The Shavehorse

I realized recently that while I had published my book with shavehorse plans in "Chairmaker's Notebook", that I'd never "shown" the advantages of it. There are as many plans and ideas about shavehorses out there as there are users and I've had a lot of fun thinking about the tool, especially as I've traveled and seen so many in action. When I sat down to put a design in my book, I felt that I should revisit the idea with the priority of making an easy to build, bullet proof and simple to use shavehorse.

 I thought long and hard and got some design influence for the body of the horse and the materials from Tim Manney and Brian Boggs. I had realized a while back that the narrow body of the two rail style is comfortable and that it also resists vibration in the direction that I pull the drawknife, which gives smoother cuts. There's nothing terribly new in the body design, but I think the adjuster that I made has proven to be a worthwhile addition.



 Of course, pulling the pin to raise and lower the head is not a huge deal, but as you'll see in the video, the toothed adjuster is very simple to use and fast as can be to adjust.

I chose this over my earlier design for the ratcheting head that I made because it's easier to make, and it can be retrofit to any dumbhead shavehorse just by cutting the mortise, drilling a few holes and filing the wood (or on my horse, aluminum) pins to ride smoothly around the pivot pin.  I have 9 of these that I use when teaching at North Bennet Street, and to me the true sign of success is that there is never any conversation about them, they just hold the work solidly and let the users focus on the real job, which is shaving the wood.

Studley I ain't

Yep, I was one of the lucky ones who got to get up close and personal with the toolchest of H.O. Studley in Iowa a couple of weeks ago.

Yes, it verges on woodworker porn, but as a composition and tribute to a lifes work, it is spectacular. Of course you can get the new book "Virtuoso" from my friends at Lost Art Press if you want more.

Here is my current version.

Not quite the tribute that I'd want to be remembered by! I'm in the process of moving my shop to my new home in Roslindale which is just on the southern end of Boston proper. I've been weeding out possessions and categorizing them by which are most used and which can be stored.

I just returned from a month on the road where I taught a class at Caleb James' shop and also in Rio Grande, Ohio. Both classes went swimmingly. I especially loved getting to watch Caleb at work making planes. Below is a detail of the seat that I carved during class at Calebs.

Here is an especially cool shavehorse that a student brought into class in Ohio.

The horses that I brought (built from the plans in the book) performed great and stacked nicely for transportation, but I must admit that they can't hold a candle to their ancestor in the beauty department.

Here is a shot of the finished seat. I have always wanted to carve a seat like this. I made the mistake of leaving the top dry fit when I went to humid Ohio and the parts locked tight. I figured that I could wait til winter and try to get it apart, but instead I just wedged it and painted it.

Another thought on the Shavehorse

I was in need of another shavehorse recently for a class, so I grabbed a dumbhead swing arm that I had laying around and cobbled together a horse. This part was an experiment that I had tried when looking into making an adjustable shavehorse. I rejected it because it had some short grain issues that I thought wouldn't stand up. But after using it in the class, I realized that the shortgrain issues that came with sawing the parts from a board could be sidestepped by using hickory dowels for the "teeth". It took me all of 15 minutes to retrofit with dowels and I have been using it with great results. The video is clearly a quick shot, but I think it gets the idea across.



The one drawback to this design that the "smarthead" solves is that the foot treadle rises when you adjust it, but so far, that hasn't been annoying enough to overcome the simplicity and the strength of the concept. Ideas aren't always linear, this one sat for a couple of years, but I thought it worth sharing for those looking for simple solutions. The dowels are set at a 23 degree angle (probably variable) and are 5/8".

Spring Report

From my lack of posting lately, you have probably surmised that it's been a busy couple of months. I have been working to wrap up projects, some new tools, some new techniques and of course some classes. I've been teaching weekends at the North Bennet Street school in Boston. After their initial taste of chairmaking from Dan Faia and Elia Bizzarri, some of the students decided to bring me in to teach some other designs. It's a fun place to teach with lots of talent and energy.

But as with all things in this world, choices must be made and consequences endured, so my maple syrup season has been whittled down to a couple of days of running out to the rig to check the fire, while tending to other business. It's the exact opposite of the way it is meant to be, which is an excuse to hang out outside for 8 hours tending a fire and watching the spring arrive. But, I needed to do it, even if it wasn't the ambling joy of burning wood and time together.

But that said, my efforts last season to improve my rig worked great and I was able to get more than a gallon each day that I boiled. Enough for me and my helpers.
Speaking of helpers, he are pics of Dan and Tim helping me split out parts for a class that I am teaching next week at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking in Washington state.

