Sawhorses are an essential part of any woodworker’s shop. Actually, sawhorses are an essential part of any shop, period. The major downside to them is that they can take up a pretty large footprint of space, and as we all know, space is one of the most crucial commodities in a shop.

Sawhorses themselves are nothing new. They date back to at least the mid 16th century. Since that time, very little has been altered about their design, with one huge exception- portability. Folding sawhorses are largely the same as their non-folding kindred in design and reliability, but can be quickly broken down to save space.

The folding variety tends to mostly come in two materials: plastic and light-weight steel. While there is nothing wrong with the way they are manufactured, they just don’t offer the same strength and longevity of solid wood. Luckily, it’s actually pretty easy to make your very own folding wood sawhorse, as Steve Ramsey from Woodworking For Mere Mortals can demonstrate.

You can probably make a set with spare wood and some larger off-cuts if you do enough projects. Then all you really need are bolts and hinges. It’s a pretty simple process, all things considered, and you can watch a full tutorial video (or just read about it) over at Steve’s website.