benches, Thompson (Mouseman) style

[condeesteso]

I do find benches fascinating, and have made a few over the years. So the chance to visit Thompsons in Kilburn was a treat. If you have been there you will know, but it is quite a marketing exercise these days - a gallery, a cafe etc, and a viewing gallery on the 1st floor of the workshops.
I couldn't find any way of viewing the lower floor where I suspect the serious work goes on. It seemed to me the 1st floor was assembly and finishing.
Anyway - benches. And I would not be at all surprised if the ones downstairs were just the same. Trad English style, Record 53 face vice... all nicely beat-up:

And in the gallery I saw one of their latches - really nice. I'll be needing some of these Richard :wink:

Came away thinking - so much to make, so little time.

 

[condeesteso]

p.s. even the loo doors are air-dried English oak, adzed

 

[custard]

I'm puzzled Douglas, I thought it was Mouseman of Malham rather than Mouseman of Kilburn. Are there multiple mousemen?

 

[condeesteso]

Hi Custard - definitely Kilburn (N Yorks, that is, not the London one). Nestled just at the base of the moors that reach over towards Whitby etc. Malham (as in the Tarn) is a good way off. Promise, this is the man (deceased now of course). His mouse mark is now very well protected and it was once copied but not recently to my knowledge. Apologies if you know this, but the idea of the mouse came from his early commissions - churches, mainly in Yorkshire... quiet as a Church mouse.

 

[custard]

I've got it now, thanks for the clarification. Kilburn North London just didn't sound right, Kilburn North Yorkshire is a lot more appropriate!

 

[bugbear]

Interesting - I note pads under the legs to raise, and diagonal bracing, presumably to help resist racking.

I bet they used to be low for effective stock planing, but are now higher for detail work.

BugBear

 

[AndyT]

Interesting - I note pads under the legs to raise, and diagonal bracing, presumably to help resist racking.

I bet they used to be low for effective stock planing, but are now higher for detail work.

BugBear

I think you are right - that fits with having several desk lights to see the detail (and quite ordinary cheap ones by the look of them).

 

[Richard T]

Very interesting latches - and screwed on ..... rather than nailed on (16 nails required).

Rather than 'quiet as' I seem to remember that as a carver, he was poor as a church mouse.

 

[bugbear]

I think Thompson have (to use a concept from music) become their own tribute band.

BugBear

 

[condeesteso]

I think that is right Richard, I retract and sub with yours. I love those latches but agree nails would be nice. Yes BB, it's big business now - I see suspicious signs of a router on the shot of the latch I posted... maybe they have some machines hidden away.

edit p.s. - when the guys got back to work though, I did watch the one closest feel over the peg of one of the joints and reach for a cabinet scraper to finish the surface. If he had picked up a sanding block, there would have been a very sharp tap on the window :lol:

 

[adzeman]

I saw the mousman in 1951 when I was a chorister doing some work on a screen in Ripon cathedral and later after he had past away watched one of his successors fitting a carved robe cabinet again at Ripon and he used a rose as his trademark. Did the craftsmen you saw have individual signatures?

 

[condeesteso]

Hi Mike - I was not able to get really close - it is a business now, with a glass-screened viewing galley etc. But there was a well-placed 'story-stick' of how to make the mouse, nearby. I cannot imagine there would be any maker mark other than the mouse - it is now a real 'power-brand' (and actually, there were some designs I felt were not quite pleasing). As BB suggested above, it's fairly big business these days. But as a Yorkshireman, i will always respect the early work, I consider oak to be my 'heart-wood', and they still fume pieces, like what I did in school just a few miles from them and (more than) a few years ago.