Time for a helping hand...

Hi everyone, it's Mike.  Keeping with the theme of this blog I wanted to share one of the projects that I plan to begin this weekend:  I am going to be building a period shaving horse. 

(image from http://www.greenwoodworking.com/)

I have been doing a fair deal of woodworking lately at events and I have been finding it difficult to work on a piece and hold it steady while trying to shave/plane the wood.  Most recently I've been working on a polearm shaft that required me to taper the end to fit the socket of the halberd head.  There has been no good way of transporting a vice/workbench so I'm hoping this new shaving horse will do the trick.

(image from http://www.greenwoodworking.com/)

I will post my progress as the shaving horse takes shape.  I'm hoping to modify the design a bit so it breaks down easily for transport to and from events.  As it is designed right now it doesn't lend itself to an easy breakdown becuase of the tapered mortise joints that the legs attach at.  These joints can swell and make removing the legs very difficult if not impossible.

More to come...