which spokeshave would you buy?

[Archie England]

I've gathered a good assortment of old Stanley (51,52,53, 55, 60, 63, 64) and Millers Falls (Cigar) shaves. Some work better than others. Alas, I'm contemplating the purchase of either a Lie Nielson or Lee Valley rounded bottom and a concave spoke shaves.

In practicing with my assortment, I get sweet cuts with the 52 and 53--but they're not good at taking heavy cuts. The 51 takes heavy cuts but with a lot of chatter. Would a replacement blade be in order? The cuts I'm getting with the 55, which is actually a Keen Kutter, is somewhat ragged. I'm expecting to get better rounding on my spokes. I don't. I can nearly cut as well with the flat bottoms as with the curved spoke shave.

Hopefully, I've provided enough data for you to see that I'm trying to make these work. Oh, BTW, I do need to spend more time sharpening on them. But, the blades are still sharp enough to give me good practice.

What do you folks recommend?

[Jonathan McCullough]

You've got more spoke shaves than I do, but it sounds to me like you might like to try a drawknife for more aggressive wood removal.

[John Coloccia]

I really like my Veritas spoke shave. I have a straight bottomed one. The LN ones are a little small for the work I do, though I can see where they're be perfect for chair legs, spindles, etc. I would stay away from the Kunz, in my opinion, as I felt they required far too much work to be usuable. I'd rather restore something at that point.

Here's the thing: I don't find that the LN really wants to take heavy cuts either, nor does the Veritas (though it can take just a bit heavier). For that, you want a draw knife. It's a very traditional workflow to go from a drawknife, for roughing work, down to a spokeshave to smooth out the piece and put on the finishing touches. If you're doing this kind of work without a drawknife, my opinion is your money is best spent on a quality drawknife for rough work, and let the spokeshaves clean up and do final tweaking.

Just my opinion. LN and Veritas both make beautiful spokeshaves, with Veritas having the upper hand for ease of adjustment in my opinion.

[Mike Davis NC]

Pretty much exactly what I was going to say.

Do you have a Stanley 151 with adjustable depth of cut? I like that model a lot sometimes I adjust it deep on one side and light on the other so I can move left or right for lighter or deeper cut.

But really if you need to make very heavy cuts then you do need a draw knife.

[Paul Saffold]

Brian Boggs had an article in FWW on tuning up spokeshaves. He used a Record 51 in the article. Since I have a Record 51, I tuned mine up except for making a new chip breaker. After using epoxy to create a flat bed and adding a Hock blade the chatter was gone. But like others have said, spokeshaves aren't for hogging off wood.

[Paul Saffold]

Sorry about that. Both Brian's article and my shave are 151s not 51.:o

[Archie England]

First, I do have and use draw knives. I love 'em for hogging off bark, knots, and such. However, I don't like going back to one once I've started the finishing of a handle/spindle.

Second, I just started fettling a Stanley 151, which I had bought earlier this week. It works surprisingly well.

Third, I genuinely seek the collective counsel of SMC about the curved spokeshave. I've watched Brian Boggs demo his shaves for St. Roy; his appear to work quite well. Please do chime in concerning your experience between the Stanley's, LN, and LV. The adjustments on the LV look very appealing; however, the ability to get the smallish 63 into tight areas has been nice--and, I've had no chatter with it. The no. 63 is just small and lightweight.

Fourth, I thought our mission was to get as many toys, uh, I mean tools, in the process of learning how to do all this stuff. :-)

[Steve Friedman]

I have a couple of L-N spokeshaves and every one of the LV spokeshaves. I like the feel of the LV ones much better. Also easier to adjust. I especially like the new LV super sized spokeshave for heavy duty stuff.

Steve