Holdfasts, Every Woodworker Should Own a Set!

It is often a great help to have some means of holding work tightly down on the bench, leaving both hands free to hold the tool, etc. Workers soon discover for themselves little dodges by which this means may be effected, but the regulation appliance is the holdfast...

Bernard E. Jones, The Complete Woodworker, 1917

I bought my first pair of holdfasts in 1994 at the Woodcraft Store franchise in Denver, Colorado. A friend and I drove down from Estes Park to check out the tools and to buy some wood. I remember that I bought these holdfasts and a Mora carving knife, there may have been more tools in the shopping bag, I didn't have much money at the time. 

I built the workbench in the photo that fall of 1994, the bench has been remodeled several times, but the hook or crochet on the bench has seen heavy use over the years with the help of those Woodcraft holdfasts. I understand that there were some furniture makers back in the 1990's and early 2000's that would hit these holdfasts so hard the holdfasts would break!  These hunks of metal had a bad reputation among woodworkers who wrote articles for the glitzy woodworking magazines back then. 

 

These holdfasts have served me well of the last 32 years, I used them a lot when I re-sawed guitar sets by hand with a rip saw, they have never failed me. I do own a pair of Gramercy Tools holdfasts, I use them to clamp down a miter box I use for cutting kerfing strips of guitars, but I reach for and use those old holdfasts on a regular basis.

I don't know if anyone uses holdfasts anymore, I understand that today large power tools and CNC machines are the must have for woodworkers.

Time for me to get back in the shop and work.