On old vices new media and timeless techniques

Chris Schwarz, owner of Lost Art Press and Editor-at-large of Popular Woodworking magazine, has a bit of a thing for leg vices. Though he calls them vises. Its a murican thing.
Last night after a lovely day out with our nephew in Greenwich I sent Chris a picture of the carpenters vice we saw on the Cutty Sark.
This morning its in a blog post on Popular Woodworkings website.
It used to take that vice weeks to cross the Atlantic, now its dashing back and forth shaking its unusual guide mechanism across the world.
Its such a bad picture Im not even going to post it here but he insisted on giving a credit. Its nice to be able to help someone from whom Ive learnt so much. I will, however post some photos of the ship. Which is amazing. I dont really like expensive restorations of rotting hulks that sit in dry dock and gather dust; boats should sail. The Cutty Sark exhibition is, however, astonishing. Not least because the boat seems to float over the heads of the people sitting in the cafe.
Its beautiful, educational and a masterpiece of engineering. Twice.
The restorers (or preservers I should say, since the ship wont work in its intended function) have tried to use a lot of the original material. Where they needed to add material theyve highlighted it. Original steel frames are white, new steel reinforcement is grey.  Its less obvious in the wood work. Much of the bright work is original and each restoration has added its own set of dutchmen, or patches, let in to the original, massive timbers. This has created a wonderful palimpsest that is testament to the longevity of our domestic hardwoods, the skill of the craftsmen and women who worked on the ship and the potential of wooden vessels to be maintained and repaired.
And that brings me back to the purpose of the blog: building a wooden boat. Little progress to report, Im afraid. Im building a bench at the moment. Chris Schwarz in one of his two (how much is there to say?) books on building workbenches says that a bench should have neither an apron nor a tool tray. Mine will have both. But then he also says "Disobey me!" so Ive taken him at his word. Im chopping mortices for the legs at the moment. Steve Branam has an excellent guide to building this bench, better even than Roy Underhills original description, so I wont be posting it here - its already done.

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