The FWW magazine article and associated video by Peter Galbert shows wooden spokeshaves with a fixed blade position that can be made to take thinner or thicker cuts by the user operating the spokeshave with more or less rotation, to raise or lower the blade by means of a rounded “nose” sculpted into the sole ahead of the blade.
I can’t seem to find any commonly available wooden spokeshaves that works like this – although Peter Galbert mentions that from Caleb James. This is far too expensive for me – about $180 plus another great wodge of sales tax, customs duty and postage costs to import one from the US to Blighty.
A Veritas spokeshave make-your-own kit is on its way … but the blurb seem to indicate that the sole shown in the included plan will be a flat sole, not one of those nosed soles that enable the Galbert-style variation of the cut via tipping the spokeshave for’ard or back’ard. The Veritas kit metal bits have knurled knobs to adjust the blade depth, the same as their metal spokeshaves (of which I have three).
Does anyone know of either a reasonably-priced wooden spokeshave or a plan for making one in the style that Peter Galbert demonstrates and recommends?
I did look at the Veritas low angle spokeshave, which does have a fixed height blade and what looks like a rounded (and reversible) nose in front of it which is meant to allow it to be used on concave as well as flat and convex surfaces.
https://www.leevalley.com/en-gb/shop/tools/hand-tools/spokeshaves/44834-veritas-low-angle-spokeshave?item=05P3273
Could/would that act like the wooden spokeshave Peter Galbert demonstrate, do you think, to vary the thickness of the shavings taken by tipping the spokeshave whilst pivoted along the rounded nose of the sole?
Lataxe
Replies
They used to be very common at flea markets and antique stores here. You could also try ebay
https://www.ebay.com/i/353153197806?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-213727-13078-0&mkcid=2&itemid=353153197806&targetid=4581046486499628&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=403204662&mkgroupid=1239149819509085&rlsatarget=pla-4581046486499628&abcId=9300377&merchantid=51291&msclkid=765a0f81eded17add0d150eff6e44fd5
The January/February 2020 (#280)issue of Finewoodworking has and article on making your own spoke shave by David Welter that may be helpful to you. Here's an online reference, https://www.finewoodworking.com/2019/12/19/make-your-own-spokeshave
Mr Hall,
Thanks for that reference to the article (PDF now avidly perused). That model of spokeshave has a flat but slightly canted strip in front of the blade rather than a "nosed" bump. The depth of cut seems to be regulated with the two screwed tangs moving the blade up and down in the body, in the modern way, rather than by having a fixed-position blade with the user employing a "nose" to raise or lower the blade for thinner or thicker cuts via spokeshave rotation.
But I could imagine the flat strip in that design being replaced by a nosed strip. The blade could still be regulated with the up and down screwing but also via the nose, whilst actually cutting, by the user rotationally altering the body of the spokeshave..........?
Worth a try perhaps.
The Veritas kit that's on it's way to my postbox has a brass sole mounted in front of the blade. It might be worth attempting to replace that with a "nosed" sole .....
Lataxe
Antique shaves end up rounded in front with use.
But really, every flat bottomed wooden shave can be made rounded, very quickly. Some judicious use of sandpaper is all it takes. It's a very small area, and the difference between flat and round is not much. Take it SLOW. It's easy to remove too much.
You can also accomplish the same end with a flat bottomed wooden spokeshave. Have the blade extended farther on one side than the other. One end will be course, the other end finer. You can't really do that with a metal bodied shave.
John,
Rounding the flat nose of a wooden spokeshave does sound like a possibility. The Veritas low angle spokeshave blurb on the LV website shows a possible profile - perhaps two! Their low angle spokeshave comes with a rounded nose piece that's reversible - although the purpose there seems to be in support of shaving into concavities rather than using the nose to vary the thickness of the shavings via spokeshave rotation. The blade-come-sole behind the edge looks too big to allow the 'shave to be rotated in that way.
https://www.leevalley.com/en-gb/shop/tools/hand-tools/spokeshaves/44834-veritas-low-angle-spokeshave
But the side-on views of the front nose show profiles that look like they could be used to rotate the spokehave to alter the cut thickness - as long as the area behind the blade is also very short, as in many wooden spokeshaves one sees.
****
You can vary the cutting depth across the blade of a metal spokeshave if it's of the kind adjusted with the two screws at either end of the blade, a la Stanley 151 and the Veritas metal shaves. I have three (flat, curved and radius soled) all of which are kept in their protective wrap ready and adjusted so use of one end of the blade takes thin cuts, the other end thicker cuts and the middle section something in between.
Sometimes I want the flat soled spokeshave, in particular, to take even cuts right across the blade so equalise it's height below the sole across the whole length with the two adjusters - but that's the exception to the slightly-canted setting giving varying depth of cut.
Lataxe
I have an old vintage Stanley flat soled spokeshave, and I keep threatening to buy one with a curved sole as well.
But, the first thing that occurred to me when I read your opening post, was simply to round the new sole coming with the Veritas kit. I haven't looked at it in a while, but isn't the sole just a piece of brass? Easy to work with some files, a little sand paper and some buffing.
Hello Five.
The Veritas spokeshave kit arrived with a few other things (including their small plane kit) this afternoon. I've just finished absorbing the details of the plan and procedure for making the spokeshave. Apart from the need for pesky imperial-sized drill bits (the nearest metric will suffice, I think) it looks straightforward if demanding of high precision.
As you say, the brass sole could be rounded ... although it might also work to make and insert a strip of some oily and resilient hardwood instead of the brass, as this would be easier to round over. It (like the brass strip) could be secured with countersunk screws rather than glued-in, making it easily removable if I got the rounding wrong. I have teak, iroko and afromosia to hand.
Perhaps it might even be possible to have both a flat brass and a rounded wooden strip, putting the appropriate strip in for the job? On the other hand, making an additional spokeshave seems a better tactic. :-)
Lataxe
Always need more tools, my brother!
Always.
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