Chambers
The shaving horse, or mule, is a portable woodwork bench incorporating a foot operated vice. It is a very old idea and various designs have evolved in different countries and trades. My horse, shown here, is a typical ‘English’ pattern. It is made from prepared timber rather than cleft green wood. All the timber is recycled from old furniture and other items. Judging by old photographs of craftsmen of the past this is a traditional way of making a shaving horse even if it lacks the rustic charm of the green wood variety. It is certainly a low cost way of making one so do not be put off, use any timber that comes to hand.
The design should always be adapted to suit your height and the type of work that you intend to do. The main thing is to make the horse strong as it will get a lot of hard wear. The bench part of the horse shown in the picture is 1220mm long, 220mm wide and 455mm high. The sloping board is 620mm long and 182mm wide. The parts are fixed together with wood screws and bolts. The joints are not glued so that damaged or worn parts can easily be replaced.
The sloping board is pegged in place so that it can easily be removed to mount a small box in front of the vice lever. This can be used for jobs that are not suited to the foot operated vice. I used linseed oil as a finish for the horse but other finishes, such as varnish, are equally suitable. The shaving horse is often used to shape long pieces of timber with a drawknife like the one shown in the picture. You pull the drawknife along the work piece, towards your chest, while the other end of the wood is firmly gripped in the vice. Because your feet control the vice pressure it is easy to release the work when it needs to be repositioned. All this is much easier to do than to describe in words. Try it, this system is very efficient, the craftsman of the past can certainly teach us a few useful tricks.
My drawknife came from Robert Sorby in England, they are not the cheapest but they are certainly suppliers of very good quality tools. It pays to get a good drawknife that sharpens well as it is only driven by muscle power, using poor quality edge tools is very tiring and frustrating.