Mystery clamp

Mike writes:

Hi again. It's that loon who's slowly working backwards through your blog posts again...

I'm down to Saturday May 12, 2007. Being curious to see what this fret table or clamp tool looks like, I went off and hunted on Squires website. All I could find are mini Fret clamps. These look like a G-clamp but with a flat section opposing the screw portion rather than the curved section with a descending bump of a G-clamp. I tried Google images for "fret table" and "fretwork table" but that just produced... well, lots of tables and nothing that seemed to match what you were doing.

If you get time, please could you either enlighten me with a picture of this useful sounding tool, or point me to a catalogue name?

No problem. Well, I say that but it's only because I managed to put my hand on the aforementioned device the moment I rooted around in the cupboard.
 

 

Fret clamps are, as you say, flat sided G-clamps designed to hook through a wooden fret table and hold it down to the bench.

 

It took a bit of digging in the Squires Catalogue but eventually, I found that the correct name is a bench pin and anvil. The wooden part being the pin and metal part the anvil. Catalogue number WB1341 and WB1342 (Page 81) although there are lots of other supplies according to Google. Try this range from Cousins tools for example.

 

Like so much of our model making toolkit, the tool harks from the jewelery making world. I'm pretty certain that it was never intended for hollowing out the windows on a model boat!