Video: How to Use a Spoon Mule for Greenwood Carving
If you're on the fence about whether you should add a mule to your split-rail shaving horse, watch just how well one works.In his article “Expand your workholding with a spoon mule,” Dawson Moore demonstrates why a spoon mule is so useful when working on common green woodworking forms like spoons, cups, and bowls. Like a shaving horse, a spoon mule applies clamping pressure when you apply foot pressure, leaving both your hands free for powerful, efficient tools, like a drawknife or hook knife. But a spoon mule excels where a shaving horse falls short. A shaving horse, which clamps from above, struggles with short, sculptural pieces. A spoon mule, which grips low and from the sides, is much better suited to the job.
Moore’s article goes through different projects to show how he clamps them, but the photos fail to show just how fluidly the spoon mule works. That’s where these videos come in. If you’re on the fence about whether you should add a mule to your split-rail shaving horse, watch just how well one works.
Build a Thoroughbred Shaving Horse
This simple, elegant shaving horse is a hybrid of two designs by two of Tim Manney’s mentors, Curtis Buchanan and Carl Swensson
How to ride a shaving horse
With practice, and these tips from Curtis Buchanan, using the shaving horse will become second nature
Modifying a shaving horse for carving bowls
A bowl horse is relatively simple and can be made with dimensional lumber or even rough tree parts
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