Old Stitching Horses

[ramrod]

small world, lawrence. must be something wrong with your relatives to stick around here while you went west. LOL

doug - now, there are some jaws! nice find for 2 bucks.

bear - i think you're on the right track with the staves. plus, you have plenty of length to make them as long as you want. i hope you can get something made. i still feel bad about the price of that pony.

[CustomDoug]

yea I think that oak barrel thing is a great idea, let us know if you try it. Also, if anyone is around north Texas, I have an Al Stohlman style stitching pony in our classifieds.

[WinterBear]

small world, lawrence. must be something wrong with your relatives to stick around here while you went west. LOL

doug - now, there are some jaws! nice find for 2 bucks.

bear - i think you're on the right track with the staves. plus, you have plenty of length to make them as long as you want. i hope you can get something made. i still feel bad about the price of that pony.

Oh, don't feel bad! I've been busy with other things anyway. Nothing quite like having the car go "boom" three times in two months to keep a body distracted, if you know what I mean. I've found a couple of sources for staves, but I am just waiting until I get moved out of my current apartment and getting through some deadlines at work before embarking on any projects right now.

The sell staves that are about 36" long, about 1" thick, and the widths vary from 1" to 4 ". I'm thinking of getting at least 4 staves, so I can have a really long clam-type clamp using the entire stave, and cut the other 2 staves into unequal halves, so I can have 2 other clamps of differing heights.

[cgillock]

I have an old horse I found years ago & refinished. The jaws appear to have not been used perfect shape. Whatta find!!!! Well to my dismay I could never get comfortable using it so I set it on the hearth for decoration. It has quarter sawn oak jaws & the rest is oak also. Well I was looking at it the other day & figured out why I couldn't use it. It's left handed duhh. I should sell this great horse to a lefty who could get some use from it.

[Luke Hatley]

I have an old horse I found years ago & refinished. The jaws appear to have not been used perfect shape. Whatta find!!!! Well to my dismay I could never get comfortable using it so I set it on the hearth for decoration. It has quarter sawn oak jaws & the rest is oak also. Well I was looking at it the other day & figured out why I couldn't use it. It's left handed duhh. I should sell this great horse to a lefty who could get some use from it.

Re cut the base of the Jaws as to where they are a 90 deg angle to the seat. you'll

like it better.

[Happy Hooligan]

I put this in the tool section but it should probably be here...

Well the little stitching pony I made works great for smaller projects but anything big or that bends it has a some issues.

So I wanted a bigger one to use and was going to make one, but thought about checking out ebay. I found this old head to a stitching horse probably from the mid to late 1800's. I got cheaper than if I made one but it need restored.

The gap didn't touch so I added two piece of oak to complete the clamp but discovered one side was a little warped over over the years so I added a wedge (all oak) to straighten it out. Just finished it last night with a coat of oil.

I think it's made of American Chestnut as I don't recognize the wood. It uses that hand level to push the sides away and they naturally clamp. I'll add some leather over the clamp parts to protect the leather. I added the stand so I can use it on the floor or between my legs on a chair.

I'm pretty happy so far with it, although I've not used it yet, but hope to this week.

[Massive]

That does not look like it was bent, but sawn from a larger block. One can see the edge grain runs out below the major bend, and the dark spot on the face grain is where the endgrain is on the outside.

[mischief]

I put this in the tool section but it should probably be here...

Well the little stitching pony I made works great for smaller projects but anything big or that bends it has a some issues.

So I wanted a bigger one to use and was going to make one, but thought about checking out ebay. I found this old head to a stitching horse probably from the mid to late 1800's. I got cheaper than if I made one but it need restored.

The gap didn't touch so I added two piece of oak to complete the clamp but discovered one side was a little warped over over the years so I added a wedge (all oak) to straighten it out. Just finished it last night with a coat of oil.

I think it's made of American Chestnut as I don't recognize the wood. It uses that hand level to push the sides away and they naturally clamp. I'll add some leather over the clamp parts to protect the leather. I added the stand so I can use it on the floor or between my legs on a chair.

I'm pretty happy so far with it, although I've not used it yet, but hope to this week.

I have the exact same one,why in the world did you attach the blocks to the jaws? I wet mine and closed it with line for about 2 wks,and all is fine now

Found mine at a goodwill store for $21.00,last year 2012,and shops sell them for $300.00 +

Edited January 28, 2013 by mischief

[Happy Hooligan]

I had such a gap between the jaws I had to. I didn't think of wetting it. Did yours have that big a gap like line before you wet it? I'll do that if it would work as the extra piece make it more difficult to get the needle in if you're right on the edge....

[Matt S]

In his first bushcraft book (Australian Traditional Bushcrafts) Ron Edwards discusses saddlers' clams (which you chaps seem to know as ponies). First he notes the difficulties of steaming timber, and then the scarcity of barrel staves, which used to be the standard substitute. He provides plans for a full size clam built from 3 layers of plywood, and no jig other than a few scraps, a sturdy board and a few clamps needed. I will be building one to replace my current, rather awkward clam as soon as I figure out if I need 3mm or 6mm ply. (Any suggestions?)

BTW the book is well worth the few dollars charged at secondhand booksellers. As well as leatherwork it discusses all sorts of tricks and dodges from the pioneering days of the Aussie outback.