How I Ended Up With A Split-Top Saw Bench

It all started when I went to the walnut store.  I needed some for a project that shall not be mentioned.  While I was there I noticed that they had a pile of 4-foot long select pine on sale and you know how it is.  You’ve just got to paw wood that’s on sale.  And this got me to thinking – an all too dangerous proposition.  I bought some.

You see, I have had saw bench envy.  I have a saw bench.  I built it long ago, far away.  See here for details.   I built it when I was more of a hybrid woodworker than I am today.  Back then I used handsaws for all my cross-cuts but when ripping stock I uncovered my table saw and, well, let’er rip.

But now I’m not doing that.  My table saw has become a very expensive assembly table and I’d come to covet Shannon Roger’s split-top saw bench, which is great for ripping stock.  Every time I watched him use it to rip stock in his Hand Tool School, I told myself I needed to build one.   Also, I had come to want a bench that was a bit wider than my original.

And so I began one Saturday morning.  The boards I’d gotten were all 6″ wide, 4/4 rough-cut stock.  All of the boards in my sawbench are about 6″ wide, edges planed flat.  I’m not opposed to using a thickness planer so I shoved the boards through it and followed up with a jointer plane to achieve flat surfaces.  I tried to go light on the pieces that became the bench top and those are still nearly an inch thick.  The others a bit less.  The only dimensions I can provide is that the bench top is 32″ long and the bench built to be 20″ high to match my shop bents.

Those were the only two measurements I made.  The legs are two 6″ boards joined together and the sideboards  cut to allow some overhang on the ends.  It took me a little over two hours to generate the rough parts.

It took another two hours of fiddling around, smoothing the surfaces, though not to furniture grade, chamfering the edges of the top pieces, cutting the rabbets in the legs for the sideboards, and finally screwing it together with 1 3/4″ wood screws.

It was fun doing a project without setting up a camera every 20 minutes.  I’m pretty happy with it.  Anyone want an old, used saw bench?

Test Driving A New Rip Saw On A Mountain Road

 

You know the feeling when you get a new tool but don’t have a reason to use it immediately?  If you’re like me that means you go to the scrapbox, find a willing piece of wood, and apply tool to wood… with no goal other than to play.  I did that with the two new handsaws I just completed but somehow, for saws, this sort of thing doesn’t satisfy in the same way as the scrap box play with a plane, spokeshave, or most other tools.

So, when I realized I was going to need a bunch of thin walnut panels I decided to use my new rip saw.  I didn’t build it for resawing and it may be a bit fine for such things, but…new tool…new task…sometimes a hammer gets used to drive screws.

Frankly, I was surprised at how well this 7 ppi saw worked to cut these panels, each is just shy of 2-feet long.  Took me a couple hours to create this pile.  Had much fun.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

Why I’m a Lee Valley Loyalist

I’m old fashioned.  I admit it.  And what my old-fashioned self has seen over the decades that I’ve been on the planet has been a change from stores that worked hard to provide customer service and a customer-friendly ambiance to stores who only look at how much cheaper it is to hire a kid who knows nothing of the products rather than someone knowledgable about the products being sold.  Somewhere along the line stores stopped worrying about satisfied customers.  I guess they figured they’d “make it up in volume,” as the saying goes.  And, of course, they all blame it on something other than themselves.  It’s the Internet.  It’s consumer price sensitivity.  It’s never “We’ve simply lost sight of the value of repeat business.”

There is irony in the fact that in our modern online shopping world, we’re hearing that consumer friendliness is making a come back.  The pundits tell us that online buying is very sensitive to how potential customers feel about the people and stores where they shop.  Odd, isn’t it, that it takes shopping through wires to cause that to be acknowledged.  Truth is, this has always been true and probably always will be.

Some companies take advantage of this fact.  I guess I first walked into a Lee Valley store sometime in the early 90s, back when Lee Valley’s Ottawa store was a smallish affair and their catalog was much smaller than it is today.  Even back then, though, Lee Valley’s emphasis was on quality and customer service.  Rob Lee seems endowed with “the customer is everything” gene that so many of his competitors lack.  Anyways, Lee Valley is now one of the largest sellers of woodworking supplies and high quality tools in the world.  Justifiably so.  And it’s important to note that they haven’t done it by making their products cheaper as many have done.  In point of fact, they done it by continually making their tools better, smiling, and saying “Yes, how may we help you today?”

And that’s why I’m a Lee Valley loyalist.  I have dealt with no finer company on the planet and here’s one example of the sort of thing that keeps me loyal to this company, quite beyond the quality of their products.

The Case of the Missing Contents

On May 10th I reached into my mailbox and withdrew a standard size envelope from Lee Valley.  I love getting mail from Lee Valley so excitement ensued.  Until I opened the envelope.  It was empty.  Odd, I thought.  Maybe it was a package of rabbets or dados that I’d ordered and forgot about.  Some pilot holes, perhaps?

