Bowl horse

A local builder had some scrap wood that I could have if I wanted it...

The wood was perfect for a plan that I have had for a while, I have recently picked up tendonitis from over gripping the work, that I carve, in my hand.

The tendonitis has cut back my carving time so I was looking for a solution, something that would hold wood. Being demanding I wanted something that would hold large pieces of wood for draw knifing and also hold small bits of wood for carving, a big ask.

When browsing the web I spotted a device that seemed as if it would do what I wanted, the device is on David Fishers web site, David is maker of wonderful carved bowls. I emailed David for advice and he very kindly sent me full set of plans (now on his blog, link at the bottom of this post).

The timber that I had was not the correct size, I did not have the larger planks, so I made a few adjustments and the sawed, drilled, chiseled, drilled some more, bolted, drilled some more and soon had a kit of parts that could be put together or taken apart for loading into the car.

Bowl horse with the tools used

note the row of drilled holes, the swing arm can be adjusted along those holes (green arrows) using a bolt, if adjusted to a small peice of wood I turn the swing arm and dumb head around as the foot plate would get in the way.

 Longish log in place for drawknifing

The swing arm moved close to the seat and the dumbhead removed, a small block raises the bowl for carving.

even closer for fine carving

I plan to design a number of different shaped dumb head blocks for different shaped carvings.

I recommend David Fisher's web site http://www.davidfisher.com/ a great carver and a generous man.