Spokeshave Hand-Me-Downs

glenn bradley

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Dad passed these along. Not sure of their history but I can guaranteed dad got them somewhere else. How do I know? They are abused. I haven't gotten to the No. 55 yet but did clean up the boxwood handle and put an edge on the blade for it. It made quick work of an end on a rectangular piece of QSWO scrap.

Spokeshaves-running-hammer 002.jpgSpokeshaves-running-hammer 005.jpg

The running hammer is leftover from dad's jewelry making days and had a broken handle acquired during a move from somewhere to somewhere else. I restored the handle and will probably use it as a nic-nac as I have other purpose specific hammers for the shop.
 
I have one of those wood handled shaves, and it's far and away the best shave I've ever used. I've got a whole wall rack full of Stanleys, but that little wooden shave - probably over a hundred years old - is the absolute best of the bunch.
 
Hey Glenn and Jim i have a couple of these as well but dont use them because they are adjusted by the force of the steel wedge on the blade. How do you recondition these to stay put if they are worn. Mine were my grandfathers and i love a spoke shave and would love to use these but have not worked out how to gently fix em. Had thought of trying to tap the tang and put a brass knurled nut on em but its a little small for that.:dunno:

Any ideas?

Nice hand me downs Glenn especially the hammer. I got one of those curved spokeshaves from Ken when he was selling one once. Actuall pretty handy.:thumb:
 
Great tools and restorarion job Glenn. You always make me turn green of (sane) envy;)

Hey Glenn and Jim i have a couple of these as well but dont use them because they are adjusted by the force of the steel wedge on the blade. How do you recondition these to stay put if they are worn. Mine were my grandfathers and i love a spoke shave and would love to use these but have not worked out how to gently fix em. Had thought of trying to tap the tang and put a brass knurled nut on em but its a little small for that.:dunno:

Any ideas?

Rob, you could drill a hole through the original ones to make them straight and cilindrical. Then insert with glue a rod or peg of a hard wood such as boxxwood,hard maple or other drill new holes on them and there you go.

Making conical holes would be better but unless you have a conical bit with the proper angle, you could make two or three stepped holes starting with the smallest diameter one and ending with the biggest.

Or you could make a small hole and enlarge it conically with the aid of a round "rat tail" file ( we call them like that here).

At he worst, as the important thing is the blade, you could make a complete new handle... dunno
 
Yeah good idea Toni. I had thought of doing that but it still leaves the tang type of setting. As i understand it back in the day the guys would tap it at a certain setting and leave it. So they had many with various settings of the blade.

My other idea was to have a small piece of brass rod brazed onto the end of the blade where the tang is (after having cut the tang off). Then drill out the hole and make them into adjustable shaves. Just would need careful brazing not to wreck the blade properties as far as hardness goes.

Dunno. Dont want to mess with them until i have found a cheapo at the auction sales and experimented. Too much sentimental value.:eek:

Sorry for the Hijack Glenn.
 
Sorry for the Hijack Glenn.

No worries. I'm with Toni on the fill in and re-drill. You could take the blade out of Grandpa's and test the stepped holes in a piece of scrap.

While we're wandering around. What angle would you guys put on the blade. I sharpened it at the same angle that it came to me with, about 25*. It cut great but dulled quickly; the edge literally folded in some spots. I see the combined angle on some metal shaves are about 40 - 45*. Any thoughts? It is also possible that the blade is just poor. If I decide to go for a better quality blade I will be in the same boat Rob is so we will see how things workout with the refurb ;-)
 
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Glenn i did some hunting around on LV for parts etc to see what they had and came up with some info. Apparently these old wooden ones were low angle spoke shaves. Seems the 25 Degree was correct.

This is a quote from LV site re their low angle metal spokeshave.


"This spokeshave uses a basic traditional shape, not of the spokeshaves of the last century, but of the century before.
Until about 1900, the vast majority of spokeshaves were low-angle spokeshaves with wooden bodies. The blades were hand forged with upturned tangs that fitted into holes pierced in the body of the shave. Wedged in position, they were adjusted by tapping the ends of the tangs or the base of the blade, as required. Although these spokeshaves cut beautifully because of their low cutting angle, they were not easy to adjust and became very expensive as hand processes gave way to automated manufacturing methods. This spokeshave has the same low cutting angle as spokeshaves of old (20° basic bevel with a 25° micro-bevel), but cutting depth has been simplified substantially"

Other thing i came across is they have a gadget to aid in the holding of the blade while sharpening. Dont intend getting it but will try imitate it. :D

Yeah i might give the drill and fill a try Glenn. It will have to join the que i got way to many things in the air at the moment.:D
 
Glenn i did some hunting around on LV for parts etc to see what they had and came up with some info.

Thanks Rob. I went ahead and made a small modification that I picked up on a video somewhere. I drilled and tapped two holes to accept set screws.

Spokeshave-set-screw 001.jpgSpokeshave-set-screw 002.jpg

These press against the blade between the tang and the cutting area. An allen wrench allows you to micro set the blade height.

Spokeshave-set-screw 003.jpgSpokeshave-set-screw 004.jpg

The next step up from this by the guy showing it was to replace the tangs with threaded rods like some of the newer shaves. This allows opposing force between the threaded rods and the set screws. I'll just have to get by with the friction fit and set screws for now.

Spokeshave-set-screw 005.jpg

I applied a cut-off end of an old steel rule as a rub plate (thanks Dad). The rule was worn to where you could hardly read it anymore and was very thin and flexible. I stuck it on with some transfer tape clamped overnight.
 
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Now thats a cool idea.:thumb: I think between drilling and putting a new core in and putting that grub screw in it will solve my problems with them.:thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb: Thanks for letting us know.
 
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