The Best Traditional Workbench

Now there is a controversial title to a blog post if I’ve ever used one………..

Well the answer is easy.

It’s the one you have!

Nuff said, and there ends also my shorted blog ever.

Well not really, especially if you don’t have a workbench yet and are torn between building that swanky Roubo, the immensely portable Moravian, the underrated Nicholson or anything in between. However, as much as I like to throw a cat amongst the proverbial pigeons, this blog post will most certainly not make any attempt to stake any claim as to which workbench is the best, although I have my own favourite, nor that there is a single style or version of a workbench that can do it all, at least not without some forethought or compromise.

But let’s for a moment get back to the easy answer, one I stole from the photography fraternity who always seem to be at one another’s throat about which is the better camera. The answer more often than not comes down to the best camera being the one you have with you when it matters. This answer may seem oversimplified but it rings true when a once in a life time event happens and the only camera you have with you also happens to be your cell, because you left that very fancy and expensive _____________ (place brand name here), in the car because you didn’t want to lug it all with you just then.

So if you have a stable bench that allows you to work all sides of a workpiece relatively easily you may not need to hanker for that new Roubo just yet even if your current bench is just a door attached to a saw horse. Now keep in mind that making this last statement might have been very hard for me personally, you see I have a thing for workbenches both in designing and building them. At the time of writing I have one Nicholson, two Moravians and one MFT based bench under my belt and will likely be building two Holtzapffels in the near future. Of my own design by the way and aimed at the beginning woodworker who might not have the skills to chop traditional joinery yet and if you happen to be in the market for a set of plans you can find what you are looking for here.

So let’s assume you don’t have a bench yet and may be looking at building your first, let’s also assume you are caught up in deciding which way to go.

Let’s start with the basics.

Stability:

The bench needs to be stable, this can often also mean that it needs to be heavy. If however a particular design builds stability into the bench without it needing to be particularly heavy, as is the case with a Moravian bench you could have a winner on you hands especially if mobility is a factor.

Work holding:

Secondly your bench needs to be a versatile work holding jig allowing you to work any workpiece on all faces, sides and ends. Of course the size of the workpiece you would be able to work on may be somewhat dictated by the size of your bench but larger may not always be better

Cost:

Thirdly it helps if the bench is relatively cheap to build.

Not only because it allows you to buy that hand plane you’ve been checking out on a certain website a bit sooner (come on I know you have), but if you are anything like me your bench will experience some level of abuse, I can’t afford to become precious about my bench as it’s the most used “tool” in my workshop. I’ll rather save those “I don’t want to hurt my expensive stuff” emotions for that low angle jack I recently acquired.

Also avoid equating weight and stability to the most expensive hardwood you can lay your hands on. Certain designs have plenty weight in them due to the sheer volume of wood needed, so much so that plain pine would be more than heavy enough.

Easy to Build:

Lastly it needs to be somewhat simple to build, that is if my assumption is correct that you may be at the beginning stage of learning the craft of woodworking and may not be especially proficient at traditional joinery techniques.

These considerations still leaves most, commonly recognised traditional bench types on the table as possible options for you to build.

So if you were hoping to read just the first part of this blog and walk away with an answer as to which bench may be the best for you, you may be disappointed.

Read on though as I will be looking at each “major” traditional workbench type and highlighting the considerations to keep in mind when choosing to build one over another.

I’m going to jump back to the top of the post and somewhat assume that you may be a woodworker just starting out on this amazing journey and have yet to learn a lot on traditional joinery, but that you are itching to get your hands on your own traditional workbench. I would like to encourage you to make every effort to build your own, irrespective of the style of bench you decide to make there is no right or wrong answer, just the right bench for YOU.

Let’s start in France.

Roubo

As a beginner you may want to avoid that fancy Roubo as a first bench. By fancy I mean the one with the hounds tooth dovetail on each corner and the hard to make dovetail/tenon leg joints. Before I get taken outside to be royally beaten by the lovers of the dear old Roubo I need to admit that the leg to top joint isn’t generally considered fancy but is readily accepted to be typically Roubo. It can even be argued that it may be the single distinguishing feature of what makes a Roubo a Roubo, however this style of bench can still be built using a simple hidden tenon between the leg and the top.

I may generally dissuade a beginner from taking up the challenge that a Roubo offers.

Ok, that takes the “fancy” Roubo off the table, at least as a first build, unless of course you are the kind of person who enjoys extreme challenges, then by all means go for it. Personally the thought of cutting those hounds tooth dovetails make my eyes water.

Nicholson

Next up, how do you feel about aprons?

No, not the one your other half makes you wear while cooking!

I mean the one you will typically find on an English or Nicholson style bench. Many out there make them out as being “in the way” for certain clamping jobs but being a user of an English bench myself I have never found this to be the case and if done right, the presence of aprons can make certain clamping jobs especially on long and wide boards much easier. And before those who are against aprons scoff at that statement, I would like to ask why sliding deadmen or bench slaves exist if the lack of an apron is the only way to go?

I would admit that an English workbench may not be the best candidate for a leg vice but when an apron is incorporated, and it is flush with the legs, there is little reason for this style of bench not be a good candidate for this style of vice.

I may be biased but I like having an apron on a bench.

