Thread: My new workbench

Ziricote (Cordia dodencandra)


There is a bit of information here
http://www.alliedlutherie.com/ziricoblackwd.htm

A dense African timber.

It certainly looks good in contrast with the oak.

Sorry but I can't work out how to do the hyperlink???

Nice work bench!

Ziricote, aka mexican crack wood.

Good stuff for making acoustic guitars, beautiful and pretty expensive. Has a tendancy to crack - at least when making guitars out of thin plates of the stuff. Here's a pic of a guitar made from ziricote, not one of mine.

Originally Posted by orraloon

Welcome RobMill,
Great bench. Just love the look of that oak.

Regards
John

Sorry for the delay in responding to all the nice comments. To answer some of the questions regarding the bench.
Ziricote is an african hardwood very similar to ebony. I hand a chunk of it hoarded for 20 years figuring somewhere someday, I'd use it. The contrast with the oak is very stunning.
I made the wedged thru mortise and tenon by hand. The base will never come apart.
Here is a pic of the large dovetail in the bench, also cut by hand. I do not own and refuse to use a dovetail jig



The finished dovetail.



The oak which you call American oak is 'white oak' . Here in the states there are two kinds of oak, red oak which has is not as durable and white oak which has a tighter grain and is typically used in boatbuilding because of it's great strenght an when quartersawn, beautiful.
I built this bench to do handwork only on, I have another bench that I use to run routers, drills etc.
My wife was kidding me that I'll end up putting a velvet rope around the bench and never use it.
I enjoy doing dovetails by hand . here is my current project which I am building. It's a replica of a 1922 Hacker runabout. The boat is honduras mahogany.
Once again thanks for the nice comments and sorry I've been ill lately so I was not online much.
Cheers from America!