La Forge Royale Etaux

I've been fascinated by the Forge Royale catalog since I was first introduced to it several years ago by Chris Schwarz. This catalog, and others from companies like Camion Freres, serve as great inspiration for what we do here at Benchcrafted.

Part of our research into old workholding technique here includes searching out extant examples of classic vises. The etau is an intriguing vise form that appears in various versions in the La Forge catalog. It serves much the same function as the carver's chops with the added benefit of being able to mount to any bench or even a table. It's a work-site vise as much as anything, although the examples I've seen have all been in workshops.

I have mine more or less permanently mounted to the back corner of my bench, where its doesn't interfere with 99% of the bench work I do. But when I need to work on something close, sharpen a card scraper, spokeshave a curve, pare a through mortise horizontally, I turn to my etau.

I recently acquired two examples of etaux from France. Both are products of La Forge Royale, items 177-178, and 179-180. The catalog numbers are curious, as they suggest two different items, or perhaps sizes of etau per style. The word is still out on this.

Etau 177-178 uses a threaded rod and nut as a pivot point to prevent racking. The end of the rod butts into a counterbore in the moving jaw and passes through the fixed jaw. The counterbore is deep enough to house the round nut when using the vise with thinner pieces. It's a nice system, but requires adjustment when changing workpiece thickness. The etau clamps to a bench via two finger-jointed C-clamps screwed to the cheeks of the rear jaw. It's a system that doesn't hold up all that well, and one which we tried to improve on when making  the version pictured above on my bench. It's rock-solid.

This vise has the very classy Forge Royale lion medallion on the front jaw.

Etau 179-180 features a very slick cast iron St. Peter's Cross mechanism. When I purchased this vise I wasn't sure of the maker. But when it arrived I was pleasantly surprised to find the maker's mark cast right into the St. Peter's Cross.

The overall form of the St. Peter's Cross is very similar to the vintage one we used to cast our Crisscross. Although that example doesn't have a maker's mark, the connection between it and this mini version are unmistakable. I'll have to do some research into this further.

This etau works flawlessly. The cross supports the weight of the chop, screw, and itself for truly effortless adjustment. It cranks down and holds work tight. At the bottom of each cross mortise is a metal wear plate to provide smooth movement and prevent the bottom of the arms from digging into the wooden jaws.

We may end up doing a small run of etau parts in the next couple years. Stay tuned.

Drawsharps are up!

Some of you have been waiting....Drawsharps are up on our website!

UPDATE:  Refill & Rehab kits are up now also.

Vise hardware outside the USA - new dealers

We are happy to announce that we now have a European dealer for our vise hardware.  For many of you who send us so many emails asking for shipping quotes from overseas, this will come as welcome news.

Coming highly recommended to us, we are lucky to be working with Dieter Schmid of Fine Tools, Berlin, Germany.  Many of you will already be familiar with this respected vendor of some of the finest woodworking tools available.  

We hope this will be a long fruitful experience and that our European customers will find it equally beneficial.

Please head over to their website and take a look.

http://www.fine-tools.com/benchcrafted.html

We'd like to take this opportunity to note what we had previously neglected to announce.  Our vise hardware has also been available for several months now in Canada via Lee Valley, our exclusive vise dealer up North.

While they have carried our Mag-Blok from our earliest days, it wasn't until earlier this year that we could make our vises available to them.

Needless to say, we know of no one else that is finer to deal with than Lee Valley.  They are an exemplary company that we are proud to have handling our wares.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/

Watch Pete Shave

Also watch him demonstrate the new Drawsharp...

Galbert Drawsharp--Pricing and Availability

The Galbert Drawsharp is nearly ready to order. Just a few minutes ago we finished packing a shipment destined for Pete Galbert's booth at Woodworking in America next week. Pete will have Drawsharps for sale at his booth in the Marketplace. If you want one, I suggest you hit Pete's booth first thing Friday, as he'll have a limited number of Drawsharps at the show.

