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Decided to make a shaving horse

Michael Newby

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Posts: 697

Location: Mount Shasta, CA Zone 8a Mediterranean climate

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posted 9 years ago

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I got a new set of tools for making round tenons on poles (think log furniture) and decided that the first thing I would use them for is to make some legs for a shaving horse, which has been on my list of want-to-dos for a while.

I already had a pretty decent slab of pine from a tree I had removed a while ago and cut into fencing for the pig pen so I cut that to about 8' long. Once it was cut to length I flipped it over and peeled it with my draw-knife.

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Michael Newby

gardener

Posts: 697

Location: Mount Shasta, CA Zone 8a Mediterranean climate

152

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posted 9 years ago

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Once I had the slab cut and peeled I gathered a few cedar poles I had lying around from thinning the woods. I made a makeshift pole holder with a large round and a ratchet strap which worked better than I really thought it was going to. I decided to cut 2.5" diameter tenons mainly because that was the size tool that seemed to match up best with the size poles I had gotten. My phone died in the middle of me working so I didn't get pictures of the next few steps but basically it involved drilling holes in the bottom of the slab with a forstner bit the same size as the tenons. I was being impatient so I just eyeballed things but I'm still pretty happy with how it worked out. The other step I didn't photograph was cutting a hole in the slab for the clamp arm to fit through. This was done rough with my chainsaw then cleaned up with a hand chisel so that the 4x4 arm would fit through.

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Michael Newby

gardener

Posts: 697

Location: Mount Shasta, CA Zone 8a Mediterranean climate

152

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posted 9 years ago

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Once I had the hole cut so that the arm fit, I drilled a hole for the pivot. Luckily I had a pretty decent size auger bit that made drilling the pivot hole a snap. The picture is after the fact with the arm removed so you can see the bit but I had the arm held in place while drilling so the auger bit cut one continuous straight hole, much easier than trying to drill from both sides and get it to line up.

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Michael Newby

gardener

Posts: 697

Location: Mount Shasta, CA Zone 8a Mediterranean climate

152

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posted 9 years ago

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I decided to use a piece of the same slab I cut the shaving horse bench from to make the head out of. While trying to figure out how I wanted to attach the head to the arm I decided that I would try my hand at a rough dovetail joint. Considering it was my first attempt at a dovetail of any kind, let alone a very large one using only hand tools, I'm pretty happy with the results.

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Michael Newby

gardener

Posts: 697

Location: Mount Shasta, CA Zone 8a Mediterranean climate

152

I like...

posted 9 years ago

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The treadle was a piece of 2x6 that connected to the arm with a simple lap joint. That's as far as I've gotten so far, I still need to make the bridge/riser assembly so I have something solid to clamp against. I couldn't help myself (I never said patience was a strong point of mine) so I grabbed a quarter-round that was lying around and used that to allow my to try out peeling a cedar pole using the shaving horse. It worked pretty well but I think that having a proper bridge will make a big difference in comfort and usability.

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Tina Lee

Posts: 27

Location: Garrison, Montana

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posted 9 years ago

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Thanks for this. I have to make one for my husband who has been begging for one for at least a year. Your plan is simple and I think it would work well for him.

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