Cheers!

Readers Sharpening Bench

Sketch Up shows me how dovetails would have looked like in the Dedicated Sharpening Bench.

Sitting here sipping my morning coffee and wondering what the hell happened to Brodeur last night in a painfull to watch game against the US, I was reading through my morning news and stumbled on a new post at fine woodworking.com.

I don’t yet use Sketch-up to design my work but I do hope to find some time this year to get more comfortable with the program. With so many great plug-ins and tutorials available, I really have no excuses other than the time to do it. This new plug-in for drawing dovetails sounded like an interesting post and to my surprise when I clicked on the link, the article used my sharpening bench as the example! How cool is that?

So if you’re a Sketch-up user and would like to check out this new plug-in demonstrated or if you’re planning on building your own version of my sharpening bench design, then this may help with some insight to some of the joinery involved. The irony is that I was originally planning on using dovetails for the drawer construction but due to my time line I decided to simplify the construction at the last minute and use rabbets.  Now I can see how they would have looked and it makes me wonder if David has the entire bench available as a Sketch-up model?

I’ll have to ask…cheers!

The first detail element was the sliding tool holding tray. This is simply a piece of walnut scrap wood cut to size and rabbeted on both edges. It will slide along in the dados I cut out on the back splash and rear cross apron of the tool tray. Again with cutting rabbets I began with my skew rabbet plane to begin the cut, and once established I move over to my medium shoulder plane. A few final passes with a smoother across the surface and I’m ready to mark out the tool holding features.

While sharpening there are a handful of tools I always have withing arms reach and this is the place to store them. For my ‘essential trio of screwdrivers’ I bored out some holes to fit the screwdrivers and at the opposite side of the stock I carefully laid out and scribed for an ‘oil well’. When I finish my sharpening routine, the last step I take is to apply a coat of Jojoba oil to the tool iron and this oil well will make this a simple process. The oil well is a common bench accessory often seen in old wood working books and it was an element I’ve always wanted to incorporate into a bench design.

I remove the bulk of the waste with a forstner bit and some chisel work to complete the excavation. I then cut up some foam I had and it’ll get saturated with the oil. A simple luxury for the sharpening bench complete.

The next detail I addressed is a small stop or fence that my water stones will butt up to while in use to prevent any movement. I had a small piece of brass stock sitting in the bottom of my tool cabinet for the past five years and finally found a use for it. To begin I clamped a file into my shoulder vise and cleaned up the surfaces of the brass stock.

Then I measured and scribed the location in my bench top.

To remove the small area I began with a series of chisel cuts and follow with my small router plane to complete. The router plane makes it easy to obtain a uniform depth in the cut out.

At the front edge of the work surface, in line with the newly installed brass fence I drill a 3/4″ hole to install a Veritas ‘Wonder Pup’ clamp. These are extremely versatile work bench accessories and it’ll become a kind of miniature vise for my stones. I occasionally use some different size stones and wanted a system that would be able to adapt to the stone sizes. With the hole drilled I insert the clamp. (note: in the downloadable bench plan available this hole is shown in the front apron; I decided to move it onto this top surface location feeling that a 3/4″ hole down into the apron would weaken it)

While I had the back splash removed for cutting out the mortise for the brass fence I decided to saw a kerf into the top, outside for a place to store my small ruler. I use the ruler while honing a tiny back-bevel into my plane irons and this is a handy location to keep it. I scribe a deep, crisp line into the hardwood and follow with my Dozuki saw which cuts on the pull stroke. This allowed me to make this saw kerf without any damage to the rest of the piece.

The sliding tool holder, the brass fence and ‘Wonder pup’ installed and a saw kerf to place my ruler I call the top details done and consider the shelf on the bottom of the bench. After looking around my shop for a suitable off cut and coming up with nothing, I decide to make a pair of fitted stretchers that will come to hold my slow speed wet grinder.

I didn’t really have a list of items I wanted or needed under there so instead of the full shelf, for the time being these two stretchers will do the job.

I cut some shallow rabbets into the sides of these pieces to act as stoppers for the feet on the grinder. The small shoulders cut at each end create a nice tight fit and the two stretchers are pressure fit only.

The Drawers

I thought about making a couple of dovetailed drawers for this project but after reading an article written by fellow Canadian craftsman, Hendrik Varju in issue #208 of Fine Woodworking Magazine on a pinned rabbet drawer, I decide to simplify the process and cut down some time in the shop. Christmas is a little over a week away and I really wanted to get onto some other gift projects. With that in mind I selected and prepped the stock for the drawers. Oak for the fronts and poplar for the sides and back with Marine Grade plywood for the bottoms. (you’ll see why in a minute)

The drawer construction is fairly quick using my backsaw to rough out the rabbets.

