Today and tomorrow we have a guest working with us. Robell from Atlanta, Georgia is spending some time up here in Maine and offered his help with some projects around here.
Even though we’ve been working on the Tables video and a few conservation projects, the rest of this week we’re going take some time to build a few new benches. Yes, more benches. Two 12-foot benches, in fact. These are not destined for this 14’ x 17’ shop, though. They are being built for our new shop that will be raised this September. More on that later but for now just imagine 200-year-old hand-hewn chestnut. Yes. We’re excited.
Today, we are going to begin building two English joiners’ (Nicholson) benches that will be eventually fastened to the shop walls. Many period shops had their benches built into the walls (Luther Sampson in Duxbury, Mass., Samuel Wing of Sandwich, Mass., et al.) This offers numerous advantages, not the least of which is space saving. These benches will be 12’ long to accommodate two people at each bench. We hope to be able to use these (along with other benches) to offer hand tool workshops in near future. If you picture yourself coming out to Mid Coast Maine for a 5-day hand-tool workshop, let us know what kinds of classes you would be most interested in.
I am heading out to meet the guys at the shop soon. How are three guys going to build two 12’ workbenches in a 230 sq ft room? I don’t know. I’ll report back at the end of the day to let you know how we fared.
-Joshua