Bant Report post Posted August 16, 2019 I first joined this site looking for plans to build a stitching horse. Folks here abouts were more than gratious and I've been looking at plans, taking part of one or the other in the attempt to come up with the most usefull design for me. When I was very young, my grandfather's stitching horse had no cant to the jaws, meaning they were perpendicular to the surface of the seat. So, my first question is trying to understand the purpose of cant feature. If my head hadn't been spinning enough I ran across a discussion, I don't know where, that was talking about left handed horses vs right hand horses! I'm hoping some of you folks can set me straight. Thanks in advance... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rockoboy Report post Posted August 16, 2019 I think the idea around left/right or forward/backward cant is all about getting the work piece in the most comfortable position for you to work on it. Maybe somebody who is used to these features might turn their nose up at a lesser model but, I think the lesser model would still be very handy to have. I have a store bought small table-top model, a medium size home-made model that sits on a coffee table between my knees and a larger home-made floor model stitching clam for larger projects. Each has their use, with some pro's and con's. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aven Report post Posted August 17, 2019 I could be totally wrong, but I think the cant to the jaws on a stitching horse came about to mimic the position of a stitching clam. It's held between the thighs at a bit of an angle. Canting the jaws would present the work in the same orientation as the stitching clam and stitching is all about the muscle memory. There are a few threads here that discuss stitching clams. Someone made one from scratch at is just beautiful. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bant Report post Posted August 18, 2019 Many thanks for your responses Folks! I learned many years ago that I have a bad tendency to over think and over complicate relatively easy thing things. This is evidence of that. Again thanks much! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dougfergy Report post Posted August 21, 2019 (edited) I did a bunch of searching for plans and looking at gobs of photos of these several months ago and just to see what it felt like, I grabbed one of the $25 ones off of amazon. It is not the perfect solution for everything I've worked on, as none will be, but for the small outlay, it has been a God send. It is just tall enough to stick under my leg on the chair I'm sitting on and work comfortably. I wrapped the jaws in leather and have used the heck out of it. Because it can swivel 360 degrees it will hold most anything I'm working on in whatever position I need. The wood is pretty hard, not soft pine. The locking mechanism is pretty flimsy yet it is adjustable and works, and if it breaks I think I could come up with something better to replace it with. It has kept me working on leather projects instead of building a stitching horse project! (for now anyway) Edited August 21, 2019 by dougfergy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
