Editor’s note: Our Mind Upon Mind series is a nod to a 1937 Chips from the Chisel column (also featured in “Honest Labour: The Charles H. Hayward Years”), in which Hayward wrote, “The influence of mind upon mind is extraordinary.” The idea being there’s often room for improvement. To that end, we’ve asked you what else you have thought of, tried out and improved upon after building projects from our books.
Send us your own ideas! Email kara@lostartpress.com. You can read more about the submission process here.
Today’s pick is courtesy of Jay Abramovitz. Thanks, Jay!
— Kara Gebhart Uhl
I wanted to build Peter Galbert’s shavehorse (as detailed in his book Chairmaker’s Notebook), but I didn’t have adequate floor space in my shop. So I came up with the following adaptation of Galbert’s design, which mounts easily and securely to my benchtop, can be stored under the bench when not in use, maintains the key functional elements of Galbert’s design and can be operated from a sitting position. In addition, the entire shavehorse can be made entirely out of 2x4s from the home center with the exception of 1″-thick material for the front end of the shavehorse platform and the treadle.
Each joint is glued and secured with four 1/4″ x 4″ Spax PowerLag screws at the four corners of the joint (two screwed in from one side of the joint and two from the other side).
The horizontal brace rests on the top of the bench with the vertical brace flush against the front of the bench. A holdfast secures the horizontal brace against the benchtop.
A 12″ length of 2×4 slides into the back of the shavehorse platform and is pushed up until it touches the bottom of the benchtop. A clamp across the back end of the shavehorse platform holds the 12″ length in place. This provides additional support for the shavehorse platform when in use, and allows for easy installation and removal of the shavehorse when the 12″ length is removed.
The vertical brace nests between the two pieces of the horizontal brace at the top and the shavehorse platform at the bottom, and is glued and screwed as noted above. A length of 17-1/2” for the vertical brace positions the shavehorse platform at the ideal height on my 34″-high bench when sitting on a chair in front of the shavehorse. But the length of the vertical brace may need to be increased or decreased depending on the height of your bench and the preferred height of the shavehorse platform.
The rest of the shavehorse construction follows Galbert’s design.
I’ll also plug Galbert’s Shavehorse Adjuster and Benchcrafted’s Crubber, both of which I used in my build and would recommend highly.
— Jay Abramovitz
That is an interesting design. I have made a shave pony as detailed by Shannon Rogers (Renaissance Woodworker). It has worked well for me. I’d certainly recommend anyone give a benchtop shave horse a try.
Clever solution.
Thanks for sharing this, it’s ingenious. I like the quick clamping and releasing with your foot on the traditional shavehorses. How does the clamping work on this? I’m not seeing it.
Clamping and releasing a workpiece works exactly the same with this design as a traditional shavehorse (pushing your foot against the treadle at the bottom clamps the workpiece and lifting your foot off the treadle releases it).
Cool, thank you.
This construction looks better and more ergonomics (in my opinion) than Sjöbergs Benchtop Shavehorse (no longer in production) I used many years ago: A) Better support (on top of the bench), B) Bigger sized footplate at the bottom (instead of a short board) and C) wider grip plates. I think I`m going to build this and see how it works!
Yes, the “shave pony”-type designs that you mentioned are certainly good. But with this design I found having the vertical brace resting flush against the front of the benchtop provides additional support for when I push hard with my foot against the treadle to really grip a workpiece firmly. That extra support makes the whole appliance feel much sturdier.
Jay, I’ve had Galbert plans and the kit with adjuster for a while but I do not have space so never built it. Your design here and now is perfect timing! I don’t see the Galbert adjuster in the picture though.
Pretty clever design. I’ve wanted a shave horse but don’t have an easy way to store one. This could solve the problem. Thanks for sharing.