A woodworker’s rite of passage
In late 2022 I decided to build me a woodworking workbench, which is a milestone any amateur woodworker ought to achieve. I had recently found myself attracted to traditional hand tool woodworking, and my folding Black and Decker Workmate was too flimsy for that purpose. After some research I decided to build a short version of the Roubo bench, a very sensible design published by the Frenchman André Jacob Roubo about 1770 in his treatise L’Art du Menuisier (The Art of the Carpenter).
It took me a year of intensive (if intermittent) work, and here is the outcome:
Building this bench was an incredibly satisfying experience. It was my first large project with real wood (which, unlike the plywood I’ve worked with before, is a natural material with a mind of its own). It required hand tool skills I never had, which meant that every step of the way forced me to master new tools and techniques. It involved problem solving and dealing with mistakes. All told, it was an exhilarating journey, and at its end I had a sturdy workbench in the time-honored tradition of centuries of woodworking, that now enables me to embark on exciting new creative projects.
The full build process, with photos and drawings, is detailed in this document that you are welcome to download (warning: unless you’re planning to build a bench yourself, it probably has way more detail than you need). Below I show a small sample of photos that may capture the diversity and complexity of the tasks involved.
