Happy Birthday Mike Henderson

Thanks everyone. My birthday is on Valentine's Day so I tell everyone "I was a love child." Alfredo, you always remember - don't know how you do it - but thanks.

My wife got me an LN Boggs flat bottom spokeshave to use on a Windsor chair I'm making. I have a bunch of spokeshaves - wooden ones and older Stanley spokeshaves - but the LN is in a class by itself. The two things that make it good, in my opinion, are the thick blade which eliminates (or greatly reduces) chatter, and the very tight mouth. You can't hog off wood with it but for the final smoothing, it really works great.

Of course, she had some help in picking it out.

Mike
 
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Happy Birthday Mike, guess you lucky you don't get flowers on Valentines day only tools. I would not mind that though.

Have a good celebration tomorrow. :b-day:

Any tips you can offer on tuning an old spoke shave and using them. I was given one by my Dad that came down the line. I plan on giving it a going over but dont see how those old guys kept the blades in the right place with pure friction.:huh:
 
Rob - those old spokeshaves did indeed stay in place with just friction. The reason is that the force is perpendicular to the way the tangs fit into the body. The trick is how to adjust them for depth. Some had screws into the body under the blade. You adjust the screws for the depth (of course, you have to take the blade out ever time you make an adjustment). Others had small wedges on the sides - you'd push those in or out to adjust the depth (again, you have to remove the blade each time you make an adjustment). Either is difficult and a pain to get the proper adjustment and that's why they had a bunch of spokeshaves, each adjusted differently (one for roughing out the work and one for fine smoothing, for example).

The modern spokeshaves are much easier to adjust. If you get the Lee Valley kit (for example), there's some adjustments on the top of the shave for depth of cut and it's easy to adjust. So one spokeshave can rough out the work, and then be adjusted to finish the work.

The real trick is sharpening them. You do the back just like a plane iron - just polish the back. Doing the bevel is tougher. You can use the side of your waterstones and freehand the sharpening. I use a power strop which is narrower than the cutting part of the blade which makes sharpening much easier.

Good luck! Let us know how it works and post a picture.

Mike
 
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