I am looking for sources and addreses of co. selling premium
Jewelers Benches prefered to be made of maple ,birch or oak. I am
a sculptor of ultra miniature big game animals and havent done
any pirces for about ten years and I am retired and want to get
back in the thick of sculpturing again. I would appreciate any
given. E-mail me @Billy_S_Bates P.S. I am in
The Los Angeles area, would prefer western us suppliers. Thank
youfor your time.
Try Frei and Borel.
Yo Billy, look no farther than Oakland for your bench. The
place is Frei and Borel. They sell the best benches I’ve come
across. I forked over about $1300 for my custom double side oak
bench and have never been happier. I don’t have their number
with me, but someone here will have it. If not, e-mail me direct
and I’ll bring it home from the shop.
Well, I’ve got to chime in here. I know Rio Grande gets a lot
of talk around here, and I hate to mention them again. But… I
bought my bench from them and feel it was an unusually good deal.
It is a single bench, solid wood with masonite top, sweeps
drawer, double tool shelf above that and three drawers on the
right side. Well made and very solid/sturdy.
I seem to recall it was under $300 (but shipping to the east
coast was $60). I’ve been really happy with it, a lot happier
than I would be had I spent in excess of $1000 on a bench.
Granted, Rio does offer more expensive versions, but this one is
really nice for the price.
Dave Sebaste
With all of this talk about workbenchs, I would like to mention
the bench in Tim McCreight’s book, The Complete Metalsmith. I
made the one he has in the back of the book. It has a sweeps
drawer and three drawers on the right side. It is 4 ft wide, has
a tempered masonite top and cost less than $50 to make. I have
added an additional tool drawer over the sweeps drawer and
various holders for things like saw blades. I also added an oak
piece to attach my bench pin to with holes for mandrels. All in
all, you wind up with a custom bench at a very reasonable price.
“Try it, you’ll like it!”
Sharon