The Anarchist's Workbench, Christopher Schwarz

"The Anarchist's Workbench" is on the one hand a detailed plan for a simple workbench that can be built from construction lumber with basic tools. But it is also the story of Christopher Schwarz's 20-year journey researching, building and refining historical workbenches until there was nothing left to improve. Along the way he quits his corporate job, builds a publishing company and moves into an 1896 German barroom, where he now builds furniture and publishes books.

The book is the third and final in the "anarchist" series and attempts to cut through the immense amount of misinformation about building a proper bench. It answers the questions that dog every woodworker: what sort of bench should I build, what wood should I use, what dimensions should it be and what vises should I attach? These questions are answered with the perspective of 2,000 years of workbench history.

The way we hold wood to work on it has not changed much in 700 years, but the materials have. Gone are the massive slabs of oak, maple and beech our ancestors used. Instead we have very expensive hardwoods and inexpensive construction softwoods, yellow pines and firs, which used thoughtfully can produce benches as heavy, tough and useful as historical examples.

The book also opens your eyes to simpler designs that avoid metal fasteners and rely only on drawbored mortise-and-tenon joints. The bench plan is based on a European design that spread across the continent in the 1500s. It has only 12 joints, weighs more than 300 pounds and requires only inexpensive lumber. While immensely simple, it is a versatile design you can adapt as you grow as a woodworker.

Facts:
Author Christopher Schwarz
Language English