Shavehorse

[Mike Holbrook]

Is the wood in your seat glued up? If it is you could use it to practice carving chair seats. It looks like SYP (southern yellow pine) or fir which will be a little hard but doable. I like a nice seat on a shavehorse as I spend long hours rocking around on it.

[paul cottingham]

Riving break? His books are sold out on Amazon. I'm 265lb. Now I gotta figure out how to get it outa the way when not using it.

A riving break is an appliance made out of two sticks (or boards) that hold a pice of wood that allows you to split stock easily with a Froe.

mine is so light it's easy to move around. I would store it outside under a tarp if I had to. It's just a couple 2x4's after all, easily rebuild, if necessary.

[paul cottingham]

Is the wood in your seat glued up? If it is you could use it to practice carving chair seats. It looks like SYP (southern yellow pine) or fir which will be a little hard but doable. I like a nice seat on a shavehorse as I spend long hours rocking around on it.

Im an idiot. What a great idea. I'll make my riving brake out of something else, and make a nice seat.

gives me an excuse to buy an adze and one of those LV rigs (pullshave) for shaping seats (haha.) Now I just have to find an adze that I can afford.

[Mike Holbrook]

Paul, I'm sorry if I made a short unclear post.

I was actually making the comment to the OP, who I am also carrying on a private conversation with. David is interested in making windsor chairs with hand tools which we have been discussing in PM's. David and I are trying to acquire suitable woods to make windsor chairs. We are talking about taking down a tree or trees on my property to acquire green wood for the two of us vs buying it. David is eager to have some wood to work with ASAP. I just noticed the seat in the picture he posted and thought he might sculpt it a little with some of the tools he has acquired.

Sorry if I lost track of the direction the post moved in while I was posting and doing a PM.

[paul cottingham]

Regardless, it is a terrific idea. Obvious things rarely occur to me. I'll make a riving brake out of something else.

Nice to to have a ready supply of green wood available. Finding suitable wood isthe hardest part of green woodworking for me.

[David Ragan]

Very nice work Dave. How much would you charge to make a second one?

You guys are too funny! Making a big deal out of a BORG lumber shave horse.

I was having a challenge just to get the thing @ 90* where appropriate, and have the wherewithall to get the legs right.

The plan is: http://www.living-wood.co.uk/lumber_horse.html

Is the wood in your seat glued up? If it is you could use it to practice carving chair seats. It looks like SYP (southern yellow pine) or fir which will be a little hard but doable. I like a nice seat on a shavehorse as I spend long hours rocking around on it.

Yep, the seat is glued on it. I have thought about putting a pillow on it. Spending hours using hand tools sounds really sweet.

You use that scorp in my picture to carve seats? It's going to have to be razor sharp, plus have some really good technique. Isn't a travisher a much better tool?

[Mike Holbrook]

David, the shavehorse I have is a similar plan. My seat slides between the two 2x6's it sits on and is removable. The two chair making classes I took used shavehorses that were the same or similar to mine. It is tough to get an entire chair made between lectures in a week long chair class. Still there were long hours sitting on a shavehorse making spindles. I found that sitting on a plain wood seat that long would cause my butt to fall asleep after a few hours, as did others in the class. The shavehorses that had padded leather seats became very popular. Galbert just sculpted his seat into something even nicer than a windsor seat. I suspect Galbert's seat was at least as comfortable to sit in for long periods as the padded seats.

There are lots of ways and tools to make a seat with. Some people start with an adze (Drew likes a long handled one), then go to the scorp, travisher, spokeshaves and curved card scrapers. The travisher is a great tool, usually a less rough tool than the scorp, although much depends on the skill set of the user. Galbert is a huge fan of the travishers he designed and sells. Pete often uses a travisher in place of an adze and scorp. I tiried to get one before the chair making class I took with him. Unfortunately the lady that makes them had a large backlog and I did not get one. Galbert planned to bring new ones to class but there were none to be had. I used one of Peters for a while and it was very good. There is one thing about Galberts travisher, the blade height and mouth are not very adjustable. I think it is designed that way so it is harder to adjust it such that it does not work. Peter's travisher is designed to be tilted during use which provides another way to adjust how much wood the tool removes. Scorps and travishers are both designed to make and get into hollowed out areas that can not be reached with a drawknife or spokeshave.

[David Ragan]

Dang, I could make another seat and just put it on top of the platform that I have already! Have leather and padding already.

[Mike Holbrook]

I was mostly just explaining why I was thinking you could take your seat off, clamp it in a bench and shape it. I do like being able to adjust my distance from the work for shorter and longer pieces. The comfort issue may not be a big deal unless you are working long hours in a class for 5-7 days in a row. I would probably use it as is for a while and modify it for your specific needs/wants. You can try out mine and see if you think the adjustment features and padded seat are worth the time to make them.