I gathered all the 2-by-4 pine boards I had laying around for the body of the shave horse. The horse needs to be 4′ long and luckily I had two pieces this length. The rest were all shorter but I laminated them together as seen in the picture above. The width of the six boards together is 9″ as suggested in Underhill’s book.
The gaps in the body are not intentional but exist because I didn’t quite have enough lumber for the job. It seems to be very sturdy though, so this shouldn’t be a problem. If it is, I’ll invest in a decent hardwood replacement.