Lignum Vitae small spokeshave

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My father had some small scraps of lignum vitae that he had salvaged from a shipyard and that he kept as if they were gold, I’ve seen them all my life in the bottom of a drawer of his desk with the express instruction of not even touching them, so by now these scraps are about 48 years old and they should be pretty dry.

Unfortunately, he died without using them and now I decided to use one of them to make a spokeshave.

So got a small spokeshave blade from Ron Hock’s and here is the result.

BTW I didn’t find Lignum vitae as hard to work as it seems, the only drawback is that is has tendency to split when chiseling with the grain.

The scrap cut to size, the measeure tape is in centimetres ( one inch = 2,54cm)
spokeshave002.jpg
I put the blade on top of it and traced it
spokeshave003.jpgspokeshave004.jpg
Made several cuts to shape the ramp
spokeshave005.jpg
Roughing out and paring down to with a chisel and after with a rasp of sandpaper
spokeshave007.jpgspokeshave008.jpgspokeshave012.jpgspokeshave013.jpg
Fixing the blade and testing it without shaping the handles. I made it this way because I’m not using depth control screws.
spokeshave014.jpgspokeshave018.jpg

to be continued....
 
Lignum vitae spokeshave: continuation

Cut a paper template and stuck on it with double sided tape.
spokeshave023.jpg
Again made some parallel cuts and rough out with a chisel and a rasp

26-28-29-33
spokeshave026.jpgspokeshave028.jpgspokeshave029.jpgspokeshave033.jpg
The final touches, no finish applied, just sanded with wet/dry 320 grit sand paper.

spokeshave035.jpgspokeshave036.jpg
I made it about a year and a half ago and I’ve using it quite a lot since, it works great! And there is no need of adjustment.
 
Very cool Toni. I have a piece of Lingum Vitae and should consider a similar use. Dont have anything else in mind for it so this may be the ticket. Thanks for sharing and your Dad would be proud.
 
Great thread Toni! I have thought about making one, but ended up buying the Veritas low angle shave instead. I'd still like to make one and you made it look easy! Congratulations on having a special piece of wood to make a beautiful tool!
 
Looks really nice Toni :thumb:

How is the LV to work?

Hi John, thanks, LV is not as hard to work as I thought at the begining, with sharp tools is as any other hard wood, and because it is oily the tools glide better than in some other woods.

The only drawback I could tel is that when chiseling with or against the grain one has to make a semicircular movement with the tools and do not make any cantilever pressure if the shaving you're taking is a bit thick because it will split along the grain to the very end.

( Comment added later) BTW, to cut it I used a metal hacksaw, not because of the hardness but because with its smaller teeth works much better than a normal saw.

Thanks to all other guys for your comments.
 
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Don't know how I missed this before, but that is really nice Toni, and as demonstrated, works well too. (Nice progress pics too). How's the chair coming along?
 
How's the chair coming along?
.

Thanks Norman, the chair is a chair already,not a bunch of different pieces, It needs some shaping and finishing but I've sat on it already...

I'm in the process of tidying up and selecting the pictures I took to post them.

I'll be on a bussines trip for two days so it won't be until next monday problably that I can do it.

I've made some mistakes:bang::bang:, that I will point out so at least nobody will make them in a similar project. I hope not to repeat them with the second one I want to make.
Thanks for asking
 
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