Very Interesting Find HDTDT

[James Wilson Everett]

Guys,

After being "misplaced" in the Fort Ligonier museum for a few years the original 19th c Fry brothers gunsmith work bench has been re-discovered.  The newly hired staff did not know it existed, but when I questioned a guy named Brad, a great guy, he knew the answer.  Here is a photo of the original 19th c gunsmith workbench as I found it in the museum repair garage, being used as a current workbench.



Here it is with the modern junk removed.



The bench is 10'-3" long, 34" high, 23" wide.  It is a single oak board that is 2-1/4" thick with a nailed on rim.  The nail heads are square.  The oak board was cut with a vertical  up/down sawmill as the saw marks are straight, parallel and at a right angle to the board edge, see photo.



There are several round holes near the edge, two with the rim cut away, I surmise for a post type vise.  There are two rectangular holes cut at an angle near the back, I surmise for some belt driven tooling.





I was really pleased to be able to recover this very rare artifact and have alerted the new staff as to the value of the bench.  Note that at the height of 34" the Fry brothers probably worked standing up.  Now the collection is rather complete with the bench, rifling machine, hundreds of gunsmith tools, the still existing shop building and house plus about 6 or so Fry guns.

Jim

[Paul E. Wog]

Jim,
  Congratulations on the find   It always amazes me when chunks of history are uncovered in plain sight...well, sometimes covered with modern refuse .
  The neat thing is that the bench was at least being used for a bench of sorts...and not destroyed as an "old piece of junk" in the woodpile
  Shreckmeister can chime in with the tale of Wm. Shreckengost' bench and gunshop in Putneyville
  Again, great detective work
  By the way, Brad is indeed a good guy ( and neighbor ), and has a keen eye and talent for the old timey ways.
                   Shreck ( NOT Meister )

[mattdog]

Well, they didn't burn it in the stove and very lucky that some well meaniing young lad didn't hit it with a belt sander and apply a few coats of Urethane.    That would have been a shame. 

[Dale Campbell]

Round holes may be for a holdfast.

[Dale Campbell]

Any evidence of any kind of vise?

[anj4de]

 ...nice...if it was mine I would carry on using it...for building guns! I am searching for a wooden work bench myself right now to go into the new shop in the basement.

cheers
Uwe