Reply by rockindavan

I built my bench top out of maple and base out of cherry. I figured if I was going to spend a bunch of time building it I would spring for better quality and better looking materials. I guess it boils down to how much it means to you to have a nice looking bench. If you are not going to build a bench for at least another 10 years, I would suggest going for the maple. A bench is something you will use on every project where some tools are not used as often.