Shave Horse

Well I managed to progress a little with my shave horse in between work on my bedroom suite. I rived out some oak legs before Christmas from a log I found on the forest floor. I have had them drying for a few weeks so hopefully they will be pretty stable now.I had shaved them to just over 1 1/2" at the top to allow for shrinkage. I used the corresponding Tenon cutter to form the round tenon- 1 1/2" should be strong enough.

Boring out the mortise with a scotch eye auger-giving a nice splay to make the horse stable in use.

Well that's the legs done now to hew away some material to make it comfortable to use. I love using this old Kent Pattern Hatchet I re handled- It's about 6lb so it has plenty of heft without having to swing it much.

I ground the Hatchet with a central bevel so I could swing it both sides of me without constantly having to change position. Here it is at the side of my right handed carving axe.

As with removing material with an axe, first make small chopping cuts at a wider angle to weaken the waste:

Then slice it off with the hatchet attacking at the same angle as the bevel:

A quick tidy up with the Drawknife.

Progress so far.