Modifying a shaving horse for carving bowls

Why do you want a bowl horse?
I received the thought for a bowl horse from David Fisher’s weblog publish – A Horse of a Totally different Variety.  Dave’s bowl making has intrigued me for a number of years now and prompted me to take a bowl making class from Danielle Rose Byrd.

Once I make a bowl, I exploit a number of steps and work-holding methods. I often take away the within of the bowl first. After that I work on the surface of the bowl utilizing an ax, then a drawknife, and eventually a spokeshave or different ending instruments.

I want to carry my bowl in a means that permits me to wash the surface of the bowl clean and eventually the bowl itself after tough work. Clamping the bowl finish-to-finish whereas sitting on my bowl horse labored much better than another choices I used to be capable of provide you with.

A bowl horse is comparatively easy and could be made with dimensional lumber and even tough tree elements akin to David used to make his. I mounted the rails of my bowl horse instantly onto my shaving horse. Hooked up to the rails is a swing arm that clamps the bowl towards the dumbhead once I push on the treadle with my ft. There actually isn’t a entire lot to it, nevertheless it has develop into a vital software once I’m carving bowls.

The inspiration
The inspiration of the bowl horse consists of two 2×6 rails that run the size of the bowl horse accent. I used two spacer blocks, back and front to seat and middle the rails on prime of the shaving horse.

To match my present shaving horse, I added a bevel to the rails and entrance spacer block. I drilled and countersunk  four-in. carriage bolts that maintain every little thing collectively.

The rails have eighteen three/eight-in. holes alongside the rails that settle for the rod that the swing arm pivots on.

Swing Arm
The straightforward swing arm is a piece of inventory with a single tenon on the underside that accepts the treadle from my shaving horse. You possibly can definitely use the swing arm by itself to carry the bowl towards the dumbhead, however I added a good broad face block to make it a little simpler to wedge the bowl towards.

I additionally added some sacrificial strips to the rails and dumbhead to guard towards errant pulls of a drawknife. When these strips begin displaying indicators of an excessive amount of abuse, will probably be straightforward to modify them out.

The bowl horse constructed on my shave horse could be very snug and I’ve no drawback sitting on it for a number of hours if wanted.  Clamping the bowl in progress finish to finish permits me to form the bowl and rotate it effortlessly. I’ve additionally discovered many makes use of past making bowls.  For instance, I lately made legs for a Roorkee ottoman.  I made these utilizing my drawknife and spokeshaves.  Clamping the leg finish to finish between the swing arm and dumbhead allowed me to work the legs and rotate them to finish the legs.  I’m positive I’ll proceed to seek out totally different makes use of for it.

 

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