Thread: Freehand Sharpening Spokeshave Blades

Had to be done anyway. Several things had happened that made me think a tune up would help.
Don't know if this helps anybody else.
1. The SS make a hissing/swishing sound on a pull stroke in birch. That had stopped.
2. Seemed to be getting more tear-out than usual ( = dull?)
3. With experience, I just felt that the SS was getting harder to pull.

The Kitchen Stick Project. I don't need to make my SS any sharper than needed to make the round handles out of square birch stock. I get the result that I want. I leave the tool marks, I sand almost nothing. I do not want these tool to look machine made as they are not. There are both a spoon and a fork in various stages of development. Probably 60+ finished for sale, some 40+ and I plan to quit.

These are cheap $14.99 Samona SS from the local hardware store. Ugly, ugly fit and finish. Cleaned up, #1 cut exactly as I had hoped so bought #2. That way, I could have one set for thicker shavings and one to kiss off the remaining ridges.

Held up to a strong light (18W LED), I can see lots of very small sparks of light reflected from crumpled edge.
So I figured that a 3-4 strokes on 600 or 800 would fix that. Then 1500 to refine it and then honing with chrome green to finish.

Note, possibly of usefulness = my SS blades are 50mm wide x approx 40mm from edge to crown. Silly little things to hang on to. So, the skinny stick with a short bolt & a couple of lock washers is the handle to get the 28 degree angle right. Any pressure needed is from 2 finger tips pressing on the back of the blade. I'm convinced that the alignment of the stick and the blade does not need to be perfect, nor would it ever be, anyhow.

I always find the resetting to be a bit of a chore. So why not do that and make a kitchen stick at the same time? I count the pull strokes. 25-30 to shape a corner. Wind up with a sort of round-handled tool.
All I had to do was get the beast set so I cound do a corner with 25+ strokes and I'm done.