Thread: Wood choice for visual appeal

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Mountain Home, AR
    Posts
    13

    Wood choice for visual appeal

    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?
    "The cure for anything is saltwater....sweat, tears or the sea." Isak Dinesen

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,685
    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.

    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  3. #3
    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.

  4. #4
    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

  5. #5
    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.

    Frid Bench.jpg
    Last edited by Andrew Seemann; 01-17-2021 at 1:06 PM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2018
    Location
    Cambridge Vermont
    Posts
    2,280
    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.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Mountain Home, AR
    Posts
    13
    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.
    "The cure for anything is saltwater....sweat, tears or the sea." Isak Dinesen

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Victor Edwards View Post
    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/8932502710f7...&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.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2018
    Location
    Cambridge Vermont
    Posts
    2,280
    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.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    So Cal
    Posts
    3,737
    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.
    Aj

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,685
    Quote Originally Posted by Alex Zeller View Post
    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.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Mountain Home, AR
    Posts
    13
    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.
    "The cure for anything is saltwater....sweat, tears or the sea." Isak Dinesen

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,685
    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)
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Minot, ND
    Posts
    558
    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.
    image.jpg
    Clint
    Last edited by Clint Baxter; 01-18-2021 at 9:20 AM. Reason: Added image

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Mountain Home, AR
    Posts
    13
    Nice looking!
    "The cure for anything is saltwater....sweat, tears or the sea." Isak Dinesen

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •