Shave Horse

Lee Stoffer saddles up and rides his newest project, a shave horse

1. First I prepared the boards for the main body of the horse. The seat board was roughly shaped, retaining the offcuts for the rear legs before planning to the required thickness

2. I cut a board in half at a 75° angle to create a pair of boards for the pivot bed. After correcting some warp and wind with a power plane I ran them through the thicknesser then clamped together and cleaned up
as a pair with a hand plane

3. While the boards were still clamped, I drilled a series of 19mm diameter holes for the pivot pin with 55mm between centres

4. Then it was time to blend the bed section into the seat with some nice curves. I drew them freehand, used a jigsaw to remove the first side, and flipped the waste over to mark the second set of curves for symmetry

5. I ripped down between the bed rails, made the release cut with a jigsaw and cleaned up the inside cut surface with a block plane on the skew

6. A drawknife was used to chamfer the top edge of the board, then I cleaned up the outside of the bed rails with a jack plane

7. Next I made the front leg, cutting a tenon 40mm wide to fit in between the bed rails in the seat board. The tenon was left long to be trimmed flush after assembly

8. The front leg was clamped in place with the rear of the seat board propped so it sat level. Material was then prepared over length for a pair of rear legs

9. The rear legs have a splay and rake angle of 15°. To create the rake angle I clamped the legs together and trimmed one end at 75° before offering them up to mark out the joints

10. Each leg has a half lap joint with a tricky compound angle, but it looks good and adds stability

11. The legs were offered up to mark out the rebate in the seat board to receive the half lap on the legs. I made stop cuts and knocked out the majority of the waste before paring to the correct angle for the splay and test fitted the legs securing them with a screw into the seat board

12. I ripped the offcut from the front leg material in half to make a cross brace to fit between the legs. The brace was secured with two screws through each leg and a couple more through the seat board countersunk by at least 10mm to allow for hollowing later. Excess leg length was then trimmed flush

13. The upright static clamping head was cut from ash to fit the slot in the bed with a 50mm post to drop down through the seat board and protrude by 10mm. The curve cuts were softened with a round over bit and the upright fixed in place with a screw through the underside of the seat board

14. Clamping the bed side boards in place flush with the front leg, I used a couple of holdfasts to keep the pivot holes aligned. The seat board was fixed to the front leg with a screw from each side

15. Accessing the bottom of the bed rails I added screw fixings every 100mm up into the side boards with a pair of coach bolts at either end of the bed to fix through the side boards, front leg and the ash upright

16. I then cut another brace to fit between the rear leg cross brace and the protruding tenon of the ash upright. Screw fixings were made into the cross brace and the upright before securing through the seat board from above, in deeply countersunk holes

17. I turned a dowel to the diameter of the countersink and plugged all the holes in the seat and trimmed the dowel flush. I used a travisher to slightly hollow and sculpt the seat to improve comfort

18. Time for some moving parts! The swing arm was cut from ash planed to fit in the slot of the bed. Pivot holes were drilled at 19mm and 15mm holes at either end to receive locating pegs. I cut a tenon on the top of the swing arm to allow for various clamping heads to be fitted securely fastened with a peg through the 15mm hole

19. I used the waste from cutting the thinner end of the swing arm to turn a pivot pin. I burnt in some detail and planed flats onto the handle, then turned a couple of tapered pegs that bite half way through the 15mm top and bottom holes in the swing arm

20. The clamping head was shaped to suit the work I wanted to hold and recessed to fit over the top of the shoulders on the swing arm tenon. I used some scrap pine and made my head reversible with a peg to locate in tang holes on tool handles with a general purpose concave surface on the opposite end

21. I clad the clamping surfaces with leather for added grip, rubber could be used as an alternative fixed with contact adhesive

22. Now all I needed was a tread plate. This was thinner rough sawn material. I used 28mm thick oak cut to shape then marked out the two mortises, which allows the tread plate to fix to the swing arm in different positions to increase adjustment potential

23. The mortices were cleaned up to achieve a slightly ‘baggy’ fit on the swing arm. This allows the tread plate be slid up or down the shaft so it can be adjusted to comfortable height and distance dependant on which pivot holes are used. Friction holds it in a working position and the retaining peg prevents it sliding off the shaft during adjustment

24. A quick test shaping a tool handle. A firm grip was achieved with very little effort while sitting in a comfortable working position, then a couple of coats of boiled linseed oil really bring out the beauty in the grain

25. At maximum capacity 650mm long billets can be held, I based this on how far I could comfortably reach the full length of the workpiece. There will be more customisation later!