Some final photos from the chair making sessions at Derrick's workshop. a couple of weeks ago Shave horses are close to Sean Hellman's heart, you can find some of his lovely work and his horses here on his blog. So I thought I'd write about the sheer number of horses I noticed during the week and something about this photo makes me want to cry Yeehah, closely followed by Rawhide! I guess it's just me.....and the blues brothers. But what is the collective noun for a group of shave horses? The obvious ones are herd, team, troop and perhaps stable, but maybe there are some out there that are more appropriate for shave horses? Can we agree a term?
In the workshop a shower of rain brought all the horses inside and I suddenly realised just how many there were. I make it 7 1/2, the 1/2 being not completed yet. A couple are hard to see buried under other parts of chairs.
Quite a few of them seemed to be genetically related, of similar length and with four legs which made sense when Veronica told me they had run a session on making shave horses some time ago. As usual some stood out. This one belongs to Rosie and is noteable for the flower painted flowers decorating it.
A lone dumb head horse stood out amongst the others, at least it did once I had unearthed it. A dumb head horse is one where a single central lever is used with a block on top to clamp the workpiece more popular on the continent than the British Isles. It also has a very odd arrangement at the bottom of the lever with a single footrest. Derrick told me that a friend of his acquired it at an auction. It has a face painted on the block of the head and a date (1931) carved into the upright supporting the steeply slanted worksurface (see previous post for photo of this) . One thought is that it might have been made by an apprentice, hence the carving of the date. If so it was unlikely to have been intended for shaving billets - but what? Maybe a broom makers horse? Or for shaving lathes? Any other ideas?
Last but certainly not least, the rolls-royce of shave horses complete with upholstery and backrest, befitting a windsor chairmaker, is Veronica's horse!
2 comments:
How about a wedge of shave horses? But personally I do not think we will ever come to an universal agreement, just regional variations.
So has the AGM moved further away from me again? I Know the area down were you are and it would be great to visit it again
I don't know that a wedge of shave horses does it for me, but then I don't have any better suggestions yet.
The AGM will be a few miles north of hartley witney, a field in a village called Stratfield Saye, and not so far from your old stamping grounds. It's about 28 miles from me here as the landrover winds its way around the back roads. I would say it's a damn sight closer to you than it was at Doncaster, and probably the closest of the offered venues, definitely the best. The theme for the event will be 'back to basics' and though relatively low key (in advance of the 21st year bash next year) I think it has the potential to be a really cracking event. Somehow I seem to have got mixed up in it, and hopefully that won't be the ruin of it!
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