Bench work near salt water has one extra variable, and it is not the salt. It is moisture. Wood takes up and gives off water until it reaches equilibrium with the air around it, and the air along the Atlantic coast is wetter, on average, than the air inland. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory Wood Handbook records that average equilibrium moisture content sits near eleven percent along the Atlantic and Gulf coastal regions, against about eight percent for most of the United States. Joints, panels and tool steel all live with that difference.
This section keeps to the bench itself: the edge a working plane needs, the stones and strops that hold it, the sharpening rhythm that survives a humid summer, and the storage habits that decide whether a chisel is ready on Monday. It documents what is done and why it works, without turning a workshop into a shopping list.
