Spokeshave?

[DrPhill]

Hi all, winter projects coming on......

I want to thin down a branch of cormel for a walking stick. I need to take a fair bit off. Would a spokeshave be the right tool? I bought a cheap one years ago and gave up with it.
It may have been the quality of the tool or my incompetence (though I can use other edged tools to good effect). I do not want to use the sureform again.

So should I get a sppokeshave? I have seen some veritas ones in Axminster tools. Are they good quality? (good enough to know that the blame for failure lies with me rather than the tool). What shape base (flat, curved, concave?).

Any help or opinions welcome.

Thanks in advance

 

[lanemaux]

Shave sounds like just the thing. I find that putting a slightly more aggressive amount of blade onto my dominant hands side while only enough blade on the other side to make contact gives a nice range of control for such a job. It sure helped me turn a branch into a fake samurai sword for my son's trip to Animé North convention some years back. To start out with the roughing out , a drawknife is your friend if you can get one.

 

[DrPhill]

Shave sounds like just the thing. I find that putting a slightly more aggressive amount of blade onto my dominant hands side while only enough blade on the other side to make contact gives a nice range of control for such a job. It sure helped me turn a branch into a fake samurai sword for my son's trip to Animé North convention some years back. To start out with the roughing out , a drawknife is your friend if you can get one.

Useful hint there - I would never have thought of using the asymmetry.
Aximinster have a flexcut drawknife - half of my carving tools are flexcut and I get on well with those. Drawknife then spokeshave. Hmmm wait until payday......

 

[Eric The Viking]

I have one like this:

http://www.workshopheaven.com/tools/Quangsheng-Bronze-Spokeshave.html
Mine was slightly cheaper (the body is steel), but the design and the quality of the iron are both brilliant. Highly recommended.

 

[DrPhill]

I have one like this:

http://www.workshopheaven.com/tools/Quangsheng-Bronze-Spokeshave.html
Mine was slightly cheaper (the body is steel), but the design and the quality of the iron are both brilliant. Highly recommended.

Drool, nice looking.

 

[AndyT]

Your project sounds like the perfect reason to invest in some old wooden spokeshaves. I deliberately put that in the plural as they are still often cheap and no two are alike in use, so it really does make sense to have a selection.

As suggested a drawknife could be good for preliminary work, or indeed for the whole job, but a jacknife could be an option - you've not said how much wood needs to be removed.

 

[Racers]

+1 for a wooden spokeshave or a Hock blade and make your own, you can also get kits where the difficult bit has been done for you.
+1 for the drawknife as well.

Add a Millars Falls cigar shave and your spokeshave needs have been met.

Pete

 

[DrPhill]

Your project sounds like the perfect reason to invest in some old wooden spokeshaves. I deliberately put that in the plural as they are still often cheap and no two are alike in use, so it really does make sense to have a selection.

As suggested a drawknife could be good for preliminary work, or indeed for the whole job, but a jacknife could be an option - you've not said how much wood needs to be removed.

I have jacknives - I think a different style might be easier as I have a reasonable amount to take off. I am hoping to apply some straightening to a curved branch, and cormel is quite tough stuff. I thought the pulling action on two wrists might be more gentle than the pushing action on one.

As for tools plural, well I am a little averse to collecting too may tools for similar/overlapping purposes, especially as I probably will not appreciate the subtle differences between two similar tools. I am not even sure if I should use a concave spokeshave or not. I guess if they are similar at my skill level I should get the one that is easiest to sharpen - the veritas concave one looked as if it had a curved cutting edge.

And I cannt spend too much (define 'too much') as I have a potential project next year rebuilding the potting shed. That might require some 'proper' chisels and some other tools I do not even know I need yet. Commercial quotes for rebuild are around 6k, so doing it myself might justify some expenditure in a way that walking sticks wont. :wink:


Just about to post and Petes post comes in. What is the significance of 'wooden' spokeshave here. Am I missing a subtlety?

 

[Racers]

Wooden one are low angle and are much easer to use, they don't suffer from chatter like high angle ones do.
Get them from Ebay of a carboot, just check for wear, but you can let in a new throat in either brass or hardwood.
And loose tangs can be sorted with grub screws or shims.

Preston made nice high angle spoke shaves but they are expensive.

Pete

 

[Billy Flitch]

Hi Phil I would also go first with a draw knife then a spokeshave, the thing is not to confuse a draw knife with a spokeshave, the spokeshave is not for hogging of a load of material but for fine work. Here is a link to a thread I made a while back , enjoy. spokeshaves-t88720.html

 

[Jacob]

Draw-knife is good but not cheap and you still need a spokeshave. Wooden spokeshave is brilliant and very cheap but there's a bit of a learning curve. Best bet for an all-rounder is a A151 or 151 spokeshave - cheap SH and easy to use.
Don't bother with expensive flashy new stuff- complete waste of money

 

[DrPhill]

OK, it seems that I have misunderstood the role of spokeshaves - it seems that the drawknife is a more appropriate starting tool for removing bulk. I had wrongly thought that a spokeshave was the tool to use to start. You guys have put me right on that. I may still need a spoke shave in the later stages.

