Split Top Roubo with Benchcrafted Vices and hardware

A friend sent me these pictures of his recently completed slit top Roubo work bench. It's made from well seasoned southern Yellow pine with chestnut end caps.

After much planning Rod made his bench 40" tall, he is a tall man. Workbench height is an emotive subject, but I definitely prefer a taller bench than the standard 34-35", you can work on it without back ache and pull up a stool for finer work. My ideal height is 37".
You can also see in the picture that Rod has installed the leg vice screw low down giving him a lot of depth, another advantage of a taller bench.
The recommended distance is 8-9" but I've fitted mine with a 12" clearance which is more versatile. The disadvantage to allowing too much is having to stoop to operate as well as loosing some leverage, although the vice holds so well this is probably just a theoretical problem.

He's done a very nice job with the tail vice and says that the Crubber (facing the jaws) is amazing!

Here are some other projects made by Rod.

Dovetail and Sharpening Courses Now Full

The two courses in October are now fully booked and I'm looking forward to meeting new woodworkers and getting back to teaching again. There will be more dates coming up.

Hemswell Antique Centre

A couple of weeks ago we spent a few days in Lincoln visiting relatives. I found the Hemswell Antiques Centre which claimed to be the biggest in Europe. It is housed in numerous buildings on an ex RAF base.

Surprisingly there wasn't much in the way of antique tools, just a few old boxes here and there.

This was one of the nicest little pieces, a Victorina miniature coffer. At around £30 it was very tempting.

A beautiful mahogany drop leaf side table.

Another fine piece, this free standing jewellery box (by Heals I think) featured a mechanism that opened the drawer when the lid was lifted.

A fine selection of Wellington chests, a design that I find very appealing.

 A very nice named mitre chop.

A book binders nipping press, I think! And after 4 hours of rummaging time to relax in the very nice traditional restaurant. A great day out if you like your antiques and are anywhere near north Lincolnshire.

Minature Krenov Cabinet

Anny from Belgium sent me these shots of a tiny Krenov style cabinet he was challenged to make by his teacher. Its 1/12th scale, almost like dolls furniture and I bet it looks really cute in the flesh.

Marc Adams School Making a Krenov Inspired Cabinet

My friend Martin has just returned to the UK from a weeks course with Mike Pecovich at the Marc Adams School in the US. He said he had a fabulous time and that the school is massive with every conceivable tool and machine.

This Krenov inspired cabinet has lots of hand cut dovetails and through mortice and tenons. That's a lot of work for a weeks course and the detail looks very crisp

It's nice to see the back receives the same attention as the front. I'm not sure how Martin got this back on plane, a bit big for hand luggage!

Instagram, on it at last!

I've finally been persuaded to upgrade my phone (the old one's on the right!) and I've put my first post in Instagram with user name barron26159
I will try to do daily posts as well as keeping the Blog going with more detailed stuff.

Miniature Tools

We're in Lincoln visiting family for a few days and I came across a case in an Antique show with a whole range of lovely miniature tools.

They are made to 1/12 scale and looked very small.

If anyone is interested in more details and pricing Mark Hellicar's card is below.