Why doesn't my spokeshave like me?

[Steve Kaminska]

So around Christmas I had the brilliant idea to make small stools (milkmaid's stools?) out of 2x4's to give away as gifts to friends' kids... Of course I needed a spokeshave to shape the legs, etc. I watched a few vintage ones on Ebay, but ended up buying a new Stanley 12-951.

Out of the box I couldn't get it to cut anything but super thick (like .090" or thicker) shavings, and if I even thought about going against the grain, it would chatter severely. Shaving end grain? Not even possible. On the plus side I got a very good lesson in what tearout looks like. Frustrated, I tossed the spokeshave in a box and forgot about that project.

Recently I found a thread here on the Creek about these shaves which linked a couple articles about tuning them up... I dug my Stanley out of its hiding place and attacked it with a file. After 10 minutes of filing, I had most of the paint off of the bed and the underside of the chipbreaker, so I decided to put it back together and see if there had been any improvement. I was amazed at the difference! I can now adjust it to take a very fine shaving, and it works pretty well at any setting. I have not touched the blade yet, I imagine a proper sharpening will improve performance even more.

However, this happens:
383722

The shavings curl around and back into the mouth. I have to stop and clear the shavings out about every 5 or 6 strokes or things will get hopelessly clogged up and I have to remove the blade and chipbreaker to clear the tool.

Is this a fixable problem? Is it just the nature of spokeshaves in general? Or should I give up and get a proper tool?

[Jim Koepke]

The shavings curl around and back into the mouth. I have to stop and clear the shavings out about every 5 or 6 strokes or things will get hopelessly clogged up and I have to remove the blade and chipbreaker to clear the tool.

This happens to me all the time. Sometimes the shavings can be diverted with my thumb or other finger. Otherwise it is just pinch and pull to clear the shavings.

jtk

[Stewie Simpson]

Looks to me as though your concerns are initiated by the shavings getting trapped under the front lip of the lever cap. You can resolve that problem by working the underside of the lever cap on sandpaper that's mounted to a flat surface.

[Jim Koepke]

You might also try skewing the shave in order to direct the shavings toward the side of the shave.

jtk

[Chuck Nickerson]

First of all, congratulations on the mods you've successfully made.
Stewie's suggestion is a further improvement worth making. And do hone the blade.

I find softwoods to be more susceptible to this problem. This is where Jim's suggestions come into play.
Skewing helps. Also learn to make the finger flick part of your return stroke. After 20 or so strokes you'll be on auto-pilot.

[Jim Koepke]

Steve,

Here is an old post of mine about spokeshaves:

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?153938-Just-A-Whisker-on-Shaves

If you can see light between the blade and the cap iron as in the third image, then there is likely some work to be done on your shave. Curling shavings usually means they are getting past the cap iron or you would have a different kind of jamming.

You also do not want to see light under the blade. Be careful filing down the high spots as the metal can be removed rather fast.

Lately a couple of spokeshaves were picked up cheap in an antique shop:

383740

They are being fettled as time allows, a little here, a little there. So far the single blade shave has been worked on the most and is starting to be a respectable little shave. Most of what was done is sighting through the shave looking for where the light comes through. Those are the low spots. Everything else needs to be adjusted to that level.

Another shave started out very difficult to use. By filing the bed a little, making the blade seat better, has made a world of difference.

jtk

[bill howes]

Steve
The good news is you are now taking long thin shavings which is what you want.
I think what you describe is common to most spokeshaves with the blade bevel down. I tried a bunch of mine antique and newer Stanleys, a Record, a nice Preston a Veritas and a Millers Falls cigar shave and they all accumulated shavings to some degree. I found my round bottom Veritas to jam up the least today. This is a picture of the cigar shave.383750
The spokeshaves with a bevel up blade were much less prone to shavings getting stuck as the shavings are expelled out the back.
383752383751
I think that you have done a pretty good job on your shave. Its not that it doesn't like you, it just has a mind of its own
Bill

[Steve Kaminska]

Thanks everybody! I checked and could see lots of daylight between lever cap and blade, so I spent some more time with file and then stones to get it flat. Next, I worked on the back of the blade... there was a serious concavity to it, enough that I had to resort to hammer and anvil to straighten the blade out. Don't worry, I've got a lot more experience working with metal than I do with wood!

Once the blade was flat, no more daylight! Now I'm off to reassemble the spokeshave and play some more.

