Split-Top Saw Bench

Ergonomics is very important when breaking down lumber by hand, and that is where the saw bench comes in. A saw bench lets you put your work piece at a comfortable height for easy work holding and powerful sawing. In this video I build a split-top saw bench out of a 2x10 board of construction lumber and I do it mostly using hand tools.

I had actually broken down the 2x10 at the end of summer, and meant to have built this bench as one of the first projects in my basement woodshop, but sometimes life happens and this build got put off to the side. But I am glad I finally took the time to complete this, hopefully this will be a useful tool in my woodshop.

One thing I realized halfway through the build is that this bench is probably a bit too long for my tiny basement woodshop, so this bench might end up living out in the barn woodshop, and I might make a more appropriately sized one for my basement for next winter season.

How and why do you use it?

The most crucial aspect is to put the work at around knee height. This lets you use your knee to hold the piece you're cutting using your body weight as the clamp. You also get the ability to comfortably put your entire arm movement into the sawing motion. It makes breaking down lumber much more comfortable.

A regular workhorse or sawhorse might get you to the right height, but they usually have slanted legs that stick out on the side. If you're ripping a board along its length you might end up cutting into the legs of the workhorse. A dedicated saw bench usually have legs that either are completely vertical, or a top that overhangs wide enough that you don't saw into the legs.

The vises on your workbench work nicely for cutting joinery and cross-cutting to some extent, but for a some sawing operations you can easily end up at awkward angles, or where work holding becomes unnecessarily tricky.

Why a split-top?

I was originally going to make something like Rex Krueger's traditional saw bench, but for some reason I started gravitating towards this design. One reason for this design was material simplicity, only needing the one 2x10 board.

Being able to rip cut using the central split will be nice I guess, but not sure how often I'll actually be in a situation where that is actually necessary.

I'm looking forward to putting this saw bench to good use in future projects!

Don't forget to watch the YouTube video!