Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use: From Design and Theory to Construction and Use (Popular Woodworking) [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

As an avid reader of Christopher Schwarz's various articles and columns in woodworking magazines, I've been awaiting the publication of this book with anticipation. Now that I've read it I have to say that it's better than I expected, and my expectations were very high.

I've read a number of books and articles on workbenches (notably the ones by Lon Schleining and Scott Landis, which are valuable for what they are: surveys of various styles of workbenches, with info on how to build a few of them). This book is different. Not just a little different. Radically different.

Schwarz is not just a good writer. He is an extremely good writer, vastly better than the majority of writers about woodworking; better than most writers, period. He is not merely capable of explaining things clearly, or of organizing his text coherently. His writing is actually enjoyable to read. He has the ability to combine highly technical information with a kind of narrative structure, within which personal experience, historical research and theoretical conceptualization come together almost seamlessly. One could describe the book as almost an essay in the classical, Montaignesque sense: a personal, spiraling account of a particular subject, whose compelling structure takes the reader along on a wide-ranging voyage of discovery, and makes the reader a companion of the author as he works out his own thinking. However, this should not be understood as saying that the book is in any way vague, for it isn't. I mean to underline its powerfully engaging quality. I believe somebody who wasn't a woodworker, who had no plans whatsoever to construct a workbench, would enjoy reading it.

Schwarz is also a gifted scholar and theoretician, a trait not typical of woodworkers, of writers about woodworking. The evidence of his thorough research and profound thought on his subject abounds in the book. His conceptualization of the workbench as a tool for holding lumber so that its 3 different surfaces (edges, faces, and ends) can be worked is a recognition that you won't find anywhere else, and one that animates the entire book. It may sound simple, even obvious, but so does the second law of thermodynamics.

The book provides designs and construction overviews of 2 very different benches, which may seem a paltry number of options. It is not. Schwarz has distilled years of research and bench-building into these 2 designs, and offers plenty of options along the way as to how one might alter them to suit one's own purposes. The illustrations are abundant, clear and useful. Numerous sidebars provide detailed and helpful insight into a variety of sub- or side-topics (eg. Find a source for yellow pine; Pattern-maker's vises: friend or foe?; The Stanley No. 203 - better than a peg). The index is extensive.

Anybody familiar with Schwarz from his hand-tool courses and DVDs knows that he is a formidable woodworker and teacher. Those qualities resound through this book, as does his engaging ability to be personal, as does his earnestness, as does his good humor. I've always learned easily from him, and this book continues that trend.

The first bench I ever built was from an article of Schwarz's called "The $175 Workbench," published in Popular Woodworking in 2000. I still have it, and use it every day. I will be building another one soon, using an adaptation of one of the designs outlined in this book; this book which will accompany me along the way, like a friend. Perhaps this sounds a bit loopy, but read the book and tell me you don't share the feeling.

Workbenches: From Design and Theory to Construction and Use is an accurately titled, insightful book about craftsmanship in a woodworking shop, written by a prolific young author who happens also to be editor of Popular Woodworking magazine. Workbench design is the backdrop Schwarz chooses this time to set the stage for an energetic discussion about woodcraft, his favorite topic. The author has researched, built and used many styles and variations of the woodworker's workbench, and he shares incisive observations about what works, what doesn't, and why.

Building a really good woodworker's workbench is far too much labor to undertake without first reading a couple of good books on the topic, and this book should be first among them. Schwarz raises several issues that I thought, incorrectly, I had already fully considered based on the oodles of time I had invested in thinking about, researching and drawing bench designs. Before I read this book, I had already resolved to build a certain general style of workbench. Although reading the book didn't alter my basic conception, it did lead to several important design changes.

Some examples: Before I read the book, I hadn't considered the benefit of aligning the front of the benchtop with the front side of the front legs. I altered my design a bit to make sure the ends of the vise handles at rest would be slightly below the plane of the benchtop so as not to interfere with handplanes, knuckles and flat workpieces that extend beyond the benchtop. I decided to do more extensive testing of different bench heights, as Schwarz cautions that a couple of inches too high or too low can make a world of difference to a woodworker's lower back and thus to his or her enjoyment of the craft. The author advises to think carefully about the spacing between screws when installing a twin-screw vise, and thus I added another 4" between them. My benchtop grew from 1.75" to a full 3" thick. After much agonizing, I decided to accept the author's counsel and dispense with a tool tray. (In the end analysis, I realized I had craved a tool tray more for its cool traditional look than for its utility.) I reduced the width of the top from 30" to 24". I downsized the height of the cabinets I am building beneath the top, to allow more space for clamps and other workholding devices that protrude from the bottom of the benchtop. The bench is not yet complete, but I'm now confident that when it's finished I will be happy using it for a lifetime.

The workbench is a simple tool, but designing one requires careful planning for a plethora of variables. Others the book considers include: Species of wood, preparation and acclimatization of stock, types of shoulder vises and tail vises, placement of vises and design of bench jaws, bench mobility and stability, joinery of the top, joinery of the base, joinery of top to base, flatness and squareness and wood movement, workholding requirements, wooden benchdogs or metal, round dogholes or square, doghole placement, cabinets or shelves or none, finishing, height and handedness and craft preferences of the user. The failure to consider each of these design issues before you build your bench is an invitation to some pesky little nag to come sit on your shoulder and complain about this flaw or that in the way your bench functions, just when you should be enjoying your work.

