A shave horse has been on my “to-build” list for years. I’ve always made due by holding spindles or legs in my leg vise as I work on them. However, a friend of mine was coming up to do a chair build with me, so I knew that at some point I needed to build a shave horse for use in chair-making. The shave horse here is what my brain came up with.
In its simplest form, a shave horse is something to hold round parts as you work on them. This horse does just that without any fancy adjustment mechanisms. This shave horse utilizes an adjustable table so that you can fine-tune the table angle for the task at hand. A pair of pegs are the pivot points of the head, and a series of holes allows you to adjust the angle and height of the head above your workpiece. The leather-clad table and head offer better grip than the wood itself, and is a non-marring surface. And of course, a long base on the shave horse allows both short (such as myself) and tall (not me) people to comfortably sit at it and work.
