In a message dated 1/22/00 10:36:48 PM Eastern Standard Time,
tonyseo@m... writes:

> >Bear in mund that the bench vise and the German bench dog system are
>  >a mid nineteenth c.invention. Before that, the bench had a dog at the
>  >far end to plane against, a few holes for holdfasts in the top, and
>
>  I have to disagree with this...  I'm on the road tonite and don't have my
>  materials in front of me but if you are thinking of Roubo as a
>  source..remember he was 17th century.  I have seen enough benchs from at
>  least around the Revolutionary War period to disagree just based on my
>  observations.
>

Actually, there's a drawing by a fellow named Loeffelholz from 1505 that
shows a bench with a face vise, tail vise, and retractable bench dogs - so
the idea is at least that old.  There's a picture on page 9 of Landis' _The
Workbench Book_ and a better one in Heine's _Werkzeug des Schreiners und
Drechslers_.  Both books also have pictures of a Swiss bench dated to c. 1700
that has both face and tail vices.

Gary

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