Nicholson Style Bench

Last week i spent some time up in maine building a workbench.

Nicholson style bench. Because this bench is the results of hundreds of years of development i tried to stay true to the text and plate and build the bench with a similar mindset as the original users. The image of nicholsons bench should be familiar to woodworkers. The 80 minute nicholson workbench. One of the biggest differences between the authors is that nicholson was actually a workman whereas joseph moxon was a chronicler.

Ive settled on a slightly modified version of chris schwarzs english workbench in his workbench book. One task of a joiner was to finish the interiors of houses so the joiner built a bench 10 to 12 long from common materials and made all of the doors windows and mouldings on site. The french bench relies on mass. Nicholson covered a variety of trades and republished the manuscript over a period of years in various forms very like moxon.

So as both a right of passage as well as a necessity ive started my workbench build. Which are the key to the use of a nicholson style bench. The photos shown below are of an english style bench made in oak although pine tends to be my timber of choice for this bench design. My bench isnt a blatant copy of nicholsons.

My english bench has used up less than half of one of those little bottles you get at lowes. My french style bench has 25 boards in it and used up a half gallon of titebond. This workbench is hardly a new design as its based on the english nicholson style but it is design to be built with minimal. I drilled a dozen holes for holdfasts on the front then flipped the bench onto its top.

The nicholson workbench design an english tradition. Like many in the woodworking universe i am a benchaholic.