A double bladed spokeshave

[steven c newman]

I just won one of them on the FeeBay. Some company called Batchelder? Straight and curved irons. Need to find out how to sharpen them up for use. @$14 counting S&H, hoping I didn't spend too much...

[Archie England]

Made by Stanley and copied by a few other mfgs. Assuming there's no crack on the bridge connecting the two blades, you should be fine. I have Stanley knock-off: it works okay. For a one-tool-fits-all idea, it's not bad. I do get better results with dedicated shaves; but, that defeats the purpose of saving some cash.

[steven c newman]

Well, ths is what came in the mail box the other day.
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A C Batchelder is on the cap iron of the straight bladed side. Straight blade also has "A C Batchelder LOWELL MA" stamped on the blade.
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No cracks have been found. The bolt for the curved blade had been replaced at on time.....with a 1/4 x 20 bolt. And, they didn't even change the threads. Have since replaced that bolt with a non-stripped out threaded one, and chased the threads with a 1/4 x20 tap. Old bolt was also too short.
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Both irons are now sharpened up. The straight one was easy enough to do. I had a small sanding drum for the drill press to work over the curved one. Then a bit of stone work to hone it flat on back.

It is a finicky little thing to set the irons just right. Right now, the straight one is a might deep...thick curls come up out of the shave. Will test the curved one later.

Currently bidding on a single ironed one.....

[Mark Almeidus]

That looks like a moulding spokeshave :D
Looks like a good buy.

[Pat Barry]

Why did you want one of those? Looks sort of Rube Goldberg

[steven c newman]

Taking a bit to get this set up just right..
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Kind of hard to back off the depth of cut.
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both seem to be sharp enough. Just need to set the depth a little better
Why buy one? Because I didn't have one. Besides, a two in one tool saves some digging around in the tool chest.

[Judson Green]

Ment to reply to this earlier but whatever


This one looks just like yours but it has "Seymour Smith & Son" on the irons. Mines been in the family and seen better days, saw one at a flea market last year, can't remember the price but I'm sure it was cheep.

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[ian maybury]

Seems like the sort of thing Steven that might have been made for a specific application where the user needed to switch very frequently between round and flat cutting. Maybe it was made for some specific trade?

[Judson Green]

I feel it was probably made to be the only spokeshave a DIYer needed. My great grand dad, who was the original owner of my spokeshave, was a farmer.

[steven c newman]

Gave it to a fellow today, and he proceeded to shape a walking stick with it. Basic shape was defined by a branch we found. By the end on the day, he had a fully shaped and smoothed down walking stick ready for finish. Using just that double spokeshave. Enough said.

Right now, I do happen to have a single ironed, straight edged spoke by Stanley. will be trying it out later.

[steven c newman]

The fellow had a grin that stretched from right ear all the way to left ear. Other than when he was playing on his Martin Gitfiddle, he never let loose of the spokeshave....he might have to sharpen it back up in a few days, of constant use....

[Dave Anderson NH]

The vast majority of spokeshave made in the 19th century were not used for woodworking in the sense we think of it. They were for shoemaking. The concave curved blades were primarily used to shape heels which were predominately wood with only a leather facing and bottom. Lots of shave makers in Massachusetts since it was the center of the shoe industry up until the deluge of imports in the 1960-70 time frame. A great reference is Tom LaMond's book Manufactured and Patented Spokeshaves & Similar Tools.