For 25+ years I have used a commercial French style workbench with a front and a tail vices. It is made from somekind of cedar measuring 1600 mm (5´4") by 550 mm (1´10"). It have fitted virtually all my needs up to recently.
As I started to use more manual tools I discovered it is light weight for some applications and both my crap vices are near to useless. I considered to update my vices but from the limited options available locally it would be a very expensive update and it would not solve the problem of low mass from my workbench.
I decided to make one.
I´m going to construct a traditional English Nicholson workbench - viseless. Actually I was really surprised how some people works so fine using a such kind of workbench.
Last month I received four very nice and functional holdfasters. Hand forged. They cost me (equivalent to) USD 50.
This week I purchased the wood. I found a good lot of maçaranduba in a lumberyard near home. Three planks at 55 mm thickness - at the total 0.16 cubic meter. Maçaranduba, "massaranduba" as usually write abroad, is a very hard wood, with more than double of typical pine. It is (almost) odorless and very low contents in resins. It glues well. You can get some information looking for bullet wood. The planks are well stored in my garage where they will stay up to the second half of (next) December. It cost me another USD 50.
I have intention to make the benchtop 50 mm thick as it is very convenient to holdfaster - and it would have the same mass as using 4" or even 5" pine.
I have a couple of questions:
1) Do any of you have experience with viseless workbench when using manual tools? What were/is your impressions?
2) Most workbenches here are made of hard and dense woods (the top is a friend of me that have big workbench made totally with purpleheart) but I saw personally a few, and by photos and internet the most of them in the US made of pine. I guess the main reason is that wood are easy to get and cheap... any one have experience using hard wood tabletop for your workbench?
Thanks in advance for any hint.