Ryan’s PurpleHeart and Maple Workbench

Viewer Project - By Ryan Goetzmann from Skaneateles, NY
Added on September 5, 2018

This bench is primarily made of PurpleHeart. It took about four months to complete working on it in all free time. I mainly used hand tools to complete this bench. My Lie Nielsen no.8 was definitely the workhorse of this build. I modeled this bench after the Holtzapffel workbench, except I used a leg vise instead of a twin screw on the side.

It features a 5.75″ thick solid PurpleHeart top that sits on top of some massive Hard Maple Legsand PurpleHeart stretchers. I did not want to use any mechanical fasteners during, so all the joinery is drawbored mortise and tenon. The edge profiles on the legs and stretchers are handcut stopped chamfers with lambs tongues going up the ramps. The lower shelf is re-sawn PurpleHeart that floats on stretchers and was tongue and grooved. The rear vise is an old antique Sheldon Quick Release vise with a 12″ opening and 9″ wide jaw that I restored to excellent working condition, the chop is Tiger Maple and PurpleHeart with hand carved details. The leg vise is Bencrafted with a crisscross and it’s a sweet vise! The leg vise is Tiger Maple and PurpleHeart with all hand cut profiles and details. I also turned some new PurpleHeart knobs to match. The sliding deadman is Tiger Maple, and is removable if need be and utilizes some old Stanley no. 203 Bench Brackets to support panels while hand planing. I also added a Benchcrafted planing stop mortised into the bench as another hold down option while hand planing.

My bench stands 32″ high x 28″ wide x 96″ long, and weighs approximately 750-800lbs. I was able to complete this bench on my lonesome and through all the heavy lifting and hundreds of sharpening sessions. I’m super pleased with the outcome and it’s a dream to work on. When you go to the mill and 8/4 PurpleHeart is on sale for $3.66 bd/ft it’s a deal that couldn’t be passed up, but I would think twice again before having to work with that much PurpleHeart…even at that price.

Discussion

Chad Tennant September 5, 2018 5:59 pm

Woooooooow!
Simply beautiful.
I would be afraid to use it.

Reply
Rick Clark September 7, 2018 4:47 am

Definitely a work of art! You must be close to a purple heart wood source to even attempt this. Thanks for sharing!

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- Ryan Goetzmann September 8, 2018 11:29 am
  
  I live in Upstate NY but I bought the lumber from Advantage Lumber which has a mill in South America so they sell exotics for a really cheap price.
  
  Reply
  - Jerry Drake June 22, 2020 5:10 pm
    
    Do you have plans you could share?
    
    Reply
Michael Kratky September 7, 2018 4:52 am

Out standing; purple heart and tiger maple a great combination too bad its so heavy to transport would be a sure prize winner entry for the Northeastern Woodworkers Association Showcase in Saratoga Spring the end of March (www.woodworker.org)

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- Ryan Goetzmann September 7, 2018 9:48 am
  
  I know! It would have been awesome to be able to enter into it that, but it’s unfortunately way too huge to be moving around.. and it’s not so perfect anymore after working on it for about a month now.
  
  Reply
Doug H September 7, 2018 4:55 am

Newbie question here. I’ve worked with Purple Heart in some handcarving and good lord, it took down my edge incredibly quick! I spent more time stropping than actually carving.

How did you get all those cuts without ruining saw blades?

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- Ryan Goetzmann September 7, 2018 9:55 am
  
  Hi, really the only cuts I made were to rip the bench tops boards to width and I used a Freud 24T Ripping Blade. Something that can dull saw blades quickly is the generation of heat from cutting the wood, and with PurpleHeart being so sensitive to heat it’s able to heat up very quickly so using a 24T ripping blade allows enough space between the gullets to clear the chips and the dust won’t build between those gullets generating that heat. Otherwise for the most part I did everything with hand planes and hand tools so I feel your pain about sharpening, when working hand tools on PurpleHeart it turns into about 50% woodworking and 50% sharpening if you want to avoid that dreaded tearout. Hope this helps!
  
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Ken Erickson September 7, 2018 6:33 am

That is absolutely beautiful. I would never have even considered using purple heart as a workbench material. Too pretty.

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Bill Edis September 7, 2018 7:09 am

A pure work of art.

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Scott Dunsmore September 7, 2018 7:42 am

It’s beautiful Congratulations. Great work.

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John Kitzmiller September 7, 2018 9:52 am

Absolutely gorgeous bench!

