Thomas Craven-Bartle, a carver who lives in southern Sweden, emailed me recently with news from a visit to the Bjäre Härads Hembygdspark (open air museum) in Båstad, Sweden. He wrote, “Up in a loft, there was a very small museum with a complete clog-maker’s workshop. The thing that caught my eye was the ‘clog horses’ they used. Of course, it’s in many ways similar to a ‘bowl horse’, but there were some interesting details. One is that it has pegs instead of holes so one can quickly switch between clog sizes.”
In 2019, I was thrilled to watch Dutch clog maker Gerald Getkate at Täljfest. During the brief time I was able to observe, the clogs were held in place with blocking wedged into an opening cut into the beam while Gerald hollowed them.
But this “clog horse” in southern Sweden was clearly meant to be used while seated. There are all sorts of interesting things in terms of construction details and patterns of use. The slideshow below has a series of photos (all taken by Thomas) of this same horse.
Regarding the comparison Thomas referenced in his email, note the row of registration holes (vs pegs) in my bowl horse(s) below.
There were a couple other examples of clog horses in the room as well, including one with a leather-covered cushion on the seat in the same slideshow. Here’s another, below, that Thomas spotted tucked into a corner. Perhaps an ideal spot for a misbehaving clog maker?
Interesting. I pulled out materials for a bowl horse last week. Apparently I need to think about it more before starting. Off topic: an update about your friend who was pinned by a tree would be welcome.
LikeLike
No, don’t let me distract you! Keep it simple. That was my goal for the bowl horse plans: accessible materials, simple to build, and it will work very well.
Thanks for asking about Joel. He’s doing well. You can see him in my most recent post: https://davidffisher.com/2026/08/07/theres-not-a-bad-seat-at-petes/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for providing us with photos and background on the clog horse. I really appreciate you sharing your knowlege and experience. It keeps me motivated. I bought the plans and have built you bowl horse. I was using it last night to square up some cherry for upcoming projects. The bowl horse works beautifully.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! I’m glad to hear that it’s working well for you.
LikeLike
It appears that in august(?) you added some sort of multi-image viewer, like on this post.
It hijacks the page-up and page-down keys, which makes it difficult for my accessibility tools to use the website.
I thoroughly enjoy this blog and hope you can find another solution for an image gallery. It’s one of the few great woodworking blogs left, and this is quite the downer for the few of us that operate our computing devices differently.
LikeLike
If it’s the series of the 9 clog horse photos, I have used that “slideshow” feature in many posts over the years. I wonder if something is different about this one? This post from last year also has a slideshow. Click that link and see if it also causes the same problem for you.
Thanks for letting me know about the issue and for your kind comments about the blog.
LikeLike