If you can't make it to WIA, you'll be able to order the Drawsharp beginning at 9:00 am, Friday October 18th. See our store page to order. We expect our regular dealers both domestically and abroad will add the Drawsharp to their offerings. We'll post a list of dealers once stock is on the way to them.

The Drawsharp is an ingenious, yet simple jig for putting a consistent, repeatable razor-sharp edge on any drawknife. Traditionally the way to hone a drawknife is by hand. Although we're all in favor of developing hand skills, we're also in favor of making certain tasks easier, especially since nobody we know enjoys sharpening. The Drawsharp let's you focus on getting a keen, consistently polished edge without having to concentrate on how you're presenting your stone to the edge, and without slicing your hand open.  Sharpening drawknives makes many people a bit uneasy. With the Drawsharp the cutting edge is facing away from your body and hands, and the honing action is parallel to the blade, with your fingers safely behind the cutting edge at all times, making for a very safe situation. If you've shied away from using drawknives because of sharpening (and they have great potential for furniture makers too, not just chairmakers), the Drawsharp will open the door to this wonderful tool.

The drawknife spine rides on an acetal wear plate and two nylon bumpers which, along with the position of the two posts, determine the honing angle. One post for honing the knife's bevel, and the other for honing the back. A scale on each side, along with clear markings allow you to record the setting for a particular drawknife, then return to that setting quickly.

Each square sleeve is loaded with two abrasive pads: a fine diamond pad on one side, and a finer abrasive paper pad on the other. The diamond pad is used to bring up the initial burr, and the opposite side is used to polish the edge further. Each sleeve rides on the copper anodized posts via a VELCRO bearing, so the sleeve can rotate to follow curved knives. To expose fresh abrasive to the edge, simply slide the sleeve up a bit--it will hold its position and still rotate. Each sleeve can also be flipped end for end to expose even more abrasive. The Drawsharp comes packaged with enough abrasive for dozens of sharpenings. Everything you need is in the package. Price is $84.

Here's a short video on assembling the Drawsharp. We'll be posting detailed videos on how to use the Drawsharp next month. In the meantime, stay tuned to Pete's Chairnotes blog, where he'll be posting about the Drawsharp in the next day or so, including video of how to use the Drawsharp.

Custom Mag-Bloks

White Oak Mag-Bloks

We still have a few 18"

Flecking is not as pronounced in all of them.  Luck of the draw.

Shoot us an email and we'll invoice you.  Price is the same as our Standard bloks.

We also have:

22" Walnut Mag-Bloks

Price is $110.00 ea.

We have just a handful of these.

A Case For Dogs

Since early this year I promised my 10-year old nephew George that I'd help him build a small chest. I asked him what he wanted it to look like. He said "like Steve's." I said, "who's Steve?" Then George told me more about Minecraft.

In a few months I'll be 40. Not old. But old enough to start complaining about the youth of today, and their seeming addiction to video games. I don't have much room to talk. I spent a huge part of my youth in arcades like "The Gold Mine" "Alladin's Castle" and a local favorite, D.W. Dawg, a place that sold foot-long weiners up front, and in back for $5 you could play all the games you wanted, for as long as you wanted. If you're from my generation, you may still get goosebumps seeing this at the bottom of Frogger: CREDITS: 100. Arcades were and will always be vastly superior to any console game (except for maybe Pitfall on Intellivision.)

So when I finally went on to higher studies at college, I began to master such subjects as Mortal Kombat and The Addams Family (the best pinball game ever.) It didn't help that my older brother and I (we're five years apart) ended up in the same Algebra I class, and quickly deciding that if we couldn't pass it in high school, certainly the college atmosphere would not improve our chances, made haste to spend the 2 o'clock hour at the student union shooting pool, eating cheeseburgers, and dividing our short term loans between rolls of quarters and racing wheels for our hybrid bikes.

