Flattening a Spokeshave Sole

[Michael Peet]

I am learning quite a bit from this website, and am going through and tuning up my handtools a little. What I would like to do now is flatten my spokeshave sole, but I'm not sure whether I should leave the blade in like I would when doing a plane sole. Obviously I would retract it to avoid an unintentional macrobevel :eek:.

Thoughts?

[Casey Gooding]

I would certainly leave it in. Just like a plane, the body will flex a bit when the blade is in.

[David Keller NC]

Michael - You don't say whether you're flattening a wooden spokeshave or a metal one. With either one of them, it's really not necessary to do this as it is with a plane. The exception would be in a woodie with a badly warped sole that was twisted along its length, or a metal shave where the sole in front of the mouth is significantly different than the sole in back of the mouth due to wear - by significant, I mean way over what would be considered unacceptable in a bench plane - the 15 thousandths or more range.

Both a rounded bottom spokeshave and a flat-bottomed spokeshave are not designed to yield flat surfaces in the cutting direction like a plane is, and so long as the sole is flat in the transverse direction (along the length of the spokeshave) so that it can be adjusted for an even shaving along its width, flattening will just open up the mouth unnecessarily.

[Michael Peet]

Sorry, you're right - it's just an old used metal Stanley with a fixed mouth. The sole is pretty rough from the original machining, and I wanted to at least smooth it down some.

[David Keller NC]

Ahh - That makes more sense. You certainly don't need a mirror-finish on a spokeshave sole (in fact, it might be a bit of a detriment), but an overly rough surface may leave marks in softer woods.

What I'd suggest is mounting a piece of hard lumber that has been rendered flat on a jointer, planer, and then smoothed by a handplane (or with all handtools, if you have them - doesn't matter, so long as the board's absolutely flat across its width) to another, narrower board that can be mounted in your benchvise. The board needs to be only slightly wider than the spokeshave's sole, and thick enough so that you can wrap your fingers around the spokeshave's handle without rapping your knuckles on the bench.

Cut a strip of 120 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper to fit this board, and tack it down with some spray adhesive (or some double-sided tape on one end - whatever you've got). Then back your blade out just a little, but cinch it down with the pressure you'd have with the spokeshave in use. Being extremely careful to maintain even pressure on both handles and with your center of mass over the top of the tool, stroke it back and forth on the sandpaper until you have a uniform set of scratches, or have removed most of the roughness. Then switch to 220 and polish it a bit. That should be all that's required - it's a waste of time and gives you more opportunities to mess up if you proceed up through the finer grits. Unlike a plane, it's really easy to permanently mess up a spokeshave by taking off too much metal on one side of the tool.

[Michael Peet]

Thanks David, it is much better now. I used a mirror instead of a block of wood.

I'm wondering if someone else re-ground the sole at some point, because the mouth is bigger than that on an older-but-same model I have sitting around (both are 151s). I definitely did not work it enough to enlarge the mouth that much. It cuts like buttah though, so it doesn't matter too much to me ;).

Thanks for the tips fellas.