I clean them up with a shoulder plane and scribe the drawer sides for the drawer bottoms as well as the outside groove that will hold the drawer runners. Using this rabbet construction also makes the drawer bottom grooves faster not having to worry about cutting stopped dados in the front and back pieces. With my small plough plane I cut the dados.

The drawer rails are of oak and my rip saw cuts through in a hurry.

In the next shot you can see the drawer pieces dry fit and the joinery for the components.

A generous amount of water resistant glue and I clamp up the assembly and let them sit overnight.

In the morning I scrap off any squeeze out and plane the outside of the drawers for a final fit. I also decided to take 5 minutes and scratch some quick beads into the top and bottoms of the drawer fronts. This is a workbench but a small detail like this elevates the design and will show future generations the pride that went into making this piece. Besides, I don’t think I’ve made a piece over this past year that hasn’t had a bead scratched into it somewhere- maybe a sort of signature? Find some small details you enjoy and try incorporating them into your own work. It personalizes the piece and tells people that its yours.

So the next step is one that may be a little foreign to some but having a back ground in boat building made this a familiar procedure in the process. The smaller right hand drawer gets completely sealed with fiberglass on the interior. Working with epoxy resins and fiberglass tape involves some safety matters and anyone doing this work should carefully read and understand the process involved. A respirator, rubber gloves and well ventilated area are wise. I assembled all of my tools for the process and mixed up a small batch of resin. Once mixed you don’t have a lot of time to work and I completely missed the opportunity to take photos of this step. My apologies.
The steps I took were as follows: Mix the first batch of resin and paint the entire inside surface of the drawer making sure to get good, thick coverage in the corners. I pre-cut to length some pieces of fiberglass tape and laid them out on some wax paper. A second batch of resin was mixed and the tape was saturated with the resin. Then all of the inside seams are carefully covered with the saturated tape and again a thick coat over top. Let it cook for awhile in a well ventilated area but making sure it stay warm to cure. The drawer is installed into the guides and filled about 3/4 of the way with water. This is now the location my four water stones will reside.

The second larger drawer on the left is also installed and becomes a place for additional storage. Items like my slip stones, flattening plate and files stay within reach of the work space.

With the two drawers finished and the top details complete I sit and wait patiently for the mailman to arrive…fast forward to this afternoon and my package shows up. My new Gramercy Tools 14″ saw vise from

www.toolsforworkingwood.com

is the final element to complete the bench. I’m sure most readers would have thought of this bench for sharpening only plane irons and chisels, but a true sharpening bench in a small workshop needs to serve dual duty and will become a complete sharpening station in my woodshop.

Gramercy Tools saw vise available from Tools for Working Wood

The vise is easily mounted on a thick piece of hardwood and for the sake of today I simply clamped it to the front left side of the bench. One last thing I did was bore out a hole in the back splash for my work light to slide into and I can finally call this project complete!

In the next few days I’ll pick-up some anchors and install them into pre-drilled holes in the bench creating permanent locations for machine screws to go. This will make the process of mounting the saw vise and firmly securing it a quick and painless task. (this is also another great reason to flush up a the legs on a workbench with the front apron-making additional work holding and clamping much easier)

This was a very rewarding project to build and a lot of fun details to come up with through the process. If you’re a power tool user then I’m sure a project like this would only take a few days and in my shop using only hand tools, I happily picked away at it over these last couple of weeks. Probably no more than 40 hours total went into the build and the budget was kept pretty tight.

I’m happy with the results and can say that my sharpening routine has indeed become much more pleasurable and efficient having this dedicated sharpening bench. Thanks for reading- cheers!

DOWNLOAD FREE PLAN

I begin with each side frame and will glue these up before adding the cross stretchers. I lay them out on the bench and start spreading the glue- lots of it! This is a workbench so I’m not too worried about any squeeze out. There are certain liberties you can take when building a piece destined for the workshop and not someones living room. When I have everything clamped I’ll check for square and measure my diagonals. As soon as the glue sets I’ll drill down through the joints to drive in some hardwood dowels. With a generous amount of glue I drive the dowels home. I leave the side frames to sit overnight and in the morning I’ll trim off the dowels.

I use my Japanese flush cut saw and follow with a low angle block plane.

This completes the side frames and I repeat this process with the two frames standing on my bench top and the cross stretchers in place. I place a clamp across each stretcher and let things ‘cook’ awhile. Once the glue sets I’ll follow the same procedure by drilling and pegging all of the joinery.

With the frame glued I clean off my bench top and turn my attention to the surface pieces. The main work surface area has bread board ends set into the side aprons but to add some extra support I’ll use some blind dowels where it attaches to the front apron. I use a self-centering jig and drill a few holes down the front edge of the surface piece.

Once drilled I can insert some dowel centers and dry fit the pieces one last time. When the surface pieces mate these dowel centers will leave tiny dimples in the oak showing me exactly where I’ll need to drill.

