Lee Valley Veritas Round bottom spokeshave

[Prashun Patel]

I normally love Veritas products, but this one has me stymied. I cannot for the life of me get it to cut. I have another cheap, curved-sole spokeshave that works pretty well.

There looks to be nothing defective.

It appears that the mouth is just too tight. Chips just can't get in. Yet it comes with shims to close up the mouth even further for finer cuts.

Does anyone own this? What is the secret to making this work? If I can't make it work, I'll just sell it and get 5 of those wonderful little rosewood planes LV sells...

[john zulu]

Check Derek's page. It contains an article to tune it.

[Steve Friedman]

Hi Prashun,

Derek did an article on the new LV cast spokeshave. Is the the one you're referring to, or is it the one with the wooden handles? If it's the cast one, you can ignore the rest of my post. I haven't tried it, but love the L-N bronze version of that shave. If it's the wooden handled one, I have one and have no problem with it, but have read of folks who have had problems with them. I think the biggest problem is the way the cap seats on the blade. It's really easy to have it not seated all the way. Otherwise, it's just keeping the blade very sharp and taking light cuts.

I remember a thread a while ago about the tightness of the mouth on the LV spokeshaves and actually tested mine. While it's not near as wide open as the old Record or Stanley shaves, it is certainly capable of taking pretty sizable shavings.

Just one more thing about curved spokeshaves is to remember that the radius of the curve is different. The L-N bronze has a very tight radius, but the L-N Boggs is very large. The LV wooden handled one is sort of in between. I spoke to Deneb about that last year when I was in Maine and he suggested not being shy about altering the radius of the sole to suit your needs. He's right, of course.

Hope that helps.

Steve

[Prashun Patel]

I have the wooden-handled Veritas one. I have not had problems with the cap. Both the cap and blade are bedded properly.

I just cannot get it to take a cut. Not a heavy one, not a light one. Neither skewing the depth of the blade nor the presentation of the tool to the wood have helped.

I'll check out Derek's thread.

[Steve Friedman]

Derek's article is about the other shave.

I hope you're not offended by this question, but do you have the blade bevel down? I once couldn't figure out why mine wasn't cutting and it turned out that I put the blade in bevel up.

By the way, are you referring to the shave that has a convex sole (the one they call the round spokeshave) or the one with the concave sole? i have both and am able to take pretty thick shavings without problem. Can you post a picture showing the mouth opening?

Steve

[Prashun Patel]

Haha! No offense taken; great question! I have the blade bevel down. I TRIED to install it bevel up but the cap position is fixed in the body, so it's impossible to get it to seat right with the blade up.

I am talking about the one with the convex sole and the flat blade used for shaving concave curves. I didn't get the convex one (the spindle forming one) because I stink at sharpening those kinds of blades.

I'll post a picture tonight...
Thanks!

[Bill Houghton]

You should, of course, contact Lee Valley, whose customer service staff will be eager to help. If you happen to have feeler gauges, it would be helpful to let them know the mouth opening wit no shims in.

A comment on round-soled shaves: I find they work better, in my hands anyway, when I pull them. Curling my wrists in as I follow a line works better than curling them out, so I have more control.

[Prashun Patel]

Thanks Bill. Yes, I have contacted LV. They are helping me diagnose. I like to throw questions out here as well, because I usually find someone who's already been through it. LV's always helpful; I sent them the question first actually.

[Jonas Baker]

Hi Prashun,


Have you tried to make a cut on a flat surface? If so, were you able to get a cut on the flat surface? If you are able to get a cut on a flat surface, then it could be that the curved surface you are trying to cut has too tight of a radius, so the blade may not be making contact with the wood I have found that in general, it is a bit lore difficult to get a proper shaving on a cuffed surface with a convex soled spoke shave.


