Can anyone identify this work bench?

When word got out that we were searching for "old junk", stove top or coal irons, farm implements, spinning wheels etc., a lot of people used tis as an excuse to clean up their yards, barns, whatever.

One guy just showed up with a tractor load full, including this bench, obviously meant to hold some sort of work in progress, but what kind?

Can anyone provide some enlightenment?

yep

thats a carvers clamp lets you hold down a piece of wood you are working on with a draw knife real firm and switch position almost instantly by lifting you foot off the bottom

TY Brice: That's sort of what I was figuring, but wasn't sure.

real handy if you want to carve spoons and the like

Another name for it is "shaving horse". 16th century technology.

I use mine primarily for holding replica bows I'm working on but use it for other wood working projects on occasion too. Works amazingly well! Can't imagine not having one now. Super simple operation and easy to make. Here's mine I made from salvaged "junk" in an hour or two.

rusty wrote:

Here's mine I made from salvaged "junk" in an hour or two.

Nice. Amazing how many useful things can be made from what, until recently, I also would have called "junk" and thrown it away or burned it!

Spock wrote:
Nice. Amazing how many useful things can be made from what, until recently, I also would have called "junk" and thrown it away or burned it!

Thanks. Making things from "junk" is one of my favorite things to do....bodging as the late Geoff Moxham coined it, I believe.

The building that shaving horse is against is made primarily of "junk" destined for the landfill. The wood stacker to the left, the work bench to the right....all made from "junk" too, collected in various places.

That's beautiful Rusty !

I love the way you've used all the elements to combine into something which just looks so right. (And the Artichokes are truly spectacular !!  )

Skip to 6:50 in this video to see a shaving horse in action: http://video.pbs.org/video/1427698750/

Irene Kightley wrote:
That's beautiful Rusty !

I love the way you've used all the elements to combine into something which just looks so right. (And the Artichokes are truly spectacular !!  )

Thank you, Irene!

it was also use over here Arcadian territory(french settler on Canadian east coast)
to make split shingles. actually to hold the split shingles in place to shave the top.

Wheel wrights also used a vice like that to hold the spokes while they shaved them into shape.

A very rudimentary tool for doing many hand working tasks. Simple, yet efficient.

that fellow on the PBS program the woodwright uses a bench like this!!! karen