I still havent touched the bevel of the blade to the stones. At the risk of turning this into a sharpening thread, what do you guys prefer for an angle on a spokeshave? And how much attention to you give the blade as far as sharpness is concerned... same as chisels and plane irons? Or is the sharpness of a spokeshave blade not as critical?

[Jim Koepke]

A 25 - 30º bevel should be good for your standard shave.

The sharpness of a spokeshave is just as important as it is for any other woodworking tool.

jtk

[Steve Kaminska]

Well I think its safe to say my spokeshave likes me now...

383791

After the tuning I mentioned earlier, the tool is basically self-clearing, the shavings look a lot more like the photos Bill posted. I still have to stop occasionally and clean out the shave, but now its every few minutes instead of every few strokes. I even managed to get the blade adjusted for a heavy cut on one side and a light cut on the other! I was having so much fun, I got a bit carried away...

383792

I've got the third leg about half done. It's fitted to the hole in the seat, but the bottom half is still square. I'll probably finish it tomorrow. I had to stop as I seem to have developed a blister on my left thumb.

So for everyone keeping score, I spent about 20 minutes filing the bed and the lever cap, removing most of the factory paint in the process. I then got out my scary sharp setup and sanded the lever cap to 600 or 800 grit (I forget which paper I have glued down) Finally, I straightened the blade and sanded the back to the same grit, getting it mostly flat. The bevel side of the blade still has its factory edge.
Oh, and yes, those are curtains behind my bench... my "shop" is a corner of my living room!

Jim, I watched a video about tuning a spokeshave in which the presenter (I think it was Paul Sellers) said getting the sole of the shave and the back of the blade perfectly flat wasn't necessary, hence my question about the degree of sharpness. When I stop playing long enough to actually sharpen this thing, I will follow your advise.

[Mike Holbrook]

In my experience, many metal spokeshaves do not necessarily arrive with the mouth designed for taking lage amounts of wood. I have a few Lee Nielson/Boggs shaves that take such fine shavings they jam almost immediately. I have one that does not like to pass shavings at all, still working on it. I elected to use them for fine work rather than reworking the mouths. Many people use a shave more as a finishing tool, after a drawknife. IMHO (in my humble opinion) a good drawknife, in the hands of an experienced user, may be the most versatile of hand tools.

383797

The drawknife on the left is currently my favorite, made by Barr Tools. The other two are auction site finds, still being worked on.

You might want to consider a drawknife for removing larger amounts of wood. Drawknives are capable of taking larger or smaller amounts of wood, depending on exactly how they are used and sharpened. There are good drawnives available on auction sittes but they often take a good deal of work to get working as designed. You might also check Wood Joy Tools. Glenn makes very nice shaves. The larger ones can take large shavings, similar to a drawknife. Some of Glenn’s shaves have adjustable mouths and blades, so you can adjust how the shave works without having to grind metal away. Glenn Livingston’s Livingston shave is the most adjustable, open or close the mouth, skew the blade, raise or lower the blade......Glenn makes drawknives and kits for making spokeshaves. My favorite drawnife is a carving model made by Barr Tools that I bought from Highland Woodworking.

383796

The top shave is actually a Travisher used to hollow out chair seats. The other two shaves are Woodjoy shaves, which Glenn rejected for sale. I talked him out of a few rejected/unfinished shave bodies as I wanted to modify them for getting into tough areas in chair seats, removing the sides....My collection of shaves is at the house I am moving to and I am at the “old” house so I can not post pictures of those shaves, which would be more appropriate.


You can also work chair/stool legs with a hand plane first. A #5 with a convex edge is a good tool for the job, especially when using dried as opposed to green wood. I took a course from Schwarz at Highland Woodworking, specifically on making sawbenches with staked legs which turned out to be real close to stools:

383795

We did the major stock removal with hand planes. You make a square, then an octagon....round is fairly easy to achieve from an octagon. You just keep removing corners.....

There is a trick to making chair legs work without splitting the seat they are in. Traditionally the seat is made of a “soft” wood. Pine and Elm are popular. Elm may be the best due to the twisting grain pattern, which may help with splitting. Legs, which support more weight are frequently made from a harder wood, like oak or hard maple. The hard wood holds well in the softer wood which also helps with splitting. Making Windsor chair seats, with all the curves and hollows, can be quite a challenge, which is another reason I believe softer wood is often used for seats.