No measuring and no guess work, the dowel centers and centering jig are great work shops aids that make things run a little smoother in the wood shop. Again, these are some jigs that you may not have considered using in a hand tool only workshop.
I take the dry assembly apart and drill out the dowel locations. Again it’s time to start spreading some glue so I’ll go through the ritual of organising everything I’ll need for a stress free assembly. I should also mention that the bread board ends have three tenons in each- the middle tenon gets glued but the two outside ones are left dry. Once assembled all three will be pegged with hardwood dowels as well.
The two side aprons are first followed by the front and rear. Then the whole surface is clamped up tight to draw the dovetails together. Another night to set and in the morning I’ll see how I did. If you look closely at the following picture you’ll notice the placement of the clamps on each outside edge; they’re placed just inside the end of the dovetails so that when clamped tight, the extra meat on the dovetails won’t keep the assembly from coming together tightly.

Sunday sunrise I come down to the shop to find the bench top is looking pretty good. The clamps are removed and I’m happy with the results. I scrape of the squeeze out and with a block plane I’ll trim the dovetails flush with the apron surfaces. I don’t have a whole lot of material to remove so it goes pretty quickly.

From here I’ll take the top assembly and place it good side down on my workbench. I’ll spread some glue for the frame and attach it now. The front slip joints will also get a couple of dowels for added strength- one through the leg and into the oak top and another an inch down through the middle of the joint. Now I can assemble the under carriage. The granite plate is inserted into the cut out and I’ll add the cross stretchers. These are the ones I put the pocket holes in to keep the granite living where it’s supposed to be and not falling out onto my workshop floor.

Two of the four drawer hangers are added as well (at this point I still haven’t decided on my final drawer configuration) and I’ll turn it back over onto the floor to check how the granite plate is sitting.

A reliable straight edge shows me that the granite is sitting just proud of the oak surface. This is good!

I’ll use up a little off cut of 1/4″ walnut plywood from the scrape pile and rip it to size for the tool tray bottom. This is cross cut into two pieces for times when I want the extra depth in the tool tray- I can easily remove one side or the other.

I give everything a coat of boiled linseed oil and paste wax and call it done for today.

In the next post I’ll build the drawers and add the details….stay tuned.

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Once I have the lay out complete it’s time to start thinking about just how I’m going to make this cut-out! My first thought is to use my frame saw and after drilling a pilot hole through the oak, dis-assemble the saw and thread the blade through the opening as you would on a scroll saw. I proceeded to do this and made the first long rip cut down the front of the piece but hit a wall when faced with the cross cuts. The frame saw only has a 6″ throat so it wouldn’t work for the cross cutting. 1″ oak is a challenge at the best of times and the light blade of the frame saw was really pushing it. I decide to use my Japanese ryoba saw, this is the one without a back and has both a rip and cross cut tooth configuration. I use a brace and bit and bore a series of holes along the cut line to fit the ryoba and get things underway. In the next shot you can see the first rip cut at the rear and the holes drilled to allow the blade of the ryoba to pass through.

In a power tool shop this procedure wouldn’t be a big deal, maybe a jig saw would suffice or even a table saw with the piece placed over the blade and then carefully raising it up through the work. In my shop however, a little trial and error and I’ll have the cut out complete. The ryoba works its way through the oak. Some people have a hard time with pull saws binding and teeth breaking but if you don’t force the cut and let the saw do the sawing, even on this hard white oak it’s a relatively easy task.

It’s not pretty but it worked! I’ll clean up the inside edges next.

Again with a nice wide chisel I carefully work my way around the area taking small bites. I begin from the underside and chop down a little more than half way. I flip the piece over and finish the job from the top where its seen. I have a corner chisel and this is a perfect application for it. These are a kind of specialty item that you could indeed live without but they do come in handy from time to time.

I dry fit the granite and note any tight spots along the edges. I mark them and remove the slab to slowly and carefully pare away the ‘fat’ to achieve a perfect fit.

Now that I have the surface cut-out complete I turn my attention back down to the frame and dimension the final rear stretcher. This 2″ oak is placed at the rear top and the back of the work surface will sit on it when complete. So again with the mortise chisel I chop out the cavity.

The tenons in the oak are off set to allow for the dado I’ll plough out next. This groove will hold the under carriage cross pieces, both the granite insert supports as well as some drawer hangers.

My plough plane is the perfect tool for the job.

With the frame joinery finally complete, I’ll start to lay out the components for the granite supports. These are made from some hardwood offcuts I had, in this case some birch and walnut and I dimension them so that when installed the granite will sit slightly proud of the surface. When I say slightly proud, I mean no more than the thickness of a standard sheet of writing paper. The back of the supports will sit in the dado we just cut into the top, rear stretcher and the front will be screwed and joined into two recesses on the underside of the front apron.
I begin as usual by laying these out.

