Bench Furniture

Whether your workbench has a working surface the size of a sheet of plywood or one that more nearly resembles the school desk you had in third grade, you will probably need one or perhaps several of the array of devices that have been specially adapted for bench work.

These tools are often referred to as "bench furniture." None of them actually performs an operation like cutting or planing or shaping or fastening. But each is used to grip workpieces firmly in place so that they can be manipulated in the production process.

At the top of the list are the vises. They are built-in clamping tools that can make a great many jobs easier. Having both hands free to hold the plane, router, or other tool can make for a marked increase in precision and safety. You may be familiar with the several kinds of vises, or perhaps you think that they're all the same. They are not, any more than all handsaws are the same.

Holdfasts, bench dogs, and shooting boards are next. These perform what you might call supporting roles, in many cases, to the vises. There are time proven varieties and newer designs and innovations, some of wrought iron, others of wood, and still others a combination of both. Whatever their age and raw material, these tools are invaluable, especially to woodworkers, once again enhancing the care and accuracy with which tools can be applied to the workpiece.

The bench hook and its near relation, the shooting board, make me wonder at the cleverness of their inventors: they're so simple, so practical, yet so useful.

Holdfast Clamps. Some people call them holddowns. Whatever the name used, the purpose of these pieces of bench furniture is the same: to hold material fast and flat to the workbench while it is being worked.

Hold-down devices come in a variety of configurations. The classic iron holdfast is shaped like an inverted L. The leg of the L is set into a hole in the workbench top or through a hole in one of the sturdy timber legs of an antique bench; the base of the L-shaped holdfast, which often has a slight crook in its neck, rests on the workpiece. The holdfast is then struck with a hammer, driving it into the benchtop (or bench leg), wedging both itself and the workpiece firmly in place.