Thread: Spokeshaves

Andy - I assume you are doing an inside curve, since you pointed at round-bodied shaves? I have both the flat & round Veritas small spokeshaves & can vouch for them as being good performers. Derek Cohen reviewed both the Veritas and HNT round-bodies a while back and gave them both the thumbs-up. Interestingly, he found the HNT can handle a tighter curve than the Veritas, if I recall correctly, which might be of value if you are into shaping tight curves.

Spokeshaves are really designed for shaping small section parts like chair legs (or even wheel spokes! ) . You can smooth flat curves with spokeshaves, but it takes a bit of time & care to get them faired.

You probably don't need to be pointed at yet more tools to acquire at this stage, but if you are going to get really serious about lots of curved furniture parts, you should keep your eyes open for a circular or 'compass' plane. Unfortunately, they don't pop up every day, and when they do, the price is often indecently high for a tool that has such limited applications. However, they are much more suited to planing flat curves (inside or out) than spokeshaves, and do a great job once you get the hang of them. I stumbled on my #20 1/2 in a most unlikely spot, & it was going cheap because the frog had been rather inelegantly repaired (Patrick Leach notes to look out for damaged dovetail attachments). However, the repair is quite functional and with a minimum of fiddling, the plane worked well. I don't use it very often, but it is far and away the best tool for cleaning up curved chair backs & pieces like that...

Cheers,

Thanks for the reply Ian.
At this stage i'm looking to just get a spokeshave. It's only for one job at the moment, and I need one by the end of the week. As I said in my original post, i'd also like to use it on a curved hall table top and curved styles in cabinets in the future.

I was looking at the veritas low angle - Veritas® Low Angle Spokeshave : CARBA-TEC
Iv'e heard mixed feedback on these.

Andy

Andy

I am not sure which tray it is you are referring to, but the one I think it is, has both concave & convex curves along the grain around the handle. For this type of work I use an old boxwood spokeshave that I fitted with a round brass sole, this has a very low cutting angle, and can get into tight curves. This would be similar to the HNT small spokeshave, with the exception of the high cutting angle of the HNT, which ( in theory ) would not favour end grain.

The HNT is a very nice tool which is close to the top of my covet list. However if you have not used this, or a similar spokeshave you will likely find it difficult to control, especially on convex curves or flat areas, and need lots of practice in order to get a good finish off the tool. Additionally the HNT is similar to the LN small spokeshave. in that they are designed to take very fine shavings so you will need to cut very close to the line when shaping your tray, or suffer a lot of spokeshave work.

It may be worth chatting to Jim Davey, he sells the Woodriver spokeshave, which I think is based on the Stanley #81, this is reasonably priced, & some claim will handle both concave & convex curves.


For larger work such as hall tables & the like an adjustable mouth block plane with the mouth set wide open is another useful option, for large radius curves.

Given your tight deadline, and lack of spokeshave experience, you may like to consider using a scratch stock, cabinet scrapers, and or dowels covered with abrasive, to get the current job completed.

Regards

Yes, given your deadline, I reckon Bas is right on the money. Small pieces are often easier & more safely shaped with that approach. Because of the grain changes in a curve, & even moreso if the wood is highly figured, you can get some nasty pick-out when you least expect or want it, with planes & shaves. If you saw close to the lines as suggested, you should be able to fair the curve with a fine rasp or coarse file (use a 'draw-filing' stroke, so you don't splinter the sides), then alternate use of card scraper & sandpaper wrapped round a suitably shaped chunk of wood should bring it to perfection. In fact, for box parts, I would probably try this way first, myself, for inside curves.

Cheers,

The dowel wrapped in sandpaper sounds like a great idea. I might give that a try and see how it goes. Thanks for the help.