So, a bit of progress on the shaving horse this afternoon. I’ve had very little shop time over the past couple weeks, but more on that later.
I’ve almost got it finished up. I still need to fashion a seat, and cut the dowels to size and wedge them, but that’s pretty much it! Here’s some pictures in the meantime.
I left some bark on the ratcheting lever and liked it, so I decided to leave some on the bottom of the foot bar as well. I’m not totally sold on it, but I think it looks ok. For whatever reason, chair making seems very “appalachia” to me, so I’m more inclined to leave these folksy details on. I dunno.
One very important detail that I copied from Greg Pennington’s horse was a place to put your drawknife / spokeshave while you’re working. After using his horse for a week, it was obviously a very good modification, and almost an indispensable one. If you don’t have a place to set your tool, you’ve got to have a little bench or something next to you to sit everything on.
All in all though, it seems to have come out pretty well. Another afternoon in the shop and I’ll be done. One final detail that I added was on the bottom of the ratcheting head.. It’s the same detail that Chris Schwarz puts on his English Try Square. I thought it looked nicer than just a squared or rounded over end.
Moving on, the reason I haven’t gotten much shop time lately is because another project that has been in the works for a long time finally came to conclusion..
Porter Edward O’Neill is here! Arrived Nov 29th, 8lb 8oz. Gratuitous fan back rocker picture, of course. Hopefully I’ll be able to impart to him that “shabby-chic” is not a style of furniture, something I’ve been unable to do with my wife.
So, that’s what has been happening around here. I’ll post some finished pictures of that shaving horse in a week or so; I’m building a walnut trestle desk next, so that should be a fun project to document (and won’t be too hard either).
– Matt