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Shaving horses & workbenches

No well-equipped workshop should be without a solid workbench. As the central workstation for cabinetmakers, joiners and dedicated hobby woodworkers, it is essential for precise and safe woodworking. When choosing a suitable workbench, key factors include the working height, weight, clamping options and practical features such as storage surfaces or castors for flexible positioning in the workshop.

Shaving horses are ideal for traditional green woodworking and carving work with drawknives and other hand tools. They hold the workpiece securely while allowing fast, direct adjustment by foot pressure, making them particularly useful for shaping chair parts, handles, rungs and other elongated workpieces.

Expert knowledge

Shaving horses & workbenches

No well-equipped workshop should be without a solid workbench. As the central workstation for cabinetmakers, joiners and dedicated hobby woodworkers, it is essential for precise and safe woodworking. When choosing a suitable workbench, key factors include the working height, weight, clamping options and practical features such as storage surfaces or castors for flexible positioning in the workshop.

Shaving horses are ideal for traditional green woodworking and carving work with drawknives and other hand tools. They hold the workpiece securely while allowing fast, direct adjustment by foot pressure, making them particularly useful for shaping chair parts, handles, rungs and other elongated workpieces.

Expertenwissen

Shaving horses & workbenches

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Shaving horses & workbenches

EXPERT KNOWLEDGE - SHAVING HORSES & WORKBENCHES

The right working height

To work as ergonomically as possible and reduce strain on the back, the working height of the workbench should be suited to the individual user and their personal preferences. As a rule of thumb, when standing in front of the workbench with your arms hanging naturally, the top of the benchtop should be roughly level with the wrist joint. For work with machines, a higher working surface is generally more comfortable. To adjust the working height, you can place beams or squared timber beneath the workbench or use an add-on vice. Please note that raising a workbench in this way only works if the bench has sufficient weight.

Weight as an important quality feature

Chiselling, planing and sawing require a stable support. The heavier the workbench, the more stable it will be. In most workbenches, much of the weight is concentrated in the benchtop. The top should therefore be sufficiently heavy to allow powerful chiselling, hammering and planing without movement. The base should also have substantial stretchers and rails to provide good rigidity. This allows vertical forces to be absorbed and transferred to the floor without springing or deflection of the work surface.

Bolting the workbench to the floor is not a solution. A workbench should remain movable within the workshop. This is particularly important when working on large workpieces, where access from all sides is required. A permanently fixed bench can also be inconvenient when cleaning the workshop.

Mobile work on castors

High-quality workbenches are difficult to move because of their considerable weight. To position the bench flexibly within the workshop as required, castors can be a practical solution. It is important that the castors are designed for the high weight and heavy loads involved, and that they can be folded or retracted. This allows the workbench to stand securely on its own legs during use.


The advantages of a workbench on castors are clear:


  • More possible uses: The workbench can be repositioned whenever needed, depending on the work being carried out in the workshop.
  • Better accessibility: When the workbench stands freely in the room, the workpiece can be reached from all sides, making surface work easier and allowing larger furniture parts to be assembled more efficiently.
  • Maximum flexibility: A mobile workbench can be moved into position quickly and just as easily moved out of the way again. This gives you more freedom in how you arrange your workspace and makes it easier to start and continue smaller projects.

Clamping options

A reliable, well-made vice mechanism is essential. Most workbenches are equipped with two vices: a front vice and a tail vice. These are used to clamp workpieces both vertically and horizontally, often in combination with bench dogs in the benchtop.

A good workbench should provide suitable clamping options for three main applications: surface work such as planing and sanding, end work such as cutting mortises and dovetails, and edge work such as jointing and profiling.

  • Surface work: The workpiece is usually clamped between bench dogs using the tail vice. Holdfasts inserted into suitable holes in the benchtop can also be used to secure workpieces to the bench.
  • End work: The workpiece is clamped in the front vice. With single-screw front vices, off-centre clamping can cause the vice to rack. This can be avoided by clamping a piece of wood of the same thickness, for example an offcut from the workpiece, on the opposite side of the vice. Some workbenches therefore have one or two anti-racking stops or compensation screws built into the front vice.
  • Edge work: The workpiece is also clamped in the front vice and supported at the far end. If the front edge of the benchtop also has dog holes, shorter workpieces can be clamped against the benchtop using holdfasts. Narrow, long workpieces can be supported at the far end by clamping a small support block in the tail vice.

Tools always close at hand

A simple shelf directly on or beneath the workbench keeps the tools and materials you need within easy reach. Often, this is simply a board placed on the stretchers of the base, but it can make individual work steps noticeably easier and faster.

When using storage at the workbench, keep the following points in mind:

  • Only keep the tools you need for the current task on the workbench. All other tools should be stored and organised in a tool chest, tool cabinet or tool wall.
  • The space directly beneath the benchtop should not be obstructed by storage elements such as a tool cabinet or drawer unit.
  • A tool well at the rear of the benchtop allows tools to be quickly cleared from the working surface while keeping them immediately available for the next step.

Want to learn more?

You will find further information about workbenches and workshop setup on our blog.

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