I approach this like I would with chopping a half blind dovetail, clearly scribing the edges and the depth of the cavity. The main difference between this and a dovetail is the dovetail is usually chopped into the end grain of a board while this is running along the grain. Care must be taken to insure I don’t chop too deep and split the piece. I begin my making some saw cuts to establish the outer edges and then with a chisel begin removing the waste.

In a power tool shop this procedure could be easily accomplished with a router and a jig so with that in mind I’ll get mine to complete the cut-out.

Gotcha! Did you really think my router would have a ‘plug’ attached? Taking shallow passes, I work my way down with the router plane until I reach my desired depth.

Then with a chisel I clean up the corners and dry fit the supports. I’m looking for a nice tight fit- how tight? With the apron clamped in my face vise I’m able to press the supports down into the openings and with out any support they’re able to sit proud without sagging or falling out.

I’ll re-assemble the bench top pieces and dry fit the granite supports.

When I’m happy with the fit and the depth of the components are well established, I’ll take my awl and mark for some screw holes. I need to make all of these pieces removable for times when I want to re-surface the bench top. This is also why the front cross member on the tool tray is also removable. My vintage hand drill with a modern counter sink bit enables me to drill and countersink in one pass.

From here I begin laying out and measuring for the drawer hangers. They will also sit in the rear apron dado and are cut for a snug fit. The two inner hangers will need to be shaped to fit around the profile of the granite. I approach this as I did when removing the waste on the underside of the feet. I make a series of saw cuts to establish the depth and then chisel out the waste.

In the next shot you can see the shaped drawer hanger in the fore ground and the side example in the rear. These will also recieve a dado for the drawers to hang in.

To add some added insurance that all of these pieces do what I’m hoping they’ll do (and that’s holding a heavy granite slab and two drawers tightly to the bottom of my workbench) I’ll add some pocket hole screws that will secure it up into the bench top. A pocket hole jig is a useful tool in the hand tool woodshop but is usually associated with power tools.

Here, with a special bit chucked into my brace I can easily drill the holes and am ready for a final dry fit. You may notice at this point I only had two of the four drawer hangers installed; truth be told I wanted to see if this system would work and when it did I went back and made the two for the left hand drawer.

I was planning on showing the frame glue up in this post but looking at its length I think I’ll save it for the next one-
cheers!

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Chopping a Mortise

First thing is to establish the perimeter and I do this with some crisp knife lines. In this first shot you can see where I’ve marked the overall size of the stretcher and then in the middle you can see my scribe lines…notice I marked off the center? This would have given me somewhere to register my auger bit but as mentioned, it didn’t quite work out that way.

To begin, I place my mortise chisel at the far end of the mortise area, about 3/16 ” away from the scribe line. I hammer down, taking small ‘bites’ as I go. I’m holding the chisel so the bevel side is facing my body and work my way down the mortise section. I’m careful to stay inside the lines and not to hammer the chisel in too deep…yet!

Once I get to the end of the mortise section I stop just shy of the scribe line, again somewhere in the 1/8″ range. I then go back and carefully pry out the small chips and get ready for a second, deeper pass. This time I’m a little harder on the hammer and begin working my way down through the hardwood.

I continue on with this routine until I get close to my finished depth, checking after each pass. Once the mortise is at it’s finished depth I’ll square up the ends. Place your body in front of the work so you can eye the chisel straight down, square into the opening. If you have trouble chopping square then place a square on your bench top, behind the work for reference. Another mortising trick you can try is marking the finished mortise depth on the back side of your chisel with a felt marker before you begin; that way you can make sure you’re not chopping down too deep.

This process is repeated fifteen more times and when complete I’ll begin to saw out the tenons. Refer back to my last post to see my set up for that.

When everything is looking good I go back and re-visit the foot components and shape them.
This being a workbench I could have easily left them square- not like anyone will be looking at them ~ but I’ve always liked the look of rounded feet on workbenches. I find it gives the bench a traditional look and there will be much less chance of me tripping on them while I stumble around the shop. My own workbench has square feet but I think that taking the extra 30 minutes or so to round them over adds a nice touch.

Shaping the Feet

To begin shaping the feet I draw out the arch and scribe the lines to determine the recess in the top of each foot. On my bench hook I’ll make the first cross cut to establish the small fillet down and then I’ll put the stock upright and rip down to remove the shoulder.

Next, I make an angled cut to remove most of the waste and with some rasps and files I fair out the curve.

As you know, my work shop is in my basement and the floor down there is far from flat! With that in mind I decide to remove the middle, underside of the feet to create four contact points where they meet the floor instead of the bench sitting on the entire length of the foot stock. This will make for a more stable bench.
To remove the material I make a series of cross cuts down to my desired depth which in this case is 1/4″.

Then I grab my biggest, meanest Japanese chisel and start chopping the waste out between the saw kerfs. I take my time doing this part so I don’t blow out any of the wood grain. Working from the inside of the foot I chop down a little over half way and then flip the board over and now working from the outside, show-side of each foot to complete the cut.

