For the last year or so I’ve been slowly sliding more into the Japanese side of Woodworking. My workbench isn’t always the most ideal work surface…. mostly due to the location of the tail vise… it aways seems to be in the way of where I want to saw. So I started researching what work surface Japanese woodworkers use.
Most japanese woodworkers, from what I can tell, just put a big hunk of wood on the floor and sit cross legged. Most westerners (including me) don’t like sitting on the floor much though.
But when Japanese do work standing up, I found a number of different sawhorse styles. During my research I found a old plan by Jay van Arsdale published in American Woodworker Jan-Feb 1990. These sawhorse seems to fit my desires almost perfectly and they are all built using japanese compression joints, wedges and no glue. They are a fun fast(ish) joinery project that gives you something useful to work off of for future projects.
I’ve only made a couple deviations from Jay’s plans, so refer to American Woodworker for all the dimensions.
Full post about this project here:
http://digitalwoodworker.com/2012/02/08/getting-started-in-woodworking-building-a-japanese-workbench/
Right now I just have a SYP 2×6 on top as a work surface, and it works ok. Ideally you want to find the thickest widest board you can and put it on top. I’m considering 2 options: Getting 3 more 4×4′s or getting a 10″ wide 12 quarter piece of Ash. Either way it will be about a 6′ to 8′ long by ~10” wide beam about 3” thick. I’ll try and get something next week and make a post about adding a planing stop.