But when George showed me Minecraft, I was intrigued. It looked more like Legos than a video game. You built stuff. That did it for me. I agreed that I would help George build Steve's Minecraft Chest. But it would have to be done in style. Not some cheesy MDF cube and paint. No. Real wood, real hardware. Something that would last longer than a video game fad. More on the chest in the near future. Surprisingly, it's one of the more satisfying projects I've done.


This week, George and I put in a lot of time each evening inlaying strips of Macassar ebony sawn veneer and leveling each layer to the surrounding cherry squares. As much as I love my new toothed planing stop, I had to ditch it for these processes, for obvious reasons. Score one for the dogs.


Here's a pic of Steve (and George.) Don't wait for the image to resolve. Steve is only 8-bit.

Galbert Drawsharp First Look

Developing the Galbert Drawsharp along with Pete has been a great learning experience. Pete is full of so many great ideas about the craft and toolmaking that it's like opening the flood gates when we talk (listen.) Pete's philosophy is a great mix of traditional and modern, much like how we do things here at Benchcrafted. Case in point, in the image above from a Skype session earlier this year, Pete is holding up a prototype part to his webcam while I take a closer look. Skype is so handy for things like this, but how do you save the image? Okay, Print Screen will work for one shot. But my mind doesn't always work that fast. So instead I pick up a camera and take a picture of my monitor. Just feels wrong. But it got the job done.

Speaking of which, the first batch of Drawsharp parts is finished. Well, mostly. Due to a stupid error we made one part the wrong size. But it's the good kind of wrong. The too-big kind. So back in the lathe they go, then back to anodizing. Long story short, we're now really scrambling to get them done for WIA.

But there is still hope. If everything works out they'll still make it to Cincinnati in time.

Woodworking In America (and Bavaria)

We've been getting some emails about our participation this year at WIA. Due to some family priorities we won't be able to make it to Cincinnati, much to our regret. This is perhaps the most anticipated year for WIA for us since the very first one in Berea, KY five years ago.

Why? First off, Lost Art Press's reprint of Roubo's masterwork will be released at WIA, and a book signing will take place with all (I'm fairly certain) of the collaborators on this project. Read more here. We feel like we're missing an historic event.

Secondly, Peter Galbert. Collaborating with Pete over the past year has been a treat. Releasing our new Drawsharp drawknife sharpening tool (fingers crossed!) at WIA together would have been sweet. Nevertheless, the goal is to get the first ones off the line to the Marketplace and Pete's booth, which I'm told will be manned by Claire and Tim, Pete's fellow toolmaking collaborators.

Thirdly, Peter Ross. After working with Peter on the French Oak Roubo Project this year, we've become huge fans. Not only is Peter's work impeccable, he's an extremely generous person who exudes information freely and with a passion that gets our juices flowing.

In short, if you're on the fence about WIA, you should go this year.

On a somewhat related note, here are a couple old German videos that you should watch.









And since I'm half German, and the great-grandson of a German butcher, here's another interesting watch. It's just another kind of craftsmanship.

Score One For Roubo's Planing Stop

This week I'm using both Roubo benches to build some large interior trim pieces in cherry. I feel like a true Roubo-style joiner wrangling these 11-foot frame and panels. The Benchcrafted Roubo is pulling its weight processing the individual pieces, while the Plate 11 Roubo is where assembly and trimming is taking place. I feel completely guilty having two incredible benches within a couple steps of each other. It's a feeling I could get used to.

But today the Plate 11 bench solved a workholding problem that made me smile. The toothed planing stop did something that no tail vise and dogs could. I butted a miter into the planing stop and face planed the board. The toothed stop held that board rock solid. Try that with dogs. Pfft.

Yes, I could have held this short board between dogs (pinching the square edges) and planed across the long axis of the bench. But that only works for short boards. What about longer ones? The toothed planing stop is clearly the ideal choice here. After working on my French Oak bench a few times now, I'm convinced that we need to add the toothed stop to our Split Top Roubo bench plans. And that means we also need to start selling toothed planing stops. Stay tuned.