Best of luck,


Jonas

[Prashun Patel]

Here are a couple pix. The mouth seems pretty tight, yet there is NO blade projection yet. In order to get any blade projection, the mouth is so tight that the shavings just jam and I get chatter for a stroke or two, and then nothing.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Prashun

Check the bevel angle. It may be too high and this could be limiting blade projection. It should be around 25 degrees.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Prashun Patel]

It's 30 degrees. That hasn't affected the other shaves I have.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Prashun

I bet that it will work as wanted if you grind the bevel to 25 degrees. :)

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Prashun

OK ... what seems to be happening is that the 30 degree bevel catches on the bed and lifts/slides the blade up and into the mouth. If you grind to 25 degrees (add a 30 degree microbevel later if you want), then the ground off area lies further back and does not lift the blade as before.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Prashun Patel]

Derek, I should have clarified: The blade is honed to 25 deg with a 30 degree micro bevel only. My microbevel is about 0.5mm or less still.

[Derek Cohen]

Prashun, then check the bed for any projection that could be lifting the blade. Otherwise you may be left with having to open the mouth.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Steve Friedman]

Hi Prashun,

Something is obviously wrong. The mouth should be much more open. I agree with Derek that the only possibility is a defect in the casting or something raising the blade off the bed. I'll look at mine when I get home to compare. If you have the flat shave, did you try to switch blades to eliminate that as a possible source of the problem. I assume it's the LV blade in there, right? If not, it's possible that the blade is too thick.

Unusual.

Steve

[Prashun Patel]

Here's a pic of the underside of the cap and the bed. I do notice that there is a 'microbevel' at the mouth of the bed. Is that supposed to be there?

[Jim Belair]

The bed on mine is completely machined, not just a strip by the mouth and then a round spot above the securement screw. I have about a 1 mm mouth opening when the blade is just flush with the sole.

Looks like they have changed the design on these at some point. The "Tech" info shows a bed like yours http://www.leevalley.com/en/shopping/AddViews.aspx?p=49199 but the "Video" at 0:56 shows a fully machined bed like mine http://www.leevalley.com/en/Home/VideoPopup.aspx?v=14 (http://www.leevalley.com/en/shopping/AddViews.aspx?p=49199)

[Steve Friedman]

Prashun,

I agree with Jim. You obviously have the newer version of the shave. It's not just the bed that's different, but it seems like the mouth shape is different as well. With the blade protruding far enough to take a shave, I can push a .012" feeler gauge through the mouth opening. I assume you can't even get the blade far enough through the mouth to feel the edge with your fingers. If that's true, there's obviously a problem with the casting. I'm sure LV will fix it. Either the mouth needs to be opened or something is wrong with the bed that's making the blade sit proud - same as if the blade was too thick.

Good luck.

Steve

[Prashun Patel]

Update:

I've been in close contact with Lee Valley, and their initial instinct is the same as everyone here. They've offered to replace mine with a new one.

They're quite smart, I think. I was so pleased I'm going to place a new order for something just by way of thanks.

[Prashun Patel]

Update:

They sent me a replacement shave, and it has solved the problem. Works completely as advertised.
My untrained eye detects that the bed in the offending shave has nibs next to the mouth the project up and impede the blade's ability to lay flat, which in turn makes the mouth too tight.

It was only evident when I compared it to the 'good' one.

Anyway, all's good, and I now really like this shave. It feels even heavier than the bigger Stanley 151 that I've been using, yet in a smaller package that can get into tighter spaces.

Aside: I ordered two more of their rosewood shaves. I have to say, yet again, those things are amazing for their price. I mean, I'll challenge anyone to take a 2" square spindle blank into rough round faster (and with more pleasure) than with any tool, including a lathe.

[Reinis Kanders]

How do you sharpen rosewood spokeshave? Do you have to remove blade from the handles, does it loosen the fit?

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I have been wanting to try the rosewood shave. Thanks for the feedback. By the way, I had my round-bottom spokeshave out Saturday to trim some boat parts and, remembering your post, looked at the mouth and did notice that there is very little room for error. Mine works fine, but I could see where a tiny error in machining could cause the problem you had.

By the way, I noticed on Shop Talk Live podcast a question was answered from someone with your name about finishing. Was that you?

[Prashun Patel]

Yes that was me. STL is a guilty pleasure. I love those guys even though they rag on Ed too much.

Reinis,
You do have to remove the blade from the handle. It does not loosen the fit noticeably. I sharpen the large one on waterstones, free hand. I sharpen the small one on the corner of a waterstone.