Doin It Old School

I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but I am building this bench entirely with hand tools. No bandsaw, no tablesaw, no jointer, no planer. When Mark cuts my slab out of an Ash tree it will be cut using a huge power saw. But that is not inconsistent with the way things were done in the 18th century really. People like Roubo would have purchased a slab from a sawyer who used a power saw driven by a waterfall or steam.

For those who may not be familiar with the kind of tools needed to build something like a workbench here is an overview.

Above we have a No 7 hand plane used to flatten the bench top. Other planes such as a No. 4 smoothing plane and a No. 5 Jack plane are also used in the process. The brace and auger bits will be used to hog out waist material in the mortises as well as drilling holes for putting dowel pins in the tenons.  

Here we have my bench chisels, mortice chisels, and various back saws.

This is a photo of my vintage hand saws made by Henry Disston & Sons company. One rip cut one cross cut. I really wish I had a larger variety but ya gotta go with what ya got sometimes. 

Above is a jointer's hammer to assist in assembly of the project, a pair of winding sticks to help determine if a piece of stock is twisted and in need of planning. And a large protractor with a pair of dividers for doing layout work.

I am sure other tools will be involved in this build but none of them will have a power cord attached!