More Awesome Workbenches From Great Britain

Richard Maguire's Modern Workhorse Bench

Richard Maguire emailed me recently with some pictures of his latest workbench which he calls The Modern Workhorse. For those unaware of Richard's work, he makes incredibly beefy traditional workbenches in the finest British tradition. When I say "finest British tradition" I don't necessarily mean traditional English-style benches, but rather benches that reflect the fine tradition of British woodcraft. Although I haven't seen one of Richard's benches in person, I think they look totally awesome.



Richard is now offering 3 distinct styles of bench. The Dominy and the Roubo in English Beech, and now a bench of his own design called the Modern Workhorse, built of English Ash. I'm also happy to announce Richard is now offering his Roubo bench outfitted with the Benchcrafted Tail Vise.



The Modern Workhorse bench (above, and at the top) shares some similartities with Chris Schwarz's version of Charles Holtzapfel's bench, but includes several improvements of Richard's own design, including a clever arragement incorporating a wooden parallel guide into the iron face vise used in the tail vise position, and dog holes offset from the vise screw which improves access to the dogs.



The tool tray (Richard calls it a tool well, which sounds much more sophisticated than "tray" which reminds me of a school cafeteria) positioned at the left end of the bench is also an interesting idea. I'm not a big fan of tool trays though, so I'd have to try one out for a while to be convinced.





Richard's website is http://www.rm-workbenches.co.uk/default.htm