Sometimes while I am happily carving along, I need to be cautious and not let my carving gouges “gouge” into my metal bench dogs. I’m pretty sure which one will come out worse in this match – and it’s NOT the bench dogs. There are times when I get very close to hitting these metal bench dogs with my carving tools. Quite often I end up putting a piece of leather between my carving and the metal – just in case.
I have had several comments from concerned students who watch my videos – “why don’t you use wooden bench dogs – they don’t damage the chisels”. Well, the simple answer is – “because I don’t have any”.
Bob Easton, who is the computer and technical expert behind my online school (and also has a great woodworking blog) made me these very clever wooden bench dogs for me. I think while he watched the videos on my school, he spent too much time cringing when he saw my chisels getting much too close. He said he got the idea and design of these bench dogs from viewing various other woodworking blogs.
Since I am not necessarily a “woodworker” in that I don’t actually build many things, this design just seemed so simple but very clever. The slight angle at the bottom causes the small piece of wood to act as a sort of spring that locks the bench dog tight. The main body is white oak and the little spring is mahogany. He based it off the measurements of the bench holes and they work great! And no more tears!
I have used these a lot over the past few months and you will be seeing them being put to good use on some of the new videos I make also.
My woodcarving gouges are very happy! They can relax now… and my students on the online school can breathe a sigh of relief 🙂