[Regia-NA] Shave Horses

[Carolyn Priest-Dorman]

Roll wrote:

>I have to say that we take the shave horse on trust from places such as West
>Stow in Suffolk.  [snip]
>I've never thought to ask them for their reasoning. It's just one of those
>things that we've not questioned yet.

At the risk of sounding like I'm challenging Regia standards.... ;P

My husband's been asking this particular question about the association 
between lathes and shave benches for a good many years.  (For you SCA 
types, he made his first shave bench at Pennsic 21 and brought his first 
full-size reciprocating lathe to Pennsic 22.)  Along the way he's become 
very disappointed by, for example, Carole Morris's work with the Jorvik 
materials in that it seems to owe so much to 19th century information 
rather than being informed by a knowledge of medieval technology.  One of 
the things he's questioned is reproductions incorporating a "tool rest" 
based on the Norwegian discovery sometimes identified as a lathe tool rest 
but identified by some textile archaeologists as a heddle bracket for a 
warp-weighted loom.

I'm not sure he's seen the West Stow lathe, but I'll show it to him and get 
his more direct input into this thread.  Just off the top of my head, the 
lathe looks pretty good to me.  (I can't tell exactly from the photo angle, 
but it seems to lack the "tool rest," which I think is a good thing.)  But 
I have noticed that the working height is somewhat lower than that used by 
my husband.  On his the working area is closer to chest height than to 
waist height, which makes it less strenuous for him to get his shoulders 
and upper back involved in the work.  His working posture is similar to 
that in the 15th century drawing in the Mendel Brothers housebook of 
Leinhart the lathe worker.

My husband's come to the working conclusion that a flat bench with small 
bench dogs is less obtrusively out of period for us than the later, more 
elaborate, foot-operated clamping design.  Is the shave bench at West Stow 
that flat form that's in the foreground of this picture?

http://www.angelcynn.org.uk/living-history/richard-polelathing3.jpg

It doesn't look like it to me, because it seems lighter than would be 
required.  (Maybe it's a table for setting out partially finished 
work?)  But still....  Or is there some other photo somewhere of the shave 
bench at West Stow that I could show him?


Carolyn Priest-Dorman              Þóra Sharptooth
  http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html