A quick going over with a sharp card scraper and it’s done. When I have the first foot shaped I’ll use it as a pattern and trace the rest of the feet off of it. This will insure they’re all the same without having to measure every time. A bit of sanding and they’re good to go!

With the feet shaped and the joinery cut I’ll do another dry fit and we’ll call it a day. I begin by laying out the left front and back legs and insert the cross stretcher and foot. I’ll mirror this assembly on my bench top with the right hand side as well.

Leaving the frames flat on the bench top I’ll insert the cross stretchers.

Finally, I’ll peg the right hand frame onto the end of the stretchers and stand the whole unit upright. I’m happy with the results and my joints are looking pretty descent. In this final shot you can see how the work surface will slide down into the front slip joints and sit on the rear stub tenons. When I glue up the frame I’ll drill and peg all of these joints for a bench that’ll probably be around a lot longer than I will…My mortising is done for today but I’ll add another cross stretcher at the top, rear of the frame that will serve dual pupose- it’ll have a dado running along it’s length to peg the drawer holders into as well as another pick-up point for the surface to sit on. This final cross stretcher will be made of oak because I want it to be at least 2″ wide and as you know, the Ipe came pre-dimensioned at 1 1/2″.

In the next post I’ll cut the giant hole in the work surface top for the granite insert (the horror-the horror!) as well as make the final stretcher and some last minute details before I glue up the frame assembly and build the under carriage that will hold the granite in place…stay tuned.

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Because it was ‘dimensioned’ at the mill (and I use that term very loosely) I have to re-dimension it all again before I can start laying out my joinery. They’re definition of square must be a little different than mine!
The Ipe is an extremely dense South American hardwood and is very unforgiving to hand tools- perfect irony isn’t it? Here I am making a new sharpening bench and the wood species I’m using is ripping the edges off of my plane irons so fast that I’m going back and forth to my old sharpening area being reminded with each pass how much I’m looking forward to having this new one! Some strange motivation I suppose?
With that I begin planing and dimensioning, sharpening and planing some more. The reverse grain is very unusual in this species, its tones and weight are similar to teak but the dust coming off of it is ‘Kermit the frog green’…If you’re ever using Ipe with power tools make sure you wear a mask! I’m finding the small amount of dust coming off while hand planing a little irritating to my nose and throat. When I have all of the frame components cross cut to length (including joinery) and all surfaced, I can begin my layout.

Whenever possible I like to lay out my joinery in groupings ie: the legs get clamped together and the mortises for the cross stretchers are laid out together. This will help keep things consistent and insure continuity between the pieces. I use a pencil to mark off the thickness of each component and then a deep scribe line with my knife for the joinery.

Mortise and Tenons

All of the joinery for the bench frame is mortise and tenon except the front legs into the top apron by way of the slip joint.(refer back to part 3) The Ipe is close to 1 1/2″ square so I’ll follow the rule of thirds and lay out 1/2″ mortises. I begin at the top of the back legs where they meet the bench top. I saw a tenon into the rear leg tops and chop out the mating mortises. Over in my shoulder vise I get out my favourite back saw and make some dust. You may notice in the pictures my set up for sawing the tenons- I hold them in the tail vise and have my bench hook next to it on my bench top. This is an efficient set up when you have a lot of tenons to cut. I start by ripping down the two cheeks and then turn the workpiece and rip the other two shoulder cuts. Then it’s a simple matter of unclamping and sawing at the bench hook without ever having to take a step. I’ll get both tenons cut and then back into the tail vise to pare down to the scribe lines.

I’ve heard some woodworkers say you should saw ‘right to your scribe lines’ and I suppose in a perfect world this is true. I unfortunately live a few blocks East of a perfect world so I try to leave a bit of material to pare away to. This is especially true on the cross cuts where I want a crisp shoulder line.

With the tenons cut I’ll forget that measuring tapes were ever invented and use the actual work piece to lay out my mortises. Again, I begin with a pencil and mark out my perimeter and follow with a knife line to determine the actual mortise size.

I begin with a brace and bit and bore out the bulk of the material. These are relatively shallow, stub tenons so I trust my eye and bore down into the oak. For deeper tenons I’ll wrap a piece of tape around the bit to show me the finished depth and for really special work pieces I’ll actually make up a wooden ‘collar’ that slips over the bit creating a built in depth stop. But as mentioned, today I’m using my eyes.

From there I’ll use my mortising chisel to chop off the little ‘wings’ left between auger bit holes and square up the ends. I’ll clean out the bottom and get ready for a dry fit. The brace and bit method of cutting mortises is a fast and accurate method but I should also mention when you first lay out the mortise it’s a good idea to scribe in a center line. This will give a point of reference for the bit to find center when drilling. The first dry fit shows me that I need to remove a little meat off of the tenon. This is another one of those wood working myths- tenons don’t have to look pretty! I know we see them in our favourite woodworking magazines, all crispy and shining like a new dime but really-?
They do need to be straight and they really should be square but besides that they can be as rough as you make ‘em. Keeping that in mind I use a rasp to trim the tenons.

