I finally completed my Knockdown Nicholson workbench. I previously posted about my chicken-and-egg problems of building a workbench without a workbench. With many projects I get to the last little bits of it and I have to drag myself over the threshold to completion as my motivation wanes, but for this project it stayed fun through the whole process so I kept making steady progress and it never felt like a chore.
This bench was designed by Chris Schwarz based on a much older design by Peter Nicholson. While the plans for the workbench are free, I would highly recommend getting a copy of the November 2015 issue of Popular Woodworking, since that has step by step instructions which will greatly simplify the process of constructing the bench.
This bench has no vice and is intended to be used primarily with hand tools. An ancient tool called a holdfast is used to hold work pieces while you work on them. There are also a few other bench appliances that I made that help to perform various operations on the bench. I'll make a separate video on that in the future.
I won't really go into detail on the construction since I think the article referenced above does a better job than I could. But I can say that I've done a bit of work on the bench now that it's finished and it's a joy to work on; everything is securely held and that just makes every operation on the bench that much more fun. It's feels like a case of having the right tool for the job; this bench is the right tool to pair with hand tools.
