Wooden Spokeshave Fettling - Beginner needs help!

Re: Wooden Spokeshave Fettling - Beginner needs he

David Barnett - Venice, FL

>From the picture, it looks though the tangs are tapped in as far as they'll go (yes, a hammer is used). If that's the case, as it often is, you'll need to attach a thicker wear plate to tighten things up. Wear plates can be almost anything; wood (I like box or lignum vitae), brass, bone, ivory, micarta. I just file to fit and glue or screw. As for setting the iron, it's not uncommon to leave one end a bit higher to take thicker shavings. The other end will take thinner shavings, of course. That way one doesn't have to adjust nearly so often.

Shims?

Scott in Douglassville, PA

>Thanks for the info, David. Might could I use some shim stock to raise the brass wear plate a bit as a first pass fix?

Re: Shims?

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>I had good luck lifting the plate up and putting epoxy there and filing that down to raise the plate up a little. You can always make a new body and use the iron again it's a fun project.

Re: Wooden Spokeshave Fettling - Beginner needs he

Jim Crammond in Monroe, Mi.

>Scott,

If you can't tap the blade in any more to tighten up the mouth, try changing the angle of your grip on the spokeshave a little with the toe of the shave on the wood and the rear of the shave up a little. Instead of using the sole of the shave flat on the workpiece, adjust the depth of cut by picking up a little on the trailing end of the shave.

Also, spokeshaves are much more finicky about grain direction than a plane because the mouth openings are usually bigger. If it doesn't seem to be cutting well, reverse direction, taking a light cut to see if that works better.

Jim

Re: Shims?

Scott in Douglassville, PA

>Hi, Jim -

Thanks for the idea. I was wondering about that when I started playing with the screws that hold the brass down. I'm playig hell trying to remove those screws, BTW...

Don't know if it shows up in the photos, but the iron and sole (correct terms?) are radiused side to side. Definitely making sharpening an adventure...

Scott

Re: Wooden Spokeshave Fettling - Beginner needs he

Scott in Douglassville, PA

>Thanks for the tips, Jim. I'll work on technique when I'm done sharpeneing.

Nice score...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Hi Scott, A lot can be done by varying your grip. First off, don't hold it like a pair of bike handlebars (i.e. hands wrapped around the top of the shave and thumbs below. Instead place your thumbs inward (towards the middle of the shave) and inline with the handles. By "rolling" the spoke shave (think motorcycle throttle here) you can get a very precise shaving out of a spokeshave.

Have fun with it!

Re: Wooden Spokeshave Fettling - Beginner needs he

Adam Cherubini, NJ

>Scott,

Your spokeshave looks fine. Just sharpen it. You don't want wispy shaving from a spoke shave anyway.

Yeah, its good to have an inconsistent mouth. You can move the tool around to get just what you want.

I use several boxwood shaves that don't have wear plates. When they get worn down, you can simply set the blade a bit deeper. Yank it out and look in there and you'll figure out what to do. Helps to have a really small chisel. You could reshape the sole slightly to match the blade afterwards. You could also try the tiniest back bevel- but be careful, you could ruin it too.

Shimming up the wear plate sounds a bit silly to me, but I may be missing something.

Agressive blade

jim_reed@marietta

>As said, back off the blade if you can. I like to set mine sometimes so that it is so shallow it does not cut on one side. That way you can *sneak up* by going across the blade until you get the size shaving you want. Good luck with yours.

Thanks everyone...

Scott in Douglassville, PA

>Like I said, I'm a rank newbie to this. I sharpened things up, couldn't putz with the wear plate regardless, 'cause them screws t'ain't going nowhere, and set to practicing. Starting to get the hang of it. 'Course, I've got one finger that hangs out in mid-air slamming into things at inopportune times, distracting me from concentrating on technique...

Anyway, thanks for all the input. It's a fun new old toy.

Scott

Re: Thanks everyone...

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>Scott I wish someone had told me this years ago. Take all your scaps and just go crazy use the shave. You can easily take very fine shavings off and get a glass like finish with properly setup spoke shaves. Pay attention to the grain. Have alook thru archives and see if there are any good shapening descriptions I think there are a few with great pictures. If you run into problems just e-mail me and I'll do what I can. Jim