It’s fast and easy and all of those ’scratch marks’ left behind will actually make for a better glue joint. Another dry fit and it’s on to the next one.

The bench now has four legs standing proudly, although still inverted on my bench top- I decide to address the bottoms of the legs and the feet. It’s a natural progression, but I don’t give the sequence too much thought. I suppose you could cut all of the legs first and then move onto all of the stretchers… I enjoy watching a work piece come together and at the end of my work day I like to see what I’ve accomplished. So I started with the legs and then onto the feet; at least I’ll be able to stand the bench upright and get a sense of where things are going for tomorrow!

The process of cutting the mortise and tenons throughout the frame is pretty much the same system as described above. Pencil to scribe lines and then bore out the waste and…..what’s that? The wood? Too hard?
Oh yeah, I almost forgot- the crazy-dense exotic wood from South America proved to be a little too hard for my auger bit so I wasn’t able to remove the waste like I did in the Oak. Imagine, the quarter sawn white oak in the bench top is actually the ‘friendlier’ softer wood! That’s saying a lot.
So instead of removing the waste with my brace and bit I resort to the crashing and bashing of the mortise chisel. It actually went pretty quickly. As hard as this wood is, it works pretty well and while chopping across the grain for the mortises, I exploited the brittle under tones of the Ipe. The tenons were done as described and before I knew it the legs and the feet are complete…at least for tonight. Next time I’ll shape the feet and finish the frame. Stay tuned.

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Deep scribe lines will help eliminate cross grain tearing and when I clamp the piece into my shoulder vise I’ll again add my thicknessed backer board to help with the spelching. I begin the rabbet with a special purpose rabbet plane but once established I change over to my medium shoulder plane. I find I get a better inside edge with the shoulder plane. I think this may have something to do with the nicker on the rabbet; it’s necessary when getting the rabbet established but I find the small nicker helps the plane to slowly work its way out from the edge. With the shoulder plane this is eliminated and I can create a much cleaner rabbet.

I should mention that the rabbet plane I was using has a small set screw so I could have stopped and retracted the nicker after the first few passes, but having the shoulder plane ready was a little faster.

With the rabbet cut I’ll check for square and flip the board over to cut the bottom edge. This same process is repeated on the opposite end of the surface establishing the thickness of the bread boards. From here I get my apron stock prepared and cut to length making sure I’ve included all of my joinery. I measure and plough out the dado in the end pieces. Once the grooves are complete I change gears to lay out and cut my dovetails for the apron. These dovetails are laid out as you would for any through dovetail except we’re dealing with a larger scale. I scribe the thickness of the aprons to their mating pieces, lay out my dovetails and start sawing. The oak, at 1 1/4″ thick is just about the maximum my small dovetail saw can handle but I get them done and can now lay out the mortises for the bread boards.

I’ve only cut my dovetails into one end of the apron- I’ll wait until I finish and fit the main work surface into the side aprons before I commit to the placement of the opposite front apron.

Bread Board Ends

At this point I can dry fit my dovetails and check my dado is lining up between the pieces. I measure and divide the long tenon I still have rabbeted into the ends into three tenons. The entire length of the side will have a small shoulder plus these three tenons. I mark out the cuts and the mortise position inside the dado. For 90% of the mortises I cut I follow this procedure. Once properly laid out I begin with a brace and bit and remove the bulk of the waste.

I then follow with a mortise chisel and clean up the ends as well as determining the final depth. With the mortises chopped, the tenons cut I’ll try a dry fit. Now I can establish the opposite end of the front apron and I lay out and cut the through dovetails.

The back apron is laid out and the dovetails are also cut at this point.

I follow with my plough plane and plane out another dado into the top of the rear apron. This groove will become a channel for a work holding tray later in the build.
From here I cross cut, plane and glue up some pieces to create the back splash which also serves dual duty as the front panel on the tool tray.

This also gets a matching groove opposite the rear apron we just finished. I’ll bevel the inside of these grooves to make the sliding tool holder a little easier to move.

I have my work surface and apron joinery complete; in the reading and research on work benches I’ve done I decide to incorporate a through bridal joint for the front legs where they meet the apron. This will create a very strong frame as well as making the front legs of the workbench flush with the front apron- a real benefit when I add some other work holding features to the piece. This being a small work space I try to make the most of my workshop projects and have them serve dual duty.
I lay out and rip down the deep leg joinery; this is sawn down and then the bulk of the waste is removed with a fret saw and cleaned up with a chisel. The corresponding tongue of the slip joint is cut into the front apron.

