Previously on WOOD DUST. We need to make ten benches that must be sturdy and functional, yet mobile enough to make it all the way to Newrybar NSW for Christopher Schwarz’s Stick Chair workshop. Here are the design parameters one last time:
They need to be mobile.
They need to be flat packed.
There is a budget.
They need to suit a range of tasks.
They all require a front vice.
In our previous post, and thanks again to James Shadbolt, we focused our attention on Moravian workbenches as a possible solution for our ten-bench challenge. These benches perform as a sturdy traditional bench yet are easily dissembled and reassembled making them extremely mobile. A Google search will provide a lot of information about these benches including materials, joinery techniques, vices and general history. If you are lucky enough to visit North America, you can see original examples of these benches or even attend a course to build one with the likes of Will Myers. Yet who were the Moravians and how did this bench design emerge?
Moravians are a Slavic people originating in the historical lands of Moravia located in the eastern regions of what is today, Czechia. Humanoid occupation of this region can be traced back some 600 000 years. Stone tools dated at 120 000 years have been found at Moravia archaeological sites. Cro Magnan man was hanging out there some 24 000 years ago and Mammoth hunters 10 000 years later. The Venus of Dolni Vestonice, the oldest known ceramic figure in the world dated at approximately 30 000 years was found in the caves of Moravia. From the Stone Age through the Bronze and Iron Ages, people of numerous cultures moved across these lands. It is interesting that material is utilised as a major measurement of human progress as every woodworker, designer, engineer or artist knows that knowledge of material is fundamental to their practice. Romans had their time in Moravia until the Barbarian tribes crossed through during the Migration Period and the Slavs established the Moravian Principality at the end of the eighth century.
This very brief overview of human history of the region highlights the ancient complexity of the Moravian people and humans more broadly. Moravians arriving in North America in the early seventeenth century are not the product of a single lineage, but the result of multiple human cultures intertwined over thousands of years. Cultures that created, destroyed and then renewed again, a long history of adaptation and modernisation.
From this perspective, when the New World opened in the America’s it would seem quite predictable behaviour for peoples to move into these new lands and make them their own. The Indigenous folk of the New World along with other colonised cultures have paid a great price for this aspect of human behaviour. Even today we can observe the governments of so called ‘modern countries’ grinding each other down in the pursuit of dominating ideologies and resources. Civilians, particularly women and children are the usual victims of this quagmire along with the environment and our fellow species. I often wonder if we will enter a time when our species leaves these primal behaviours behind. Jung’s ‘The Undiscovered Self’ should become mandatory reading for all around the globe.
The early Moravian settlers of North America were members of the Moravian Church, a Protestant denomination established in 1457. Persecuted in their European homelands, the Moravians first settled in the Province of Georgia in 1735 and then moved to the Province of Pennsylvania in 1740, where they founded several communities including Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz. One could safely assume these people were fundamentalist in their thinking. I wonder what their thoughts would be regarding Cro Magnan man or other common ancestors if they had known of their existence. The first planned Moravian community emerged in North Carolina circa 1753, and construction of Salem, the economic and religious centre for the region, commenced in 1766. This provides some insight into why North Americans often seem such religiously motivated people.
Back to the bench and my original question regarding how the Moravian Bench design emerged. Was this design brought intact to the New World, or did it emerge during colonisation? I quizzed Christopher Schwarz on the bench’s origins, unfortunately his knowledge does not extend past the presence of Moravians in the New World. With its Germanic design influences, it would be quite possible that the design originated in Europe, yet in my mind it is quite feasible that the bench came into existence during colonisation. After all, the people were working with a blank canvas (from a European perspective) and the need for a sturdy, yet mobile bench was required to build this new civilisation. Is this bench the Triton work centre of the eighteenth century? Ignoring the bastardisation of the Triton brand over the past twenty years, when first conceived the Triton played a similar role. Mobile, versatile and fulfilling the needs of the audience. Just different materials in a different time. Site work has been a long-time challenge for woodworkers.
So initially I was thinking a slimmed down Moravian for this ten-bench project. Considering it further, with the array of materials, manufacturing techniques and modes of transportation available, and in the spirit of human adaptation, rather than a reproduction, can we take this design further and renew it? Enter stage left engineer and digital manufacturer Peter Schwarzel.
Stay tuned and we will explore this design further with the assistance of Peter. If you anything to add to the conversation, in particular any knowledge of the origins of the Moravian bench then email your input to hello@wooddustaustralia.com.au and win one of two free tickets to the WOOD DUST Yarn featuring Chris Schwarz, Michael Fortune and Matt Kenney. Send us your ideas today!
Reading List
Cave Administration of the Czech Republic website
Surry County Council website
Wikipedia
Britannica website
Don’s Map, The Bohunician in Moravia website
TOCAT Triton History website
Scribd website