Small Holes That Spokeshave Blades' Tangs Fit in?

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J_SAMa

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Just out of curiosity, how are those holes made? they seem way to small to be chiseled like mortises, and boring obviously can't give you square holes. Are they burned into the wood a la fitting tang chisel handles?
 
No idea but it seems logical to start with a drilled hole very close to the maximum width of the mortise.
Then you can move to a square needle file or perhaps a simple square drift, compressing the wood? Maybe wet the wood, then compress it. Don't know, just thinkin. A few simple experiments and you will soon find out what is possible.
 
There is an excellent little booklet on "Wooden Spokeshaves" published by the Hawley Collection Trust and available from them for only £6.00 here http://www.hawleytoolcollection.com/index.php?sheffield-tool=papers-and-publications.

It shows a lot of detail about spokeshaves were made, including the use of patterns and special tools to set in the brass parts. But it doesn't answer this question! (It does say that irons were individually fitted to the stocks, so both would be marked with a Roman numeral to identify the pairs.)

My own guess is that a round hole drilled to the right size would give a nice tight fit to the square tangs without needing to be chiselled or filed, but that's only my guess.
 
Maybe they might have been drilled first then burned out, heat up the tangs from the forging process and stick it in and heat the heat burn the wood to shape, and from looking inside my own it looks slightly darker than the rest of the wood but I'm not sure if that's just from age. Only speculating here!

Cheers,
Donald
 
Mine has been chiselled out
 

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AndyT":9bhfhmhx said:
There is an excellent little booklet on "Wooden Spokeshaves" published by the Hawley Collection Trust and available from them for only £6.00 here http://www.hawleytoolcollection.com/index.php?sheffield-tool=papers-and-publications.

It shows a lot of detail about spokeshaves were made, including the use of patterns and special tools to set in the brass parts. But it doesn't answer this question! (It does say that irons were individually fitted to the stocks, so both would be marked with a Roman numeral to identify the pairs.)

My own guess is that a round hole drilled to the right size would give a nice tight fit to the square tangs without needing to be chiselled or filed, but that's only my guess.

I'm ordering mine tonight thanks Andy
TT
 
tobytools":dk2hnvgd said:
AndyT":dk2hnvgd said:
There is an excellent little booklet on "Wooden Spokeshaves" published by the Hawley Collection Trust and available from them for only £6.00 here http://www.hawleytoolcollection.com/index.php?sheffield-tool=papers-and-publications.

It shows a lot of detail about spokeshaves were made, including the use of patterns and special tools to set in the brass parts. But it doesn't answer this question! (It does say that irons were individually fitted to the stocks, so both would be marked with a Roman numeral to identify the pairs.)

My own guess is that a round hole drilled to the right size would give a nice tight fit to the square tangs without needing to be chiselled or filed, but that's only my guess.

I'm ordering mine tonight thanks Andy
TT

Smart move Toby. Some of these specialist publications go from cheap to unobtainable when the (short) print run is gone. I did a review of one of the others on that page, here: https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/book-review-day-out-the-ken-hawley-experience-t61355.html.
 
I'll be adding that to the list aswell then. Gulp.... The basket is adding up :)

Thanks again Andy, I really should become a member to that Thing where you receive books ect. Taths or something can't remember.

TT
 
woodiedonald":6ia5prdw said:
Maybe they might have been drilled first then burned out, heat up the tangs from the forging process and stick it in and heat the heat burn the wood to shape, and from looking inside my own it looks slightly darker than the rest of the wood but I'm not sure if that's just from age. Only speculating here!

Cheers,
Donald

Hmm. Does anybody have a totally worn out, wormed, wrecked wooden spokeshave as a sacrifice to knowledge? If it was split open, the inside of the hole might provide information to answer this.

I know that billhook handles were NOT burnt on from when I split a (wormed) handle open.

BugBear
 
The straightforward answer to the question, "How were wooden spokeshave blade tangs fitted to the body?" is "I don't know". But that's not going to stop me speculating....

If I had to make a lot of spokeshaves, I'd set out the position of the tangs on the body blank with dividers set to the blade tang centre distance, drill a small hole at each mark, knock the blade in so that the tang marked the body, then knock the blade out again. Then I'd open the holes at the marks with a small float - like a four-square file with planemaker's float teeth. When the blade almost seats, I'd knock it in the last 1/8" or so to make the tight seating.

Anybody ever found any tiny square files with straight-across float-like teeth?
 
DonJohnson":yf0l15mx said:
Cheshirechappie":yf0l15mx said:
Anybody ever found any tiny square files with straight-across float-like teeth?

In metalworking, such a tool is called a 'broach' - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broaching_(metalworking)

If one were making lots of spokeshaves, the it would be worth obtaining a (tapered ?) broach specifically for this task.


I see your thinking, and a tiny square broach might make a good substitute for a float, but broached holes tend to be parallel, and the holes for spokeshave tangs slightly tapered. Forming the taper in beech or boxwood could be done accurately enough by a filing/floating hand process, but I'm not quite so sure that broaching a taper hole would give a clean result. I stand to be proved wrong, though!
 
Just had a close look at a small one round hole drilled then squared up with a chisel then knock it in when new the wood will not be as hard so should form a perfect taper No burning involved
 
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