With a good dry fit I’ll measure and mark the small shoulder that needs to be cut into the back of each leg. Since the leg stock is 1 1/2″ thick and my apron stock is only 1 1/4″ thick, I have 1/4″ of material that needs to be removed so the work surface can sit up tight to the apron. I could cut out a small section of the work surface, leaving the full depth of the legs but I decide to remove the material off of the legs creating a small shoulder the surface will rest on. I can do another dry fit with the front legs attached and really get a sense of the bench dimensions. I begin with the two apron ends and then dry fit the front into the dovetails. I insert the rear apron and flip the piece over on my bench top. Now I can slide in the front legs and see how I’m doing…so far so good! Here are some shots of the dry fit assembly thus far~

Top surface with side and front apron attached.

Rear apron dovetails

Tool tray framed with rabbets

That completes the top joinery and front legs for now; I’ll get my stock ready for the rest of the frame and start the mortise and tenons next time…
cheers!

Additional content-
Had a comment on how I cut the half lap in the legs- here are a few additional shots. The half lap or bridal joint is laid out and the legs are ripped down in my shoulder vise. I then remove most of the waste with a fret saw and clean up the bottom with a chisel. The small rear shoulder that will sit under the table top is cut on my bench hook- hope that explains it more clearly…thanks for the comments.

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The top work surface is where I begin and the two panels of 1″ thick, quarter-sawn white Oak are cross cut to length leaving about 1/4″ extra for love. The oak used is offcuts from a past project and has been in my shop for over 7 months now, so I know it’s extremely stable and will make a great work surface and apron. When I originally purchased the wood it was dimensioned before it left the mill so I can surface it all pretty quickly. From jointing plane to smoother I’ll get the top glued up before I even begin thinking about the apron.
This being a work shop project I’m really trying to keep the budget at a minimum so the bench top and apron are made from off cuts as mentioned with the lower frame made from Ipe. It’s an extremely dense exotic I noticed at my local hardware store. They sell it these days as a high-end decking material. This particular stock was already finished at 1 1/2″ square and came in 12′ lengths. At $15.00 a length I couldn’t go wrong. It does come with its edges all beveled but this being a work bench I can live with it. I’d prefer to have square stock to begin but I can deal with the ‘off the shelf’ lumber for the sake of the budget. Now 1 1/2″ stock may sound a little undersized for a workbench frame but keep in mind the scale of the piece and the fact that this Ipe is like iron!

Jointing the Edge

With the oak cross cut to length I’ll go ahead and joint it. To begin, I clearly mark the planks for grain direction and lay them on my bench top, reference faces up. I decide what two edges I’ll be jointing together. I mark the orientation of them with a builders triangle on the face surface and ‘fold’ them back together keeping the inside edges up. This book matched pair will be clamped together in my face vise and jointed simultaneously. I use a bevel-up jointing plane with a nice wide iron at 2 1/4″ and work the edges together. I’ll take a series of through shavings checking for square as I go. I finish off the process with a couple of stop shavings to insure no bumps along the edges. Again I check my work with a reliable straight edge and finally, a light pass again planing through, end to end. The nice thing about edge jointing two boards together like this is if you’re edges are slightly out of square it really doesn’t matter; because of the book matching we did when we clamped them, once unfolded any inconsistencies will cancel each other out. That said, while you’re planing, try your best to keep things square! (maybe this is one of those rare occasions you can get in some practice time while actually working on a project and not just something from the scrap wood pile?)

The Glue Dance

With the edges jointed I’ll glue up the panels and set them aside for the night. Here’s my method for gluing two panels together.
To begin, I set my clamp opening to an 1″ wider than the actual piece and lay them down across my bench top. These pieces are just under 3′ long so I’ll be using 5 clamps, three will go on the bottom and two more across the top.Lay the two planks across the three bottom clamps and a quick dry run will show how things should hopefully go. These two are sitting really nicely together and the joint almost closes itself! It’s a good day when that happens…
Because of the stopped shavings I took earlier, when gentle pressure is applied using only the middle clamp, I’m confident the outside edges of the joint will be tight.
So a generous amount of glue is spread and I begin again at the middle clamp bringing the pieces together. I use down ward thumb pressure across the joint to keep the seam flat and won’t over tighten this first clamp yet- I’ll come back to it in a minute. With the middle of the stock held firmly together, I’ll use a couple of ‘F’ style clamps placed on the outside edges and draw the seam down flush along its length. Then working out from the center again I start tightening things up. I stagger the pressure as I go, from left to right and then left outside and finally the right outside clamp. With the five clamps secure I’ll move back across and re tighten them all down to finish. Take a step back and have a look- double check your grain is running in the proper direction and your building triangle is mated happily back together. This will be your last chance to change anything!
Go make a coffee and check your email, come back in an hour and begin cleaning up the glue. I’ll work between the clamps and remove any squeeze out after it has started to cure but before it’s too hard to easily scrap away. This is also when I’ll usually remove the two outside ‘F’ clamps; if I leave them on overnight I’ll have some deep bruises to deal with tomorrow.

