Mouth size on round soled spokeshave?

[bugbear]

I've been working on a hickory axe handle, and using a Stanley (SW) #63 spokeshave.

It's quite tricky, which doesn't surprise me - round soled spokeshaves are famously a bit tricky. You have to get the angle at which the shave sits on the wood just right, or the blade doesn't engage. I'm managing OK, and improving with time.

The mouth of the shave is quite wide. Would a tighter mouth (which is worth doing
for other reasons) make the handling any easier?

Or (conversely) would it make it harder?

BugBear

PS I'm also using a Record #64 spokeshave and a Lee Valley Low Angle shave, but they're easy!

 

[AndyT]

Well, it could be your perfect excuse to get a #53, which had an adjustable width mouth, and do some experiments - unless you think that Stanley would ever have offered tools with features that weren't strictly necessary :wink:

Another more serious option might be to knock up a devil or two - Paul Sellers did a recent video which made it look a quick and easy tool to make.

 

[Jacob]

I'd expect shallow curves on a hammer handle to be easier with a flat SS with the blade adjusted accordingly. Not sure mouth is going to make much difference - after all you can do precise work with a draw knife with no mouth at all.
Curved SSs seem to be for tight curves only.

 

[bugbear]

Another more serious option might be to knock up a devil or two - Paul Sellers did a recent video which made it look a quick and easy tool to make.

Well...

factory-made-chair-devil-t53030.html

BugBear

 

[Racers]

BB you need a Millars Falls No1 cigar shave, and a light touch.

Pete

 

[ED65]

The mouth of the shave is quite wide. Would a tighter mouth (which is worth doing for other reasons) make the handling any easier?

I think it very much depends on what you use the spokeshave for. If you're looking to have the spokeshaved surface as the final surface then yes it's probably worth doing.

But personally for this type of job I just hog off material with the shave, using it much like a small drawknife, and then switch to rasps and files.

 

[Argus]

Spoke shaves always seem to me to have wide mouths, however it is possible to pack the blade out on its bed and reduce the aperture that way. Quite a lot of hit-and-miss until you get it right.

Personally, I'd use a scraper with an aggressive burr to remove the meat then get finer with less pronounced hooks.

All best

 

[Jacob]

A round spokeshave has three points of contact with the workpiece - the front and back of the mouth, and the blade. The actual shape of the SS doesn't matter as long as it has a smaller effective radius than the curve being shaved.