Workbench Wednesday – Tim’s Gunsmithing Partner Bench 1

In the years since escaping Mordor for the idyllic solitude of Shangri-La (heck, “social isolation” is the normal practice for every day ending in “Y” out here) one of the valued local friendships is that of Tim, an all around cool dude and a primitive skills enthusiast.  One of those “primitive skills” is Appalachian long rifle-making and connoisseurship and he has been an invaluable aid in my work on the David Cooley rifle.

In recent months Tim has been engaged in salvaging a couple of mid-18th century log buildings from south central Virginia, re-erecting them on his place a few miles from here to serve as his workshop for making rifles and other tasks relative to 18thC frontier living.  Once I learned of this project I proposed building the tool to fulfill his need for a proper period-appropriate gunsmithing work bench.  Tim’s rifle-smithing is in the later-18th century English style, so his bench will be a Nicholson.

We picked up the superb southern yellow pine from Virginia Frame and Lumber in Fishersville and over the next few Wednesdays I will be chronicling the project to outfit him in the manner he and his new shop deserve.

Stay tuned.   I think you will find this an interesting trip.