I work at a local farm museum and have come across a shaving horse that was stored in the loft of one of the barns. After cleaning, I used the horse to make a mallet for my froe. This horse is in fine condition but I have a question about it. There are two rows of pegs that run almost the complete length of the horse. (see image)
Does anyone know what the pegs were used for?
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Though I'm certainly not an expert, this shavehorse seems to be more of a mobile country workstation than a simple horse to shave spindles for chairs. This would make sense because country craftsman would tend to produce a variety of work and be a jack of all trades, not simply a chairmaker or cabinetmaker, in my experience. So continuing with that line, it seems the jaw adjustment consists of multiple pegs driven horizontally through the top plank and boom arm - change the location to accomodate different stock size. The jaw design is different from the examples I am familiar with and I suspect this was for a specialized task (most examples I can think of have horizontal jaws, not vertical). As far as the vertical pegs in between the planks they also seem to work with the boom and foot pedal to wedge work between the boom and pegs... maybe this was to secure narrow work (i.e. for pointing spindles or accurate cutting). Another idea would be using wedges to "lock" the boom in place so the horse would hold the work and the craftsman would be free to move around it and not have to keep pressure on the pedal.
These are all educated guesses on my part. I appreciate the picture and hope you can post more!
I think you're right!
I made a wedge to fit between the pegs to hold the foot clamp against the work piece. This makes it easy to sit at the other end of the horse and shave without having to place your foot on the clamp. I can now hold a work piece up to a few inches longer than two feet long. Works nice!
Thanks for your input.
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