Oak for woodworking bench?

[Greg Parrish]

So I happened upon this webpage: https://summerhill-woodwork.com/blog...orkbench-build

It gave me some inspiration as I’ve been contemplating adding a face vise to an existing Armor brand bench (metal frame with wood butcher block top). However, rather than adding the face vise to my existing bench, it has me contemplating building my own bench. The question though, would Oak be an okay material for a bench?

We picked up a small 23” bandsaw sawmill for our tree farm. We have southern yellow pine and oak on the property. My first use was sawing up some oak that produced a decent initial stack of 1” and 2” thick boards that are 10 to 11 foot long and range from about 6” to 8” in width. Since I have access to oak, and since its from our family farm, I’m thinking it would be nice to turn that wood into a bench for my shop.

Any issues with using Oak? Any issues with building up the top from 1” boards rather than using thicker boards? My thoughts would be a 3” top built up from 1” layers (will be closer to .75” nominal due to drying). The 1” stuff should be air dry by now but I’m going to stick it into our makeshift kiln box for 3 or 4 weeks. But, the thicker 2” pieces are probably not ready so I may have to make vise chops from material sourced elsewhere. May also look at a different material for the tressed/frame.

Thanks for any tips on building a bench top from oak.

[John TenEyck]

You can build a bench from nearly anything, but oak wouldn't be a wood I would choose because it splinters pretty easily. If you do go ahead with the oak the 1" stock is fine for the top if you glue it up like an edge grain butcher block. Glue it up in widths that will fit through your planer; get those sections flat and true, and then glue the sections together to yield the overall width needed.

There are plenty of books and articles on workbench construction. You might consider buying one.

John

[Prashun Patel]

Red or white oak?

I'd probably do either if I had an abundance of it. Red does splinter more easily though.

[David Bassett]

It seems like benches traditionally have been made from whatever was easily available. (Certainly Chris Schwarz argues that. BTW- his latest workbench book is still free in PDF. It's less about different types and tradeoffs and more about building a version of a Roubo, but still has supporting details that I think would be useful in making other styles.)

But I also recall a great deal of enthusiasm for building Roubo-style benches from French Oak as being "traditional". (I also remember, vaguely, a tidbit about how some "French" Oak is really American White Oak gifted to and planted in France a couple hundred years ago.) It seems you can do what you plan and claim historic precedence. )

Add: search "French Oak Roubo Project" for blog articles on the oak bench making events, there have been a couple now. (Don't bother searching FORP, it hits too many other things.)

[Mel Fulks]

Beech was one of the most used, some writers have said it was the “traditional bench wood”. It was one of the more plentiful woods ,and
cheap. That’s why you must make your bench top out of BEECH ! Yes, rosewood would be OK , IF you can find some CHEAP !

[Greg Parrish]

Thanks John. I have a book or two on workbench construction, but just wasn't sure regarding the oak. I have The Workbench Design Book by Christopher Schwartz, The Workbench by Lon Schleining and Workbenches by Christopher Schwartz. Would be nice to use the oak though since it's from our farm.

Prashun, It's all white oak. This batch came from the first two smaller trees we sliced up. Honestly don't know if there is enough there or not, but feel like it should provide enough material for at least a 6 or 7 foot long top that is 20" wide and 3" thick. It is air dried in the south GA heat all summer. The top was covered with sheet tin and weights to hold it flat during drying. I'll have to check the moisture content this weekend. We started a makeshift drying kiln, but it won't be anything elaborate. Basically an extra steel cargo container with fan for air circulation. Over the summer, temps were reaching the 120+ range inside without any supplemented heat. Since this is just for hobby purposes, it's hard to justify the cost of a kiln unit along with its power consumption. I will probably be looking into ideas to temporarily and economically force the heat above 130 for short spans (1 or 2 days) as we get into colder temps, but doubt we will get to the point of a full dehumidifier kiln setup anytime soon.

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[Richard Coers]

Oak will be perfect. But saying oak is combining between 400-500 species. I would not glue the faces of the wide stock together to make it 3" thick, I would rip strips 3" wide and then glue those faces together. The expansion and contraction in the wood would then be vertical and not horizontal. You'll keep a flatter bench that way. I built my bench from oak and walnut in the mid 1980s, and not a single splinter has formed on the oak.
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[Greg Parrish]

Nice looking bench, Richard.

That was my plan. Rip this into say 4" wide, 1" thick pieces. Then joint and plane those down. Since it's rough cut, will probably end up with pieces between 1/2 to 3/4 thick that are somewhere around 3.5 wide. Then I'd glue up my faces to get panels that are 10 or 12 inches wide. Then run those through the planer to do final sizing and smoothing. Then I could do a split Roubo with the two pieces, or join them with some dowels and glue for a single top.

Oak will be perfect. But saying oak is combining between 400-500 species. I would not glue the faces of the wide stock together to make it 3" thick, I would rip strips 3" wide and then glue those faces together. The expansion and contraction in the wood would then be vertical and not horizontal. You'll keep a flatter bench that way. I built my bench from oak and walnut in the mid 1980s, and not a single splinter has formed on the oak.
workbench.jpeg

[Mel Fulks]

Benches do hold their value ! Unlike the passé “entertainment centers” of decades back that can now be bought from 20 dollars to
FREE ! In fact, entertainment centers might become the future “traditional wood” of benches!

[Chip Byrd]

Since you have the southern yellow pine, I would go with that. My SYP bench has held up swimmingly over the past 10 years. And I actually like that my bench is made of softer material than most of my projects.

[Greg Parrish]

Since you have the southern yellow pine, I would go with that. My SYP bench has held up swimmingly over the past 10 years. And I actually like that my bench is made of softer material than most of my projects.

Chip, I'd have to buy the wood if I did that. We have SYP trees on the land, but we have not sawn any of them up. The biggest problem I would face there is that I don't have a way to get the temp up to 160 or more to set the pitch. It would be a mess trying to use pine without having it kiln dried and cooked to 160 or more because it would never stop oozing tar.

[Scott Clausen]

I love my SYP Moravian top. Will Myers prefers a solid red oak top possibly because that was the wood used in the one in the museum that he copied.

[Terry Therneau]

On the theme of "whatever is handy"... My bench top is made from standard 1x4 leftovers: the larger basement room had the rectangular acoustic tiles, the ones where there was a furring strip every 12" and you stapled them on. (Remember those?) When I replaced that ceiling I had a pile of them, drilled 5 holes in each for threaded rod, which acted as my clamps, and glued it up. It's been a great bench for about 15 years now. Not a FWW photo shoot of course, but flat, solid and functional.

Terry T.