Woodworker's Journal 1993-17-1, страница 23

• A shaving horse is an ingenious piece of equipment. Employing simple leverage, the woodworker's weight and one of Newton's laws {more or less), it wraps workbench, vise and seat alt in a single endearingly ungainly "equinomorphic" appliance. I've made several versions of this venerable tool. The design shown

A Green-

woodworker's Best Friend is His Horse

here served as a portable workshop for English chair bodgers, who hauled them around the woods to churn out parts for ladderback and Windsor chairs. The workpiece is grasped between the crossbar and tiller. As the seated worker pulls on the tool, he naturally pushes against the foot bar (a bit of Newtonian action-reaction), Foot pressure pivots the yoke (a lever arm} on its bolt and presses the crossbar against the work. When the worker is required to pull harder on the tool, he naturally exerts more pressure on the footbar, which holds the work tighter.

thus resisting the tool's increased efforts to pull it free. The thing may look odd, but it uses energy pretty efficiently. This shaving horse is not difficult to build. With the exception of a maple crossbar and foot bars, mine is made of inexpensive, rough-sawn pine. The only modification I've made for the kids is to bore a pair of fool-bar holes higher on the yoke to accommodate their shorter legs. (You could build a scaled down version of the entire horse, too.) We sit on a piece of foam rubber, which keeps us from sliding back on the seat as we push on the bars.

highly likely—trim the legs to put it on an even keel.

Final Thought!)

Put at the service of a child's fertile imagination, the simple techniques of green woodworking can produce a remarkable variety of things—some easily recogni7able by adults, some not. Children need and appreciate adult assistance—part of the fun is making something with dad or mom. grandma or grandpa. Bui be careful nol to provide loo much help. Being a rather fussy

January/Fehruary IW3

woodworker. 1 frequently need to reign myself in. Whenever I get the urge to tidy up the line of a slool leg or "improve Ihe design" of some project, I remind myself of my son's ragged stick baiileship and try to sec the work through ihe child's eyes, not my own.

If you'd like to learn mare about working with green wood and making rustic furniture, an excellent hook on the subject is "Making Rustic Furniture by Daniel Mack. This is a new book tpublished 1992) but it provides a

comprehensive history of the style, from it's heyday around the turn of the century, up to the present revival that has seen rustic furniture gaining devotees as "fine art.'' This book covers the gamut of rustic—including twig, peeled, bent willow, southwest, log and even grafted styles—but it fortunately goes well beyond just being a pretty-picture coffee table hook. About half the book is devoted to actual how-to techniques, with lors of step-by-step photos. Available for $24.95 from Lark Books. 50 College St., Asheville, NC 28801. EE

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