I am excited to go to the northwest, I haven't been there in 20 years. This is my first time teaching there and I am excited to be expanding to the west. There is one spot open if you are interested.

I forgot how much work it is to prep an entire classes worth of material. I've never missed Greg so much.

I did finally get a chance to paint the "glueless" chair. It hasn't fallen apart yet!

I have been experimenting with some new paint and new techniques and am excited to share the results. I have some more testing to do, but I think that I might be on track to the fool proof finishing that we all want (especially this fool).

I set out to paint the chair blue, and I did, but the layering, and shellac (hint) shifted the color to the green

In case you missed it, check out Jameel's blog over at Benchcrafted.
 
He made his "smarthead" shavehorse and made some updates and additions to the plans. It boggles my mind how pretty he makes everything. I wonder if his sock drawer is a mess.
I am getting very excited for the class at Kelly Mehler's where we will be building this project as well as forging blades, getting down and dirty with our tools and as always, having a ball.
Happy Spring!

IMHO

I believe the the shavehorse is one of the greatest inventions ever. The rhythm and ease of working on one comes so naturally to folks that it seems to link right into our DNA. That being said, I've seen a lot of different designs and have tried to be diplomatic about my own preference (really, I've tried!).

I think that the dumbhead style shave horse that allows for the head assembly to be adjusted both up and down and forward and back, with an adjustable foot treadle is the most versatile and comfortable style around. Here is John Waters (an Aussie pal) sitting at my favorite style. You can find plans for it here.

 

There is another style of shavehorse that I run into a lot, and frankly, I'm not a huge fan. It's not that it doesn't work, it's just that I see more folks working awkwardly or getting frustrated while on it. I don't bring this up to be disparaging, but because I found that some subtle changes might improve it and if you have one, you might consider them.

While in Melbourne, where all of the shavehorses were like the one below, I noticed that the angle of the platform that the workpiece rests on seemed a bit steep. If you look at the wrists of Wayne in the photo, you see that they are out of alignment with his forearm, and his forearm is out of line with the spindle. This means that he must constantly adjust his wrists to keep the drawknife shaving consistently. Not a recipe for success, or comfort.

So I bullied my friend Bern into chopping up his newly minted shavehorse to try a hunch. I like a 10 degree slant to my platform. When Bern did this, the change was notable enough to justify chopping into the other 11. Look at Berns body position in the image below.

Not only is he a fine example of an Aussie craftsman, but he looks good, and comfortable doing it! You might be saying, yeah, but what if you are super tall? Well, lucky for us, they grow em huge over there and we had a 6'7" student who agreed that the shallower angle was a welcome change. Go figure.

Another change that you might consider if you are riding one of these, is to make an adjustable foot treadle. It wouldn't be too tough and I think that you'll notice that your energy is better spent when the treadle is properly adjusted. I suppose that the concept of the horse and the platform that ratchets up is supposed to make this unnecessary, but I'm just going from experience of watching folks use it.

And finally, I've notice that on lots of these, the platform extends too far forward and makes working on small pieces or near the head tough. So chop it off.

Here are a couple of ideas that I picked up from my friends Down Under that I will be putting to good use.

I've been meaning to do this to my continuous arm forms for some time, but seeing as they beat me to it, I give them full credit. If you are unfamiliar, the form usually has a tighter bend and a piece of angled steel that holds it in position away from the form. But since this is the position that we want, why not just make the form to fit!

And here are their wedges, with the clever cut out to make knocking them out easy (no more tapping the thin edge!).

Here is a seat carved from Kauri. It's pretty hard compared to our pine, or even poplar!

Not all of it was this figured, but it sure made for exciting carving. They assured me that it was a soft wood, but then again, they kept warning me about drop bears and hoop snakes as well!

Shavehorse Plans

In response to a recent question, here are the plans for my favorite shavehorse. It's a fun project to build and mine has given me years of service. I highly recommend lining the jaws with leather, which dramatically increases the holding power for the effort you put in.

To see the images full size and hopefully to print out, just click on them.
Below is the chair that Jeff Lefkowitz made with me recently. Jeff has spent time with Curtis and Brian Boggs since he was last here so we pulled out all the stops. The class ended up being as much about chair design as actually getting the thing together.


It's vital to a chair design that it be appealing from all angles.



Here's Jeff in his finished chair.


Obviously from my lack of posting, this summer is very busy for me. Below is a teaser of what you'll be seeing in the next post, and I can say without reserve, it's beautiful.