The debate is then wood versus not-wood, and new versus second-hand. My problem with second-hand is that I do not know enough to recognise a good or bad tool, or know enough to fix an in-betweener. My sharpening skills are not yet finely honed (to say the least) so If I get a badly treated steel I will be a bit lost. I have struggled with poor tools before, wasting time and enthusiasm assuming that poor results were due to my lack of skill. I do not have the inclination to repeat the process. Is there a reputable refurbisher of old tools on the web somewhere?

EDIT: Just ordered a Flexcut drawknife. That will get me started and give me time to think about a spokeshave. One step forward, one extra step discovered.....

 

[Jacob]

2nd hand 151 steel spokeshave is a pretty safe bet, and cheap. Old ones - don't buy new they are sh|t. Get a few whilst you are at it. "Badly treated steel" is a bit mythical - at worst it could need sharpening more frequently than usual, if it has been blued on a grindstone, but this gets removed in the process. Anyway you need the sharpening practice!

 

[monkeybiter]

Please define 'cheap', I know it varies from item to item but what's cheap in this case? What does one need to pay for a serviceable drawknife or spokeshave in the current market, and how much is too much?

 

[Jacob]

Very variable but say drawknife £15, spokeshave woodies £5 Metal £10, Can be very cheap if you get a job lot. Woodies can be worn out beyond further use so this is something to look at.

Record 0151 perhaps best bet as they maintained quality - unlike Irwin/Record or Stanley whose later offerings were not so good.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

My local 2nd hand tool guy sells drawknives as fast as he can find them, never less than £25.

 

[MIGNAL]

I think I paid £25 for my Pfeil straight drawknife. From new but it was some 15 years ago. Brilliant tool. Worth every single pence, if only because of the rate it removes wood. I suppose if you use it once every year it's hardly going to be worth buying one. Use it once every month and get your hand in your pocket!

 

[DrPhill]

Yes, 'cheap' can be hard to define. It is not always just money - there is time, research and storage involved too. Servicing tools also requires tools and resources (screws, springs, washers) which themselves need to be sourced. I do not know where my local second hand tool seller is, nor how to assess a bargain. There are some car boot sales nearby but how much time will it take to find a cheap and serviceable tool? I just purchased a new and guaranteed drawknife for £35 (a few pence under, including p&p). If I had to drive to the local boot sale and spend an hour looking how much would I save? I simplistically calculate my time as £10 and hour (especially as I do not like car boot sales) -depending on what I am doing I am worth at least that. So an hour or two and a litre or so of fuel and I need to find an excellent tool for well under £25. Is that likely? Would I recognise it?

I appreciate (and admire) Jacobs approach, skills and advice but I cannot copy them in this instance. I would like to give an old tool a new home (and save some money too) but I would like even more to get on with the job at hand.

I will start with the drawknife - thanks folks for pointing me at a better type of tool for the initial job - and mull over the spokeshave. I still need to mull over the different merits of the various styles.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Which of the Flexcut drawknives did you go for ? I'd be interested to know how you get on with it.

Of my green woodworking friends, I have to say all use old drawknives. They can be tricky things to grind and sharpen, but the new ones I've tried (Crown, bought as tools for new members not having their own tools yet) would need just as much work to make them good to use - very clumsy thing the Crown one.

I switch between 3 - a large Ward one, an American one and an old French one made by Goldenberg. The latter I picked up for £15 off ebay, and it is my favourite style for finer work. I use it for making chair back legs (too long to turn). The other tools I really like for this are my Stanley Sweetheart #55 spokeshave with a concave sole that avoids leaving a faceted surface. Tricky to sharpen though. For finishing, I made a card scraper from an old hardpoint saw blade, with a semicircular cut out to match the profile of an average chair leg.

 

[Eric The Viking]

For finishing, I made a card scraper from an old hardpoint saw blade, with a semicircular cut out to match the profile of an average chair leg.

I've been doing similar recently for paint stripping and scraping plaster mouldings, making scrapers out of large square plate washers, the sort cut from a steel strip for structural building work.

Cut to rough shape with an Abrafile, clean up with half round files and a drum-shaped diamond burr in the Proxxon "Dremel" tool, then polish by pulling strips of emery cloth over the metal, backed by a half round file, finished on a polishing wheel on the grinder. Once it's as smooth as poss, you can 'dress' it in much the same way as a card scraper, with a burnisher.

I find the rigidity of thicker steel very helpful, and make an instant handle with mole grips. It suits the job in hand, as I can change where I'm gripping it easily, but you could just as easily make a wooden handle.

To my surprise, I can take pretty good shavings, at least on softwood. OK, I don't actually want this when paint-stripping skirting board mouldings...

E.