Pony Jorgensen: Hold the Wood Still, Let the Shape Move

The curve begins with something stationary

Think about a wooden handle. Its shape is understood by a palm as much as by an eye. A small change in the shoulder, a softened edge, or a gentler transition can make the whole object feel more resolved.

Creating that shape asks two different things of the workshop. The wood needs to remain securely positioned. The tool needs to move with control.

That relationship is why I wanted to examine Pony’s E-Z CLAMP heavy-duty folding worktable and Jorgensen’s No. 59 spokeshave together. They are complementary parts of a woodworking activity: workholding and shaping.

The worktable creates the conditions for attention. The spokeshave turns that attention into a cut. Together, they make a useful subject for Things Worth Wanting, where the interest lies in how products support human capability.

This is also a story with an unusually good historical foundation. Behind the contemporary orange worktable and the compact hand tool is a company lineage involving an opera singer, a cabinetmaker, and a tool salesman.

A table that participates in the task

Pony’s current E-Z CLAMP worktable is designed as both a worktable and a sawhorse. The #60P package includes two E-Z HOLD clamps and four bench dogs. The clamps attach to the structure and can hold work vertically or horizontally.

Those details change what a portable table can contribute. Its surface supports the work, while its clamping arrangements help establish where the work stays.

That distinction matters when a hand tool needs a clear path. The maker is arranging a relationship among the material, the cutting direction, the tool handles, and their own stance. The table becomes part of that arrangement.

Bench dogs provide stops at selected positions. Clamps apply holding force. The tabletop supplies a reference surface. Each part contributes to a stable setup, and the usefulness comes from their coordination.

I find this especially interesting in a folding product. The worktable carries an idea about a workshop that can be established for a task, then put away. Its job includes both the working arrangement and the transition back to storage.

Height is part of the conversation

The manufacturer specifies six working heights, from 30 through 35 inches. It rates the structure for up to 500 pounds in table mode and 1,000 pounds in sawhorse mode, with appropriate setup and use.

The adjustable height is the more revealing detail for this particular story. A person shaping a small piece needs to see the line, move the tool, and maintain a comfortable relationship to the work.

Height changes that relationship. So does the position of the workpiece within the clamping arrangement. A handle being refined along one face may invite a different orientation when its edge or shoulder receives attention.

This makes setup an active part of craftsmanship. The maker prepares the conditions under which a precise movement can happen. The product supports that preparation by offering more than one useful position.

Portable equipment becomes especially valuable when it gives the user this kind of control. A folding structure can still encourage deliberate work. Its compact resting form and its adjustable working form serve different moments in the same practice.

The worktable’s lower shelf adds another modest contribution: a place for the nearby tools and materials that belong to the current task.

Meet the No. 59

Jorgensen’s No. 59 spokeshave family includes the No. 59F flat model, #70704, and the No. 59C curved model, #70705. The flat model anchors this discussion of controlled shaping.

The construction is specific: a 3-millimeter O1 steel blade, a precision-cast stainless steel body, stainless adjustment hardware, and seasoned European beechwood handles. These materials have different responsibilities within a tool that fits between two hands.

The blade makes the cut. The body establishes its relationship to the surface. The adjustment hardware lets the owner set that relationship. The handles place the hands on either side of the cutting action.

That arrangement creates a distinctive form of control. Both hands are involved, and the cutting edge works near the center of their movement. The tool offers a close connection between what the maker sees, feels, and changes.

It is an inviting object to study because so much of its logic is visible. The handles, body, blade, and adjustment points explain the work without requiring a hidden electronic system.

The modern relevance of a hand tool

A contemporary hand tool can offer a rewarding form of immediacy. The user supplies movement, receives feedback, and watches the surface change.

That experience has a natural place in workshops where making something is itself part of the purpose. A small project can become a way to learn a material. A wooden handle can teach proportion, grain awareness, and the relationship between shape and touch.

The appeal also extends to experienced makers. A familiar tool can remain useful because it allows fine judgment to express itself directly. The person’s knowledge becomes visible in the next pass.

This gives the current No. 59 a meaningful place within a long woodworking tradition. Its materials and execution serve an established interaction that remains rich enough to reward practice.

The folding worktable adds a contemporary spatial fit. It helps establish a working place in a room that may have several purposes. The combination supports a craft activity without requiring the room to remain arranged for that one activity all the time.

An ecosystem organized around the workpiece

Pony Jorgensen’s broader range includes clamps, vises, hand planes, chisels, saws, and work supports. The workpiece provides a useful way to understand how those categories connect.

A piece may need to be measured, supported, held, cut, shaped, assembled, and refined. Each stage invites a particular relationship between material and tool.

The company also lists a replacement blade for the No. 59, identified as #70703. A replaceable cutting component makes the tool easier to understand as something an owner maintains over time.

That is an important part of a craft ecosystem. The relationship continues beyond the first purchase. Sharpening, adjustment, replacement parts, and new applications give the object an ongoing place in the workshop.

For a manufacturer, the most coherent expansion follows the workpiece through these stages. A new product has a clear purpose when the customer can see which part of making it supports.

The worktable and spokeshave demonstrate that connection particularly well. Their forms are different, but their contributions meet at the same piece of wood.

Give the setup its share of the story

If I were shaping a demonstration of these tools, I would begin before the first shaving. Show the workpiece being positioned. Show the clamp placement and the clear path for the tool. Then move close enough to see what a controlled pass changes.

That sequence gives the workholding product the credit it deserves. It also helps a reader understand that a pleasing result emerges from several coordinated choices.

The spokeshave can then be shown through a particular purpose: refining the transition into a handle, for example, rather than simply moving across an anonymous board. The audience has something to look for. The material is becoming more appropriate to the hand that will hold it.

This is where product communication becomes generous. It helps people see the craft more clearly. It gives the tool’s materials and mechanisms a place in a recognizable act of making.

For businesses in this industry, the story may already be present in a setup that skilled customers perform almost automatically. Slow that moment down and explain what each choice makes possible.