About 10 days after I contacted their customer service folks about the 
bench top, they called me to arrange a swap. Two friendly guys from the 
Calgary store showed up, carried the new bench slabs down to the cave, 
and hauled the other ones away. I have set them up on my existing bench 
base, so I can get a few things done before I decide exactly how I'll 
set the new bench up. I have the slabs set up with a 5/8 inch gap 
between them. So far, I have not attached a vise.

Observations

The slabs look good, quite flat, nicely milled and finished, and up to 
spec AFAIK.

The Grammercy and Veritas holdfasts work very well with the dog-holes.

Provisionally, I am finding the top too slick. I sawed up some stickers 
today for some cherry I milled, and my little saw hooks were sliding 
around on the surface. Never happened before.

I tried smoothing a small piece of oak, using the 10in Veritas planing 
stop, http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=69837&cat=1,41637 and 
had the same issue. Slip-sliding at the least excuse.

I have a 4in Record vise mounted to a piece of finished 3/4 in plywood 
bench hook. In the past, I secured it in my WW vise whenever I needed 
it, but I was thinking it would be more versatile if I could just secure 
it with hold-fasts. I tried that this afternoon, so I could fettle one 
of my spokeshaves. The vise would not stay put with 3 holdfasts on the 
plywood.

On the upside, I did a bit of gluing with Titebond, and naturally 
slopped a bit on the top. It wiped up readily with a damp rag.

As an aside, I filled a bunch of the dog-holes with pieces of foam 
backer rod, and am finding I'm already pushing some of them out.

Don

-- 
"You can tell a man that boozes by the company he chooses"
The Famous Pig Song, Clarke Van Ness

The harder they come, the bigger they fall." Ry Cooder