The other argument against the English style bench is that the top is often planked, meaning that the top is from two or more planks lying face up and is often only about 50mm or 2 inches thick. Detractors of this style of bench top claim that it will vibrate when banged on as one would do when chopping mortises and therefore lose energy efficiency during the process. However the way the top is attached to the undercarriage by bearers along its length largely negates this perceived problem. By the way a planked top is exquisitely easy to attach to a base and can simply be nailed to the cross bearers. If the planked top is a turn off, a laminated side grain top can be easily incorporated into an English bench design and if the apron doesn’t bother you this one remains a viable option.

Shaker Style

Next up the Shaker style workbench.

One of the most recognisable features of this bench is the elaborate storage solution beneath the top. As an avid user of holdfasts this would immediately disqualify this bench for me. If you are planning on using any form of work holding solution that requires free space below the top either to accommodate a holdfast or needing access to fasten or loosen anything below the top this bench will likely frustrate you.

Personally the thought of making that many drawers puts me off completely!

If however you KNOW that you will not need to stick anything through the top to hold down work or if you have limited space in a workshop where the storage offered by the Shaker bench would be welcome, this one may be for you. By the way, anyone who says that they never stash anything under their bench is either a liar or have more space in their workshop than they know what to do with. I will freely admit that I often store stuff under my bench but it is never long term or interferes with my preferred methods of work holding i.e. holdfasts.

Moravian

Moving on to the Moravian.

This one is a bit of a wild card and having built two, one for myself and another for a customer I can quite confidently state that I like it a lot.

Before you decide to knock it because of all the bad things you might have heard concerning workbenches of knock down lineage, let me just say that this bench is different and truly cleverly designed. Because the legs angle inward it addresses one of the most common arguments to avoid knock down designs and that is racking, this is the potential movement of the undercarriage left and right or forward and back as a result of working on the bench. These forces occur especially when hand planing or sawing stock and can in time cause joints that are not permanently affixed to work loose.

These forces are real in spite of what any knockdown workbench salesman might tell you.

All the benches discussed thus far are designed and constructed with either braces, aprons, large joints or a combination of all of the above to counter any racking force that may occur when used.

As mentioned the Moravian has angled leg assemblies which makes it a different animal all together. The angle of the legs inward and the shoulders formed by the tusk tenons effectively work together to counter any racking that may occur along the length of the bench. Added to this, the angle of the key that holds the tusk tenon in place, helps it to remain inside the through mortise of the tenon and if it ever works loose a light tap with a hammer will quickly set it back to where it belongs. Tusk tenons do have a reputation of working loose in time but with the angled leg design this is much less an issue as compared to when the tusk tenon meets the leg at right angles.

Another argument against the Moravian lies in the fact that because it’s supposed to be broken down to be moved that it is too much of a lightweight to be a serious contender. To this, I must state that you may just be surprised. The first one I made was strictly according to spec with a pine base and a European Beech top of around 80mm thick. I could barely handle the top myself, making it a surprisingly heavy unit when assembled. Granted, I have done some heavy planing on it whilst standing on a smoothish floor and it did move, nothing a little drawer liner under each leg couldn’t fix.

There are ways you could add mass in sneaky ways without compromising the mobility factor of this bench. The second one I built for a customer was almost 500mm shorter than my first build because they were going to live on a boat. I wanted to add some mass to counter the fact that the bench would be smaller. I did this by making the components of the base either thicker or wider where I could, this also included making the top thicker. Some of the joinery became a pain to cut as the mortises became either deeper of wider but it worked a treat without affecting the mobility. Each section became marginally heavier by itself but significantly so when assembled. The fact that we replaced pine for beech on the undercarriage also helped add weight.

With two of the major arguments against the Moravian countered this one may just be the one for you especially if you need to be able to disassemble and move the bench. The joinery may be hard for some beginners but this one is worth the challenge. If you don’t like tool trays though you might want to move on to a different design as the infamous tool tray is part and parcel of this bench.

Holtzapffel

Last but most certainly not least is the Holtzapffel. This bench may not be considered main stream and sits somewhere between the Roubo and the Nicholson and may very well tick many boxes for a supremely versatile workbench.

Mass and stability, this bench has both. With a beefy top and substantial undercarriage it will not go walking around in your workshop under heavy use.

Ease of build, if you choose to build the bench in the traditional manner by cutting the mortise and tenons, either by hand or machine it will be a relatively straight forward build. However, this bench design especially lends itself to a lamination build technique that allows the joinery to be built into the components during construction, making it an ideal project for a beginner. I might have mentioned that I have plans on my website showing exactly how this can be done in an easy step by step manner, you can find them here.

Finally work holding, and frankly one of the coolest aspects of this particular design. This bench will handle almost any vice you could care to use, both on the tail as well as the face. This factor as well as considering that not all woodworkers have access to the latest and greatest in vice technology where they live or may not be able to afford what is on offer, makes this bench a great option and you can go as fancy or frugal in the vice department as you like.

Still checking out that hand plane?

I think that if I had to build another bench for my workshop, the Holtzapffel would be it.

Coming to the end of this blog, just some points I need to raise.

This is not an exhaustive list of workbenches out there nor was it my aim to present one. The first omission that comes to mind would be the Scandinavian style benches, many that feature very elaborate shoulder and tail vices that are notoriously hard to build, even for experienced woodworkers. Another area we didn’t cover is the myriad of more modern benches out there, many based on the styles covered in this blog and either suffer as a result of or take advantage of similar design elements found on more traditional bench styles.

Another area I may cover as a separate blog would be add on’s that can be incorporated into the basic designs of benches that could turn a specific design into that perfect bench for your style of woodworking.

Lastly we didn’t even touch on personal taste when deciding what bench to build!!

Ok, it seems as if more will be to come………