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Not Roman, not exactly French. But definitely North Carolinian

Andrew Midkiff
Tue, 26 Jul 2016 15:10:32 GMT

All this talk of Roman workbenches reminded me of a few poor quality pictures I took six years ago when I visited the old mill in the West Point on the Eno city park in Durham, North Carolina. (story of the mills can be found here http://www.enoriver.org/store/journals/story/) In the reconstructed mill are some old pieces of furniture and equipment, many from other local mills of the same time period. The one piece of interest here is an old work bench. The bench is a slab top with H-frame leg and stretcher ends, but the square legs are mortised straight through the top in round tenons. It has a traditional leg vise and the front face of the bench is notched and then covered by a board to make dog holes. It's an interesting variation on a French-style bench but with through tenon legs, and no cross stretchers. The pictures aren't great but if you're in the area and interested in old workbenches, it might be worth a trip. The mill is pretty fun to see as well. Go to this picture https://www.flickr.com/photos/annarborandrew/4771796502/in/album-72157622631411171/ And then scroll through the next six pictures or so.