Shopsmith Forums

Hey sawdust makers,

Anybody using green wood, a froe, a shaving horse and a draw knife? I'm getting interested in this. Thanks for your thoughts.

Tom

In the past I have been known to declare here that a hatchet can be a precision woodworking tool...
I use draw knives often and have about 8 or 9 of them. I currently cannot find my froe and if I don't run across one soon I will make one from scratch. I'm currently working on a kind of unconventional shave horse. I also have a good broad-axe and a Broad-hatchet. I use the broad-hatchet a lot more than the broad-axe. I also sometimes use a "foot-adze". I have a coopers-adze but I want to acquire a few other types which I believe will be better for many of my projects.
I have been and still am a follower of Roy Underhill and similar folks. One of my favorite short videos is one called "Ben's Mill". Everybody should see it at least once. You can Google it.
Several years ago I had the good fortune to visit with and break bread with Roy Underhill two years in a row at a living history museum where we get involved with live demos at one of their yearly events.
I would also recommend going to your library and getting acquainted with the works of Eric Sloan like "Museum of Early American Tools" etc.
I would never give up all of my power tools but do enjoy using hand tools. I like the quiet nature and I never feel the need to wear a mask for fine dust.

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robinson46176 wrote:In the past I have been known to declare here that a hatchet can be a precision woodworking tool...
I use draw knives often and have about 8 or 9 of them. I currently cannot find my froe and if I don't run across one soon I will make one from scratch. I'm currently working on a kind of unconventional shave horse. I also have a good broad-axe and a Broad-hatchet. I use the broad-hatchet a lot more than the broad-axe. I also sometimes use a "foot-adze". I have a coopers-adze but I want to acquire a few other types which I believe will be better for many of my projects.
I have been and still am a follower of Roy Underhill and similar folks. One of my favorite short videos is one called "Ben's Mill". Everybody should see it at least once. You can Google it.
Several years ago I had the good fortune to visit with and break bread with Roy Underhill two years in a row at a living history museum where we get involved with live demos at one of their yearly events.
I would also recommend going to your library and getting acquainted with the works of Eric Sloan like "Museum of Early American Tools" etc.
I would never give up all of my power tools but do enjoy using hand tools. I like the quiet nature and I never feel the need to wear a mask for fine dust.

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Another Hoosier here, but a bit north. I remember the first time I saw Ben's Mill. The mill and his work were/are a delight to watch. Here is a link to Ben's Mill today: http://www.bensmill.com/

When reading one of Eric Sloan's books, I remember a comment he made, when a person told him that the old craftsman made better products by hand. Eric's answer went something like; You will never convince me, that if a colonial cabinet maker had access to powerful table saw, he would not have used it. They used the best that was available at the time.

Thanks Francis and Brian.

Francis, I did a little googling and did not locate the Woodwright's Shop episode featuring Ben's Mill but found a bunch of other neat stuff. If you watch it again please pass along the episode number or other bit that may help me find it. I use very few hand tools but every time I see something done in the ways of the past it calls out to me. I would enjoy seeing your shave horse in progress if you get a chance to put up a few photo's. This video is excellent too: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QisKUt_fPPU[/youtube]

I believe a person has to grab an opportunity as it floats in front of them so when I saw a pedal powered grinding wheel very similar to this one at a neighborhood garage sale I had to have it. Mine is more of a basket case and the stone needs to be dressed but I think I can resurrect it. Manufactured by the Cleveland Stone Company. http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/ ... x?id=18995 Anybody have one like it?

Tom

I have a shave horse also and a few draw knives and a froe.I love working with that old stuff.I wish I had more time to use them.I love the Mastercraft video series on youtube.They have several.The old time bodgers were very cool.There is still a market for the hand made green wood stuff too. Hand made windsor chairs command great prices as do the simpler greenwood post and rung chairs.there's a video call "Making a Chair From a Tree" by john Alexander .Many of the top chair makers started out with that video.

Sorry if I confused anyone... I didn't see Ben's Mill on Roy's show. I just saw it originally on PBS back years ago when it was a newish video. I think it is only available on the Ben's Mill site unless you find a copy on someplace like Ebay or Amazon.
Here is a page on Lumber Jocks that has a link to a part of it as a sample.
http://lumberjocks.com/topics/46495

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Here is a link (unless I screwed it up) to the thread about my coming shave-horse project. All I have accomplished so far is to move the base out of the way and look at it now and then.
http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/gener ... 16058.html

Thanks for clearing that up! I've watched the first few minutes of the Ben's Mill excerpt and I'm looking forward to the rest. Here's a link directly to the excerpt:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2KJbRHO76s[/youtube]

Here's my latest garage sale treasure. I think it's about 100 years old. I managed to get the dish out of the stone. I'd like to take the stone down another inch to get past the rough edges. My pictures don't load now for some reason, I'll have to figure that one out.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/13670169@N02/17743179768

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