Anyways, I went to the Lee Valley website, clicked on customer service, and asked them what they were sending me.  Heavens, you never want to use a rabbet when you need a pilot hole.  Better safe than sorry.   THIRTEEN MINUTES LATER I received a response from customer service.  They apologized for inconveniencing me (yeah…the guys at Bell Canada never said that when they’ve kept me on the phone for an hour over a problem) and explained that the attached PDF was what the envelope should have contained.  It was sent to me because I owned a Lee Valley router plane.

The PDF was about an upgrade part for the router plane.  They had taken advice from users of the product and changed the depth adjustment mechanism and they wanted to let me know that I could do this upgrade on my own router plane the next time I ordered by adding part number 05P38.11 to that order.  The document went on to explain that it would be sent for FREE.

And, as if I don’t have a Lee Valley wish list as long as your arm, they gave me reason to order something so I could get my FREE upgrade.  They’d also listened to we loyalists whine that we wanted some narrow blades for our router planes.  As a result, they were adding three new blades to the catalog – 1/8″, 3/32′, and 3/16″ and since I was such a great guy for accepting their FREE upgrade I could also buy these three new blades at a discounted price if I did it by June 6th.  I did it, just as quickly as I could punch the keys.

It is now TWO DAYS since I received my empty envelope.  This morning I received a very full one, only this one was padded.  The FREE upgrade is fantastic, though I never quibbled over how the old depth stop operated.  The blades a very welcome addition to my toolbox as I often need to work narrow rabbets and dados.

Thank you, Lee Valley, just for being you.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

 

Lee Valley’s New Bester/Imanishi Ceramic Sharpening Stones

Have you noticed that most hand tool woodworkers talk, spend and think more about sharpening their tools than they do about pretty much anything else?  Why not?  Let’s face it, the barriers most face when it comes to hand tools are the skills to use them and the ability to keep them sharp.

On can find all sorts of esoteric discussions about micro-bevels, back bevels, metal crystal structure and thest.  Today, all I want to do is separate sharpening from honing when deciding on a method as I think viewing them separately clarifies the decision-making process.  It might even result in some using two systems, one for each process, like I am doing.

Sharpening vs honing

Sharpening

Most debates pit sandpaper, water, oil and ceramic stones against one another and talk about the end result of each.  This is a fool’s errand.  All of these systems work and work well.  That is exactly why they exist and form the banter of so many less-filling/tastes-great debates in woodworking forums.

But let’s look at these from the perspective of sharpening only - the process of shaping and creating a basic edge on the tool. The shaping portion of this might be done on your grinder, of course, but it need not involve one.  Coarse versions of other methods can be used equally well so I’m going to skip the electron-burning step in this discussion.

Scary Sharp (sandpaper)

Using rough sandpaper one can shape and sharpen a tool.  The entry cost is very low.  It’s efficient.  I used to use this method but found I was fiddling with replacing sandpaper too often and it ended up not being so cheap in the long run, but it works.  This method is lubricated by spritzing the sandpaper with water.

Oil stones, Water stones, Ceramic stones

I lump these together when it comes to simple sharpening as any of these methods require a low-grit stone.  Even the problem of having to flatten the stones is mostly the same for these three in their low-grit varieties as the stones are so friable, though it is arguable that oil stones win that contest.

But oil stones do have the advantage of using oil that you apply when you need to use them.  Some find this to be their biggest disadvantage as well.  Water and ceramic stones in low-grit forms require submergence for some period of time before use.  This is not a problem for sharpening as you only shape/sharpen a tool infrequently.  Yes, you read this correctly.  Remember, I’ve separated honing from sharpening, though I realize that honing is simply refined sharpening.

In the end, these various methods are pretty much equal when it comes to getting a bit of camber on your plane iron or rolling up that first burr on a blade.  Scary Sharp and maybe oil have an advantage as you don’t have to submerge the stones but submerging your stones, either storing them submerged or submerging them 10-15 minutes before you sharpen which isn’t a big deal due to the infrequent nature of this activity.

Honing

Honing is a process that a hand tool person does ALL THE TIME!  Once you have a basic edge you will return again and again to fine grits to maintain the blade edge as you work.  Thus, convenience is a big deal, as is the result.  In the debates that rage, only results are debated back and forth and, frankly, for most who have been sharpening so we can do woodworking, these debates are little more than dust in the wind as differences, if they exist are insignificant in practice.  I’m sure I’ll get mail over that statement but I’ll make it anyway.  Maybe your wood is different from mine.

But let’s look at the convenience factor.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I have considerable experience honing with scary sharp and water stone methods.  I’ve never gotten my hands on a hard black arkansas stone so my honing experience with oil is minimal.  And I’ve only recently had the pleasure of using ceramic stones on my own tools.  So, let’s get started.

Scary Sharp: Very convenient due to the spritzing of its lubrication system.  The downside is the rapid turnover of the sandpapers, though the high-quality, plastic-backed honing papers are pretty nice if you don’t cut through them.

Oil stones: I have to make assumptions here but given the oil lubricant, applied in small quantities, I’d have to guess this method is convenient as well.  Oil stones also don’t have to be flattened as often as other stones, adding to the convenience factor.

