Shaving horses

[SeanHellman]

This one is for Rebecca who pm`ed me about the shaving horse I used in the fan bird carving video. I could not find a simple way to include a photo in a pm so I thought I would start a thread on shaving horse pictures. Lets see what yours look like
I have always prefered the dumbhead style, I like open access, especially when shaving longer stock. I also feel that I have a tighter grip on my workpiece. I also do a lot of small stuff which can only really be done with this type of horse, note the tapered table and dumbhead

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The small vice will be replaced with a wooden screw vice. I made it quickly for a show I was doing where I had very little space and needed to make fan birds. The head can also be turned around.
My other dumbhead has a table which angles up from the front end, but after seeing Brain Willianson`s horses, I decided to have a higher table which is parallel with the main bench. I have since made another with an even higher table which can also be adjusted.

[jrccaim]

Well, OK. Here are both my shavig horses. The small one at right is for the kids that cluster around in summer, learning woodworking. At some point, I will get rid of the milled yoke, and make one out of hewn timber.

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[woodness sake]

Hello Sean. Here is a link to a posting on paleoworld about my shave horse. You might have to cut and paste this to your address bar.
Rick Schuman
http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/18349
Yes, we can put photos here.

[jrccaim]

Woodness Sake said:

Hello Sean. Here is a link to a posting on paleoworld about my shave horse. You might have to cut and paste this to your address bar.
Rick Schuman

WOW! I thought I had seen everything. I was wrong. Marvellous. The construction pictures are worth the visit, too.

[SeanHellman]

I love it, I wish I had easy access to branchwood, most of the wood I have access to is straight or in very short lenghts, I am never around when trees are coming down. I have also just been exploring paleoworld, what a great forum, thanks for pointing it out to us. If I am not carefull I could spend all my time on the computer, one forum just leads to another and soon there are not enough hours in the day to keep up with them

[Robin Fawcett]

That is a great construction - could we post the picture here ?

A few years ago I started to make an album of shave horse portraits. Unfortunately I managed to delete a years photolibrary and lost some.

Neil Taylor - chairmaker


Mark Sidders - spoonmaker


An Australian cooper called George . .


Malcolm Ruffel - ladder-back chairmaker


Made by a student on a weekend course - he wanted to make bows with it.


A small dumbhead I made for a child.


Mmmm photoBucket seems to be cutting off the right edge of pics now ?

Unfortunately I lost photos of Owen Jones' which are a bit like Mark the Spoonmaker's or indeed yours Sean.
Come on - post a picture of your shavehorse(s) . . .

[Andy Coates]

Here's mine. No pole lathe still, but I did make the horse last year.

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[jrccaim]

Wonderful pictures. More!

I find, by the way, that if you tack an old piece of inner tube rubber -- say from a bicycle inner tube -- on one of the sides of the crossbar, it grips wet wood much better. Tip from John Alexander, of chairmaking fame. I agree with the people that say that dumbhead horses grip tighter (they have more leverage) but I prefer the bodger's style -- couldn't quite say why. The inner tube goes a long way towards compensating, especially if the wood is slippery.

[axel]

This is getting a bit like Crufts. Best of Breed anyone?

[Robin Fawcett]

This is getting a bit like Crufts. Best of Breed anyone?

No they're horses not dogs.

[SeanHellman]

Maybe we should race them at the AGM, Steeplechase or flat? Maybe dressage instead!

It`s great seeing all the different styles. and peoples thoughts on these great tools of the trade, keep them coming in folks. Great idea about the inner tube and should be good for dryer wood, wet wood does not seem to slip with me. I also tend to use soft woods for the head, which I think has a better grip.

I use inner tube all the time especially for trying up poles, nothing better and free too

[axel]

Useful stuff indeed, 'have seen inner tube used effectively for holding a log together whilst it is split into shingles.

[simon]

This is the first thing I made after reading 'Green Woodwork'. You are in a bit of a chicken and egg situation, no tools to work green wood with untill you have made them. So I used what I had to hand, which is pretty much what I do now.



It is a bit big and heavy but it works

[Robin Fawcett]

It doesn't look anything like the shavehorse in Green Woodwork Simon but I really like it . . . very idiosyncratic and individualistic.

[Mark Allery]

Snap Simon,

I also made my shaving horse after reading green woodwork, but also inspired by the tutor (by the name of Jonny Morris) on a 1 day course who walked in with his under his arm.

So here's mine folded away, just to distinguish it from all those photos of shave horses sitting on pristine lawns (another thing I don't have).

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And here in use, sort of, I keep meaning to make a new one, but after 4 years the horse stubbornly soldiers on and fails to fall apart - so far!

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