Shaving Horse

I made a shaving horse. Or a shave horse. Something to hold wood while I go at it with a drawknife.

I never used one before, and wasn’t totally sure what I was doing, but I got the basic principle. I looked at a few photos online and in a few books that I have, but didn’t have some of the materials they called for, or thought the design was too complex. I don’t have a computer in my workshop and am usually way too lazy to keep going back and forth to and from the computer, so I usually just try to figure things out using my biological computer.

I looked through my wood stash for something wide enough for the seat and ramp and the only thing I had was an old 2×8 that was pretty rough. I figured that it was good enough to experiment with.

I started with the leg assemblies. Nothing special or difficult, pretty sturdy.  All 2×4’s, Doug Fir, I believe.

I went through a few designs for the hinge, cutting each one off after hating it, and wasting a lot of wood, until settling on this one, which I remembered from a photo I saw somewhere. The peg is held into the mortise with a wedge, the ramp is attached to the peg with an oak dowel.

Holding up the ramp is a piece of firewood from my woodshed. It’s not attached to anything, slide it toward you for a shallower angle, away for steeper. It works quite nicely.

For the head (I’m making up all these terms, I have no idea what anything is called), the thing that clamps down onto the ramp, I used a piece of hardwood (not sure what kind) that I turned on the lathe for the round tenons. I covered one side with a piece of leather and cut a V-groove in the opposite side. The head can spin so you can choose which side will hold your work best. I made that V-groove way too big, I think. Got carried away with the handsaw.

The foot pegs are some sort of closet rod I found. It was a weird size, a tad over 1 1/4″, so I drilled the holes with a No. 20 Jennings pattern bit in a brace, then sanded the pegs until I could mallet them in. Made for a very tight fit.

I was worried about getting the geometry wrong, not having enough clamping pressure, the foot pegs being too far forward, etc. But it seems alright. That moveable firewood wedge makes it adjustable enough so both me and my nine year old can use it.