Water stones: This is the method I’ve used for the last 5-6 years I’d guess.  It works well and produces sharp tools.  It’s a very popular method of honing.  And it’s a PAIN IN THE BUTT when it comes to honing for the simple reason that you have to soak the stones before you can use them.  If you don’t, a spritz of water on their surface wicks into the stone and disappears.  Still, it works.  It’s just not convenient for a process that one wants to do in a minute or so and then get back to work.

Ceramic stones: Honing convenience is where these stones shine in my opinion.  They are my motivation for this post.  High-grit ceramic stones require no soaking.  You can spritz them with water, hone, and be back to work in no time.  Little or no clean up necessary.  In my experience, convenience is the difference between continuing to work with a tool that is dulling and always working with sharp tools.  In short, it’s priceless.

So you’d think I would have bought some long ago.  I tried, I really did.  But getting Shapton stones seemed a task better suited to Indiana Jones than an old fart living in Quebec City.  And to think we used to talk about the limited supply of Japanese waterstones.  Anyways, until a few weeks ago, I had continued using my waterstones for honing.

No more.  I now have 4000 and 8000 grit ceramic stones from Lee Valley and I love them.  You gotta love anything that comes in spiffy boxes like these:

I’ve only used them half a dozen times but they are a dream come true.  I can now hone a chisel in less than a minute and not get wet.  Ya gotta love that.

Do You Need A Tail Vise?

Since the discussion about face vise location is dribbling over into this subject, I thought I’d formalize it with a couple short statements.  The start point is that I worked on my bench, with a tail vise for several years.  The more I used hand tools in my work, the less I used it.  I removed it.  I didn’t miss it.  And while I’m not a smart guy, I realized this was evidence that I didn’t need it.

I admit that it’s a wild assumption to think that if I don’t need something maybe you don’t either but I’ll leave that for you to evaluate.  In addition to personal experience I’ve looked around.  I suggest you do too.  You’ll find many photos and graphics of workbenches, used by cabinetmakers in the 18th and 19th Centuries, that don’t have tail vises.  There is a rich heritage of woodworkers using benches without tail vises.

Why talk about this at all?  Expense and complexity.  While one can make an argument that a tail vise gets in the way for some functions, the real reason to understand that they’re not necessary is that 1) realizing it means you don’t have to build/buy one and 2) learning to work without clamping everything down for every operation can improve and speed your work.

Replacing a tail vise

Let’s start by, again, quoting Chris Schwarz’s book on workbenchs.  “The Veritas Wonder Dog is a good substitute for an end vise.”   These are simply bench dogs with an adjustable top.  Used in conjunction with a solid dog, you can get the same clamping features of a wagon vise.  I don’t use these either but these sell for $38 if you want to clamp things to your bench and my point is that it doesn’t take much to replace the functionality of a tail vise.

Working without a tail vise

But there are virtues to getting away from clamping everything in place.  Mostly, people use tail vises to clamp a piece so they can work on the face of the board.  By using a vise you set the board in a single position, work on it, and if you need to change its position, you have to unlock and reorient the piece.

But if you’re planing a surface, you are much better off having planing stops that the board will push against as you plane.  The reason is that wood-grain is uncooperative.  By using dogs and planing stops the board isn’t clamped so it’s quick and easy to flip the board over, flip it end to end, and generally to reorient it any way that’s necessary to get the job done.

A similar paragraph could be written for when use of a chisel to work a board.  The end vise may seem necessary if you’ve come from a powertool world but it will just as often get in the way of a handtool user.  I urge you to look at how seasoned handtool workers work.  One example is Shannon Rogers, who runs the Handtool School. If you take his course you’ll see that his bench sports a beautiful Benchcraft tail vise and yet when he’s planing he’ll drop a dog in place and plane into it.  When he pares waste from blind dovetails he uses a bench dog to hold the piece.  He uses holdfasts regularly if he feels he needs to hold a piece in place.  And while he uses his face vise regularly in his lessons, he rarely uses the tail vise.  I’ve mentioned in the previous post that Bob Roziaeski of the Logan Cabinet Shoppe removed his tail vise from his old bench and never added one to his new one.

So are you saying you shouldn’t use a tail vise?

No, not really.  Vises are handy.  What I’m saying is that they’re not necessary and that they can often slow you down.  I see so many guys who are contemplating handtools and want to build a bench but what they see on the Internet is a lot of talk about vises.  What’s important about a bench is that it weigh a lot, have a thick top. It needs holes poked in the top for holdfasts and dogs.  What you need if you’re going to work with handtools are bench hooks, a couple holdfasts, and planing stops.  And to get those requires a lot less money than buying expensive vises.

Addendum:

Chris’s workbench book and his penchant to talk about workbenches at every opportunity have largely overshadowed an absolutely fabulous book on workbenches – Scott Landis’s The Workbench Book.  In it, a chapter begins with this photo of Ian Kirby working at his bench.  This chapter is invaluable as Ian talks about how much better, in his opinion, it is to work on a bench without vises.  In short, I may be speaking heresy, but I’m not alone (grin).

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

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