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Henry Barr September 7, 2018 12:57 pm

Who’s your supplier, I need to get my hands on some of that purple heart!! very nice bench.

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- Ryan Goetzmann September 8, 2018 11:20 am
  
  I got it from Advantage Lumber, they always have excellent deals on exotic woods. I got lucky catching PurpleHeart on sale for $3.66 bf for 8/4 as it normally runs $6.83 for 8/4 from them which is still an excellent deal.
  
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Gean September 7, 2018 2:27 pm

What kind of end vise is that? Where did you get it?

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- Ryan Goetzmann September 8, 2018 11:24 am
  
  That is an old Sheldon Quick Release vise, I did a bit of cleaning up on it but it works very very nicely. I don’t know why they don’t make new vises in this type of design, I love the lever and quick release on it and it has a super strong hold with no racking at all. I highly recommend this an end vise over all the new ones made in Asian countries, it’s super heavy and well built.
  
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Danny H. September 7, 2018 5:03 pm

Beautiful “work of art” workbench ! I can totally relate with the heavy lifting part as it took six people just to lift my work bench top onto it’s Nodin adjustable hardware base.

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- Ryan Goetzmann September 8, 2018 11:28 am
  
  Thank you! I had built it upside down to get all the mortise and tenons to fit then when everything was put together it took four of us to flip it over and I was so nervous throughout that step !
  
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Gary September 7, 2018 6:46 pm

Wish the pic’s would have posted bigger it’s crazy stupid beautiful. Great job :-D

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- Ryan Goetzmann September 8, 2018 11:26 am
  
  I know I wish I could have uploaded larger images, my bench is on lumberjocks as well with some more pictures of the build process. http://lumberjocks.com/projects/389529
  
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Ralph T September 10, 2018 3:14 pm

Ryan, the combination of the two woods is excellent. Your facing grain with the maple are beautifully “popped.” The light-colored maple legs accentuate your worktop to a “T.” The detail work on two vices is a real treat. Congratulations!

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- Ryan Goetzmann October 23, 2018 10:17 am
  
  Thank you so much! I love how the PurpleHeart contrasts with the Maple, the bench is solid and real dream to work on!
  
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Devin September 15, 2018 9:36 pm

Congrats. Awesome work. Built a tabletop (36×72) out of 8/4 P.H. a long time ago…cannot imagine using mainly hand tools. You must be a patient (and skilled) man :)

Hey what type of glue did you use for the top and how did you do it (clamping method, surface prep,etc.)? As I’m sure you’re aware, P.H. is an oily & troublesome wood to glue. Any complaints on your glue lines thus far? I used a polyurethane glue (Gorilla Glue) as some recommended for my edge-glued tabletop way back when. Didn’t really know what I was doing at the time, only that the wood looked cool. As I later learned, the Gorilla Glue expanded quite a bit as it began to dry, leaving visible glue lines that I tried to remove with increased clamping pressure. It took over 10 years, but I’m finally getting a slight end-split right along my worst glue line. Other than that, the thing is still like a slab of iron. Wish I would have read articles like or tried a specialty glue like before diving in, but hindsight is 20/20.

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- Devin September 16, 2018 11:19 am
  
  hmmm…links got removed. above should read “articles like http://www.wood-database.com/w.....-hardwoods or tried a specialty glue like http://www.smithandcompany.org“
  
  Reply
- Ryan Goetzmann October 23, 2018 10:16 am
  
  Hi, first off thank you! It took a ton of patience and sharpening to get through it all.
  I used Titebond 3 for all my glueing. PurpleHeart is not oily like Cocobolo, but is a very resinous wood. A piece of PurpleHeart that has been sitting for awhile will have that resin drawn to the surface due to oxidation and that’s what gives it that very purple color. As soon as a piece starts to get worked that resin is very easily burned off, which is why any kind of router bits or saw blades will very easily burn marks. So while building it before any gluing I made sure to hit every glue surface with a hand plane or quick sanding to burn off that resin thus allowing the glue to penetrate the pores before the resin oxidized back to the surfaces. It’s been about four months now since the top has been all together and the wood has gone through the highest humidity it will see during August and for the last month been seeing very low humidity shop levels now that it’s getting colder and I heat my shop with a wood stove. So far haven’t had any glue lines open up whatsoever, so hopefully it stays that way!
  
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Jeff June 17, 2019 12:51 am

Great works ! Thanks for your information.

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Ryan’s PurpleHeart and Maple Workbench

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