I've got a №152 spokeshave (convex sole, 55mm Iron, red lcap) which I've had a few years, it was a gift and I used it to shape some canoe paddles, but it wasn't all that much craic at it, so once the roughing out was done I finished off by painstakingly hand-sanding material off until I got the appropriate shape as a smooth surface; it then sat unused for a long time until I decided that I was going to get it working properly and took a proper look at it.
I've noted that:
Looking closely at the pictures in the catalog, it really does seem like the №152 is just the same casting as the №151 flat soled spokeshave with the sole ground down more to form a convex surface, which would explain the excessively wide throat at least.
In terms of solutions, I shimmed the iron out a little with 2 layers of PET drinks bottle cut to exactly fit the surface the iron beds to, which reduced the throat to a more acceptable size and improved it, I need to try it with 1 & 3 layers just to be sure, but I think 2 is the ticket... Ideally I'll replace the plastic with either a thin even layer of epoxy and micro-spheres or with shims cut from a drinks can and attached in some way (not figured out exactly how yet). That allowed it to take shavings in smooth cuts without chattering endlessly, but the throat still clogs with shavings in one or two strokes.
My next step is going to be to somehow remove the coating, then file and lap the edge of the chip-breaker down to more or less an edge, certainly enough so that it's not presenting a flat surface perpendicular to the iron. and I'm hoping that will be enough to get it working properly!
I am however genuinely shocked by how fundamentally flawed it is as new. Had I not had a moment of irritation/inspiration with it, I would most likely have just shelved it as something I didn't want to skip because it was a gift, but was nonetheless difficult to use almost to the point of total uselessness!
I've noted that:
- The machining on the sole is uneven, viewed from the bottom with the bevel pointed towards me, the upper right hand side of the sole has been machined 3mm further up than that on the left hand side, it does not taper smoothly, the machining extends too far up for approx. ⅓rd of the width of the sole then dips back to form a uniform line where the machined surface should end
- The throat opening is much too wide as stock, almost 4mm
- The edge of the chip-breaker is rounded off, not just a little bit either it's actually radiused on the top of the edge that meets the iron and presents a flat surface of approx 2mm to the shavings.
Looking closely at the pictures in the catalog, it really does seem like the №152 is just the same casting as the №151 flat soled spokeshave with the sole ground down more to form a convex surface, which would explain the excessively wide throat at least.
In terms of solutions, I shimmed the iron out a little with 2 layers of PET drinks bottle cut to exactly fit the surface the iron beds to, which reduced the throat to a more acceptable size and improved it, I need to try it with 1 & 3 layers just to be sure, but I think 2 is the ticket... Ideally I'll replace the plastic with either a thin even layer of epoxy and micro-spheres or with shims cut from a drinks can and attached in some way (not figured out exactly how yet). That allowed it to take shavings in smooth cuts without chattering endlessly, but the throat still clogs with shavings in one or two strokes.
My next step is going to be to somehow remove the coating, then file and lap the edge of the chip-breaker down to more or less an edge, certainly enough so that it's not presenting a flat surface perpendicular to the iron. and I'm hoping that will be enough to get it working properly!
I am however genuinely shocked by how fundamentally flawed it is as new. Had I not had a moment of irritation/inspiration with it, I would most likely have just shelved it as something I didn't want to skip because it was a gift, but was nonetheless difficult to use almost to the point of total uselessness!
