Mark Wells wrote:
The recent topic on woods to use for a workbench brought up a question
I have had for a while.

Why is the common advice to use a hard wood for the bench top?

It seems to me that you would want your workbench top to be softer than
whatever you are working on. Then when you bang the piece around, you
are less likely to leave dents in the piece. I'd rather have dents in
the bench than dents in the piece I'm building.

My bench top is made from Borg 2x4 studs and is pretty soft. It shows
a lot of wear, but then it looks like I actually get things done in the
shop!

Mark

One reason you want the bench hard is so that saw
dust and little splinters don't stick in it
(become embedded). Embedded stuff and really mar
the piece you are working on. You want to be able
to swipe a brush across it and be sure than
nothing is left.