The author offers useful pros-and-cons explanations of the alternatives for each design consideration. The author's thoughts are usually supported by his own experience or his evidently careful thought about what matters and why. Schwarz is alternately an iconoclast who lays bare the shortcomings of some of the most historically popular bench designs, and a traditionalist who in the end admonishes the reader to choose wisely but "Invent Nothing!"

This is a good read for the lover of woodcraft, by the way, even if you don't intend to design and build your own bench. Schwarz's self-description as "an amateur woodworker and a professional journalist" tells a great deal about his approach and why it has been so successful. Schwarz does not want to assume the position of expert woodworker, though his accumulation of experience certainly qualifies him as an expert in several aspects of woodworking. He prefers to take the perspective of the independent observer, the scientist who gathers evidence by interviewing others and testing hypotheses and reporting conclusions.

I enjoy the author's crisp writing style and his refreshing nonprescriptive attitude. He reports the facts as objectively as he is able, and he doesn't insist on the tired presumption of authority claimed by more dogmatic woodcraft authors: "I will show you the one true and correct way, as taught by my elders. All others are inferior and we needn't consider them." Instead he says, "This is a way that has worked particularly well for me because..." and "Some joiners get along just fine with this other approach but I find it awkward because..." He doesn't sniff at the idea of lying an old door across two sawhorses and calling it a workbench; he deals with it objectively and evaluates it on its merits.

Unlike so many woodworking volumes that are marketed as books but appear as a bound collection of separately written, heavily edited and loosely related essays, this is one of the increasingly scarce variety that lays a legitimate claim to bookhood. The author's voice is evident throughout as he tells a cohesive story that can be read continuously from page to page, chapter to chapter, beginning to end.

I also enjoy the author's obvious enthusiasm for doing and publishing original research. Whether his evidence consists of 19th century photos of cabinetmakers in their workshops, explanations of early tools and techniques from old texts, interviews of expert toolmakers, or empirical research from his own workshop, Schwarz's homework lends authenticity and authority to his opinions.

Why only four stars? Two reasons: (1) 4.5 stars was not an option, and (2) I had expected to find more detailed information about designing and installing a traditional European tail vise. No such luck, but maybe that's my fault rather than the book's.

What this book is NOT: This book does not claim to be an encyclopedic catalog of every workbench style ever employed through the ages. Nor is it a collection of glossy, color photographs of the most lusciously exotic and elaborate workbenches ever made. (If you are interested, that would be the Lon Schleining book.) In fact, the photos in the Schwarz book are all black-and-white, and they exist primarily to illustrate the author's ideas about workbench functions, not to trigger a Pavlovian lust reaction.

This book emphasizes workbench design for woodworkers who use hand tools -- with or without power tools -- in their craft. If you have no interest at all in using chisels and planes and hand saws and the like, you may find a different sort of workbench more practical and a different woodworking book more relevant. (You might try Nick Engler's book on workshop workstations if you want some good design ideas for the garage workshop stocked mainly with power tools. Woodworking magazines are another good source.)

This book is a thoughtful, thorough and very readable discussion of the essential design considerations for building a woodworking workbench. In this category, I know of no equal to this volume.

If you have the time and appetite for more reading on this subject, you may like the workbench design books by Scott Landis and Sam Allen. I recommend both, in that order. Forgive me for omitting book titles. I believe all the books I've mentioned in this review have the word "workbench[es]" in their titles and any of them will be easy to find by searching that word in conjunction with the author's name.

You may wish to consider the edition of this book that is sold with a CD that contains three-dimensional models of the benches featured in the book and additional photographs of benches in various stages of construction. If Amazon doesn't carry it, you can Google Popular Woodworking, the author's name, or "Lost Art Press" to locate a copy. The CD is by no means an essential part of this book, however, and not having it will not detract from the book's readability.

Addendum: You may enjoy reviewing at least these two additional excellent sources of information on bench design, both freely available on the internet. The first is the site www.workbenchdesign.net, which will in turn lead you to innumerable interesting bench design links. Surfing this site and its links is a good way to brainstorm the design possibilities in a very broad, creative, free-flowing way. I suspect most readers of the Schwarz book will already have done this.

The second resource is a 60-page .pdf file documenting the construction of a traditional European bench. The computer-generated drawings and color photographs are exceptional. Rather than cite a particular web page that may become stale, I'd suggest you search "Keith Rucker workbench" on your browser and find a copy of his file for download. The Rucker document is of a more technical character and less design-oriented than the Schwarz book. I mention this resource mainly because the Rucker document provides specific information on a particular bench design that supplements the Schwarz text.

This book is a must for anyone considering building, purchasing or modifying a woodworking bench. Even if you are not looking to change a bench, the information on holding work is invaluable. It is unique look at workbench design from the standpoint of the myriad of woodworking functions that can be performed on a bench. Christopher Schwarz' approach provides a wealth of information that helps the reader decide the features of a bench adapted to their own work. It is also a good read. The author's self deprecating humor is woven throughout as he compares and contrasts various features of bench design. This is a five star addition to any woodworker's library.