“Top of the morning to ya!” The glue set up overnight so I remove the clamps and get ready to work. A card scraper down the seam removes any final bits of glue- I’m careful not to tear away any wood with it. I’m happy with the results- this oak is stable and sits well on my bench top-another good sign! I’ll double check with my winding sticks and a metal straight edge taking note of any high spots or twist across the surface.

A few light passes with the jointer followed with a smoothing plane and I’ll double check one edge for square. I now have a reference face and edge and can continue on with dimensioning the panel. I’ll use my panel gauge and scribe the finished width around the perimeter; because this was pre-dimensioned wood and I took my time with the glue-up, I’m happy to say the piece is almost square with just a few light passes along one end. With that, I now have a panel with two long edges, completely parallel and square with one finished face.

I’ll check the thickness throughout the panel to see if it needs any dressing and working from the bottom, I’ll plane the stock to final thickness. Not much to remove so this process is pretty straight forward. Four sided stock with two ends that still need to be addressed- that’s where I’ll go from here.

Planing End Grain

I get asked alot how I deal with the long end grain on panels. I think some woodworkers are intimidated when it comes to this area so I’ll show you the steps I use.
So first things first I’ll scribe a deep, crisp line around the perimeter with a knife working off a reliable framing square. The amount of wood I’m removing is very minimal, no more than 1/8″. Again, the time I took to carefully glue up the panel makes these later steps so much easier.

With my line scribed I’ll place the panel vertically in my face vise and block up the bottom off of the shop floor. From there I’ll clamp the left side of the panel in the vise and hold the right side with a surface clamp installed in one of the 3/4″ holes I have across my work bench apron. My bench didn’t come like this but it’s a feature I could never live without. Before I fully tighten the vise and clamp I like to place a small level across the top of the piece.

Also, because we’re dealing with end grain and I don’t want to blow out the face grain on the far edge of the panel,(spelching) I’ll clamp a piece of scrap wood, thicknessed the same as the work piece and tighten everything down to get started.

I’m using my bevel-up jointer again, set to take a fine shaving and carefully work my way down. I’m taking light passes, always watching for those first shiny edges starting to appear. It’s hard to put into words but you’ll know it when you get there. Being careful not to over-shoot, I work my way down so I can see my scribe line still wrapping the entire perimeter. With that tiny strip left glistening, I know the edge is square. (but I’ll still double check it!) Now I can safetly measure up off of this edge and follow the same procedure for the sixth and final side.

So there you have it- a work bench surface, square on all six sides. It may seem like a lot of steps but the above process probably didn’t take much longer than it just took me to write this post. I’m ready to begin the bread board ends and assemble my pieces for the apron. That will be next time.
Cheers!

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After reading and experimenting with, practicing and then studying the different techniques of sharpening I’ve come to settle on a system that is working for me in my current shop space and that’s good! A freshly sharpened hand tool can turn the most challenging joinery tasks into wonderful and relaxed procedures. Your work will be cleaner with tighter fitting joinery and your tools will perform as they were intended to the day they were made. The joys of working wood will be that much the greater.
In my own basement work space here in Toronto, I’ve followed the line and I’m happy with my results; but something I’m not happy with and have been promising myself for months to address is my sharpening location and current set-up.
One day last year, I noticed a neighbour throwing out a small wooden table. I snatched it up, rescuing it from the eternal wasteland of the land fill site and have been using it as my sharpening table ever since. Prior to the table I was using a sharpening hook system I designed awhile ago. It was basically an over-sized bench hook with some cleats to hold water stones and a side area for stone storage. The sharpening hook worked when my bench top wasn’t cluttered, (which if you know me you know that it hasn’t happened much this past year!) so the routine of moving my work project or tools to make room for the sharpening hook soon became tiresome. The small ‘throw away’ tables footprint has also become reminiscent of a drunken sailor on shore leave so I’ve finally decided, with a little help from Fine Woodworking.com, to build a new bench dedicated to sharpening.
A small scale workbench with large scale workbench strength. The frame has mortise and tenon joinery with a solid 1″ thick work surface that has bread board ends fitted into a heavy, through dovetailed apron.
It has a tool tray featuring a unique and convenient way of actually ‘holding tools’ ! (not just for the hamsters anymore) and I’ve added some ‘off the shelf’ items that will also add to the -dare I say- pleasure of sharpening?

Do you currently have a dedicated sharpening area? Is it a re-used piece of furniture or maybe a purpose made table or bench? I’d love to hear about it- be part of the discussion and share some thoughts.

In the next post I’ll assemble my cut list and get right into the project with some stock preparation and I’ll glue-up the top panels…stay tuned.