17th-century bench hook…again

When I started this blog a few years back, one of the earliest posts was about the planing stop I use. In the 17^th century, this tool was called a “bench hook”  – a term now confused with the wooden jig for sawing and other tasks.

Here is a bench hook I use most of the time, made for me by Mark Atchison. It fits in a wooden block, about 2” square and maybe 6” long. It is based on some archaeological examples, but adapted a bit. As I recall, the one found at Jamestown was quite long…

Alexander has a blacksmith-made version, but also concocted one from a scrap of a sawblade, fitted to a wooden block.

The toothed section is not screwed to the top of the block, but fits with a bolt and nut. Note the hole through the block, there is a captured nut inside there, and the bolt from above comes down to engage that nut. Screwing down through the end grain is not the strongest connection, so Alexander dreamt up this version instead.

The bench hook’s highest point is the teeth, the whole end of the block slopes down from there. To go even further, Alexander cuts a notch in the bench top, just in front of the bench hook’s spot, that was she can knock the hook all the way down, keeping it out of the way of edge tools.

JA ersatz bench hook

 

So there’s a handy, simple alternative to a custom-made version. The blocks in both these are about 2″ square. When mine wiggles in the mortise in the bench, I just shove a shaving in there with it. That keeps it from moving about.

here’s the earlier posts https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/bench-hook-17th-century-style/

 

https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/j-alexanders-bench-hook/