A couple of spokeshaves

I am a part of a support group for Veterans and first responders called Forge Through (Veteran And First Responder Mental Health Workshop | Forge Through | Australia).

We run courses in making knives to help our members dealing with the mental health issues they may have as a result of their service.

This year they branched out a bit and started forging axes and hammers as well.

So the need was identified for a spokeshave to assist with making the handles.

I was known within the group for making my own woodworking tools so naturally I felt honoured and appreciated when I was asked to make a spokeshave for the group.

So I made two of them.

I will be presenting them to the group over the weekend when many of us will be gathering in the Nowra area for our annual fishing competition.

The blades are o1 tool steel, the timber is an unidentified Eucalypt species recycled from an old stair tread and the sole is brass for long wear.

I hope our group get plenty of use out of them.


Attachment 519965

Nice work Doug.

Doug

Those shaves look great. Terrific job.

Regards
Paul

Hi Doug. Nice proportions for the handles. The last ones I made look way too chunky. I have tried modifying and they still look too fat. I used an old blade with tangs. How do you adjust the gap on yours?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Hi Doug. Nice proportions for the handles. The last ones I made look way too chunky. I have tried modifying and they still look too fat. I used an old blade with tangs. How do you adjust the gap on yours?

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Thanks, MA.

Bearing in mind that these spokeshaves are going to be used fo rthe most part by people whose woodworking expereince goes barely beyond shaping a wooden knife handle, I made these as foolproof as possible with no moving parts, but it is possible to take thin shavings or thick shavings by adjusting the angle at which it is held up to the workpiece.

The blade is 1/8" thick. I glue a 1/8" thick brass sole in front of and touching the cutting edge of the blade with 24 hour epoxy.

The blade is then unscrewed so it does not get damaged while I grind a 6 degree bevel into the brass soleuntil the back of the bevel (closest to the blade) is just a fraction lower than the blade. This allows the spokeshave to take a very fine cut as long as you are rubbing the 6 degree bevel on the workpiece. You might have to keep testing and removing a bit more brass until you have the type of fine shavings you want.

Then to open up the gap a bit more, grind the high edge of the bevel back to flat, which opens up the gap and thickens the cut when you are cutting by rubbing the flat of the sole against the workpiece. When rubbing the length of the bevel you will still get the fine cut we set up before.

I am hoping that it will be easier to teach them to use this type of spokeshave without having to adjust anything, rather than have to teach them to set the tool up properly. If there are no adjustments to be made on the tool then if the blade is sharp it can only be technique if they are having issues.

I attached a picture of how I ground the bevel at 6 degrees. I cut the timber wedge on my big bandsaw. I hope that is all explained well enough.

Attachment 519990

What a joy those 'shaves will be to use! I have 2 Samona (SKorea) with one set to cut thick and the other to cut thin.
I have found no reason to adjust them in years. In use, I often hold the "ears" in the palms of my hands in a pull stroke.
My fingers run along the wood underneath for direction.
Spoon handles and ladles, dogcart wheel spokes, restorations, the enjoyable uses are endless.