After Christmas Find

[Frank]

Hey All,

I was visiting my Sister in Southern Indiana for Christmas. A day or two after Christmas she came up with the idea of hitting a few antique stores in a neighboring town. Since I'm always on the lookout for old tools, I thought it was a pretty good idea. Well, the second store I walked into, I ended up walking out with this nice old stitching horse.

It's in pretty good shape. I just needed to add a few shims to the legs and 6-7 coats of boiled linseed oil to restore a finish. All of it seems original except for the second half of the leather strap. I've been holding out for 5-6 years on buying a stitching horse in hopes that I would find a nice old one. Well, I can check that off my list now.

Frank

[mlapaglia]

Nice, May I ask what you paid for it?

[Frank]

The total came to $160 with tax.

[EvadCarpenter]

Nice find! I always am on the lookout for any leather tools and equipment when I hit the antique stores, and have only seen one stitching horse. It was left outside for years and un-salveagable, so I just made one.

Is there any indication of who made it or when it was made?

[Frank]

While cleaning it up and sealing it, I ran across some random letters stamped into the wood in random places. Not much to go by. I figure the age to be somewhere between the 1880's/1890's to very early 1900's. The cross members are all slotted and pinned to the legs with wooden pegs. The pegs are a bit loose with age but nothing that will fall out.

Edited January 2, 2014 by Frank

[Peter T]

That's pretty cool, Frank! I wonder if whoever made it thought at the time that in over 100 years time someone will still be using this stitching horse they've made.

Pete

[Oelholm]

That looks amazing. Great find!

[Frank]

Thanks everyone. I'm pretty happy with it. I'll end up using it for the first time next week. Hopefully I can keep it in good enough shape to last another 40-50 years, If it could only talk.

[WyomingSlick]

Great find. Things built with mortise/tenon joints were built to last. If they are not as tight as you would like; you could drill a few small holes in the tenons which you would fill with linseed oil which would be absorbed by the wood causing it to swell and tighten up the joints. You might have to fill the holes several times.

[Frank]

Thanks for the insight on that. It's good info to have. For now, with the new shims added, everything has tightened up well. Thanks again.

[shooter55]

Great find Frank. I'm the guy that normally walks in and sees someone like you paying for something like that.........

[Frank]

Thanks very much. You had me laughing with that comment. I'm usually the same way and I really lucked out with it. My Sister said she had gone in the same store a few months ago and it was sitting in there then but she didn't know what it was. What's the chance that it would remain there for months and I still end up getting it?