Pico’s Project: Bench Hook (and other adventures)
Hello, friends! I want to tell you about my bench hook and the trials, tribulations, and learning that happened while making it. I’ve been watching Graham Blackburn on YouTube after watching Paul Sellers for years. Paul really is a treasure and I’ve learned so much from him. After many decades of maneuvering, strategizing, and saving, I finally have it... I have a workshop! (and most importantly some free time!) Being interested in learning the traditional hand tool techniques, I am trying to start out really easy and build a bench hook. If you do not know what a bench hook is, it is a simple device that allows you to push against it and it won’t move because it is hooked to the bench. Easy peasy (or so I thought).
I built the Paul Seller’s plywood workbench a couple of years back, and installed a single vise. I felt like I wanted more options in holding the work so I installed a hold fast. It killed me a little bit inside as it was really challenging for me to build the workbench and now I was drilling holes right in the middle of the top. Do you know what would make building a workbench easier? A workbench. This bench could really use an end-vise. Maybe for my birthday.
I knew I had to get some basic tools together and have been slowly acquiring them as money and opportunity permits. Decades ago (literally), I bought a hand plane from Sears. It nearly broke me (and I was ready to break it). The plane never worked because it chattered or clogged up. The time was now to get it to work: sharpening; cap iron adjustment; sole flattening; aligning; and adjusting the frog resulted in a plane that chattered or clogged up. This was not working as advertised. Pulling my hair out, I rewatched Paul’s videos and experimented. Continuing my research well after I should have been asleep (I have a hard time letting problems go), I found the answer in Paul’s book: Essential Woodworking Hand Tools. In a cross section picture of a plane I saw that the mouth of the plane is milled at an angle so that it fully supports the plane iron. Having the good ole Sears hand plane disassembled (again), I could see that the mouth was not milled at the proper angle, it was a 90 degree corner so it was hardly supporting the plane iron allowing it to jump and chatter. Much filing was done that day, my friend, but it was all worth it as I got my first full shaving with the Sear’s hand plane (little did I know that this was a very thick and horrible shaving, but a shaving nonetheless!).
Thinking through my project, I decided that I didn’t want to do a simple butt joint but do an actual joint, a rabbet joint! I was gifted a rabbet plane and tried to refurbish it. I am pleased with the results and it didn’t cost a hundred dollars. It turns out a 100 year old tool can still work just fine. I’m not done with the refurbishment, but the plane should be stable as it is well oiled. I did have to buy a teeny tiny hammer to help with the micro-adjustments to get the plane cutting perfectly as there are no adjustments on this tool. I learned that it is important to start your shop time by sharpening all the blades you plan to use and adjusting them by testing on a scrap piece of wood before you begin to work on your project.
It was time to begin. I went to the local Woodcraft and picked an unknown-to-me piece of hardwood out of their cutoffs sections. I thought this looks good. Let’s just say there was a reason why it was in the cutoff bin. Oddly, the cutoff bin costs by the pound so I paid way too much for a board that had grain radiating out from the center, was cupped, and had a little bit of twist. Having had much “learning through suffering”, I started working with the wood by taking a couple of full shavings, then planing out from the radiation point. This taught me not to be in a rush as whenever I would go against the grain I would immediately get tear out or gouges. Marking the board in the direction in which grain radiated turned out to be a good idea. I planed a lot. On the bright side, it is giving me some hardwood inputs to my mushroom growing experiments. I think I easily lost 1/3 of the total thickness of the board. I ended up making some DIY winding sticks to help me see how the board was twisted after I got it flat. I also learned, that I need to re-plane my bench because it is also not flat.
I wasn’t able to fully complete this project by hand. I used my contractor table saw to rip the board into two equal halves. I don’t have a handsaw for large ripping or crosscuts. I tediously checked, squared, rechecked, re-squared my corners. I cut the rabbets and test fit the piece and they looked perfect to me, so I started the glue-up. Yeah, it turns out clamping is also hard. My first joint has a gap because the board was pulled out of square by the clamps. Dagnabbit!
So, I tried to learn from my mistakes and used some tapered shims to focus the pressure on the joint on the next glue up and I had a little more success, but it still wasn’t square. I had to do it the hard way and square it up with my planes after the glue was dry and I cleaned up the overhang.
I intend to make a cut in the bench hook so I can use it to miter boards in the future, so I tested it against my crosscut saw. Son-of-a-biscuit. Back to the old Sear’s plane to shorten the height of the end boards.
The bench plane is finally coming together. To finish it up, I did some light sanding and used some boiled linseed oil. I polished with with some 0000 steel wool and paste wax. I am happy I remembered to match the heartwood and sap wood ends appropriately. Now, I would like to present to you, the not perfect and unnecessary bench hook.
