Years ago my co worker Barry got busy with his family and sold me the contents of his small woodshop. I picked his storage shed clean of tools. But Barry wanted everything gone and he insisted that I take some ragged nasty maple that came from his buddy’s sawmill. There was a large 8/4 wide board that was over eight feet long and a smaller piece that was less than three feet. Big board and baby board. I let them dry for a few years in the garage. One day I wanted to test out my new scrub plane so I scooped up baby board and dogged it to the workbench. By now, it was a warped and twisted mess of gray/black wood. Each scoop of the plane revealed a creamy tan maple board. Well, it might have been easier to skin rocks because that maple was tough and hard. I scrubbed on it during one hour sessions for the better part of two days and finally tamed it. During that time, the warped and twisted 6/4 board slimmed down to about 7/8″.
Turns out that the maple was really pretty–who knew?
Since I now had a nice short board, I needed a suitable project. It became a small shop bench. I am not that tall and this bench is a great equalizer when I stand on it and go for the stratosphere.
It has a simple pine base and nice maple top with a convenient hand hole in the center.
Every time I see the bench, I am delighted to see the maple. And I think about my buddy Barry.