Champion the Lumber Horse

I am very excited to share with you that Mike abbot has kindly given me permission to share his design for his shave horse, this is a distillation of other designs Mike has used over the 30 years of his work in green wood bodging. As you may or may not know, Mike Abbott is credited with the single handed revival of green wood working in the UK and is pretty much the definitive article when it comes to craft.



Mike website can be found here

• Four 8ft (240cm) lengths of 4” x 2” (100 x 50mm) softwood
  
• A 50cm length of 2” x 1” batten for the footrest
  
• A straight wooden rod, dowel, or turned pin about ¾” (20mm) diameter for a pivot
  
• About forty 90mm heavy screws (ideally turbo coach screws, available from Screwfix) or nails
  

• Handsaw
  
• Tape measure
  
• Pencil
  
• 25mm drill bit in a brace, a bar auger, or a drill press
  
• Powerful cordless drill with 6mm hexnut driver or screwdriver head (or hammer)
  

• Fix one section of the main body to the front leg, the central riser and the back spacer, using just one screw at each joint.
  
• Fix one of the platform sections to the tops of the front leg and the riser so that it is about parallel with the body section
  
• Turn the whole assembly over and lay it down with the riser about square to the bed and with the front leg sloping.
  
• Fix the other sides of the body and the platform with a couple of screws at each joint.
  
• Stand the horse on its front leg and prop up the back end so that the bed is about horizontal
  
• Fix the seat components to the back of the body
  
• Fix the leg brace to the rear spacer tight up against the underside of the body
  
• Fix the legs to the back of the seat and to the leg brace with the tops of the
  legs just protruding above the seat.
  

• Screw the top bar to the arms as shown, so that the resulting frame will fit over the horses body. The footrest could be another 50cm length of 4" x 2", a strong length of 2"x1" or anything in between and should be screwed onto the bottom of the arms as shown.
  
• Lift up the front of the horse and slide the arms into place and pivot them with a short hazel rod, a length of dowelling, a length of broom-handle or a specially made 21mm (7/8") wooden pin. This pin works best if it is tapered at one end to make it easier to poke in when adjusting the gap.
  

• Alternatively you could pivot the arms with a metal pin, in which case the holes in the
  platform and the arms could be smaller than 25mm.
  
• If you need to dissemble the horse, the rear leg assembly is easily removed by simply removing the three screws holding the tops of the legs to the seat and the leg brace to the rear spacer.
  
• You could trim the angles off the tops and bottoms of the legs but the tops of the back legs can be very handy as a bench-stop when the horse is in use.
  

Badger wrote: Mike Abbott is credited with the single handed revival of green wood working in the UK

Zoe wrote:Don't forget to make it very sturdy! You do pull quite hard on the wood and push equally against it with your feet.

ps The name of our shaving horse is "Foam"

Wood Troll wrote:
PS where did the blue ball thing come from??? :affraid:

Compostwoman wrote:Bardster was 6 hours solid work to make the horse?...is that about what it would take if you had all the kit on hand?

and I would love to see a picture or several as well!