Thread: James Krenov's Workbench

Nice article. Krenov, Maloof, Nakashima. My idols. My mentors is a different list.

Paul, thanks for that cue.

I liked seeing that the 'old master' has left plenty of evidence of his time at his bench - makes me feel a lot less guilty about the saw-cuts, dings, and chisel marks my own has suffered in the 30-something years of its existence. I try to be careful, but but accidents happen, & it is, after all, a workbench not household furniture. I have re-surfaced it once, about 10 or 11 years ago, not to make it a pristine again, but to level up the joins in the top, which had moved a bit over 20-plus years and the several different climates it had lived in. I looked at it today, & I see it has acquired a few more scars since... Wear & tear.jpg

Cheers,

It's strange to see people acting surprised that he used and marked up his bench, and then fixtured it with plywood parts. It's a *bench*, and I'd guess he wanted to get on with the stuff he was making rather than fiddling with the bench.

I can't imagine having a bench that I thought was so nice that it couldn't tolerate a wayward chisel strike or three. Or that I felt I'd lose my reputation if it was seen to have plywood parts on it.

One side comment - the bench itself looks sort of average, but the screws are spectacular.

I'm surprised how flimsy the legs are, but I don't think Jim did much heavy planing. I had legs like that on a bench before, and didn't really love it, but the design he uses does provide some additional support front to back for sawing with the width of the stance at the left side.

Originally Posted by D.W.

..... I'm surprised how flimsy the legs are, but I don't think Jim did much heavy planing. I had legs like that on a bench before, and didn't really love it, but the design he uses does provide some additional support front to back for sawing with the width of the stance at the left side.

How 'heavily' do you plane, D.W.? Given the mass of the top, its inertia would give it a reasonable amount of stability, & the tusk-tenoned back rail would help a lot. I'd estimate my bench top is of similar size & mass, its legs are a little more substantial being hardwood, but it has a similar stance. I used two rails, held by a bolt into barrel nuts in the rails. It doesn't move under anything I do on it.

I certainly agree that a bench should not be treated like a fine piece of furniture. It's a tool, & it deserves care & maintenance like any other tool, but I see no problem with customising it to make it more convenient or versatile according to your needs & wants. Considering the hours Jim must've spent at that bench, I reckon it's in amazingly good condition (unless he re-surfaced it a few times), so I'd say he was a pretty careful worker. I think I'm reasonably careful, but mine still seems to have acquired more scars in less time.....

Cheers,

I'm somewhat careful with mine, too, but I will do metal work at it and then vacuum it off and scrape the top to refresh it. Careful, I guess, in the sense that I don't mis-strike it intentionally. when it happens, though, I don't spend more than a second or two looking at what just occurred (and mostly that is to make sure that the surface is still flush).

I think I'd put a little bit of wobble on the legs of that bench sometimes, but it is a nice bench, nonetheless. I'm just surprised they didn't spend a little bit more on the legs instead of what looks similar to 2x4s.

the legs on my bench are 5 1/2" square, but that is overkill. I did it because I laminated them from 8/4 stock and wanted to be able to make the bottom stretchers and middle lamination all at once. It doesn't move much.