Stanley 151 Spokeshave question

[Peter Daniels]

Spoons! That's the new project w/ Christmas inbound.
Perhaps I'll pass out spoons this year along w/ a tin of my beeswax presevative.
Not sure the skills will allow me to make them as pretty as I'd like, but I'll start practicing now.

Purchased a battered Stanley 151 spokeshave. I'm happy to refurb it and get it into use. Honestly- rescuing a tool like this and bringing it back to a place where it's functional is a high point in my woodworking.

Can anyone please tell me the original Stanley blade angle that these used?
The blades are so dang short it's hard to fit snugly into my jig but there are some ways around that.

Thanks everyone.
-PMD

[Tony Corey]

Peter,

Check out https://paulsellers.com/woodworking-...-sellers-blog/. Search for stanley 151. Paul has several posts about restoring and tuning a 151 spokeshave that may help you. One post describes a home made jig to help sharpen the short blade.

I have a vintage Stanley 151. My wife uses it to carve spoons on a regular basis. I use it too for all kinds of shaping and smoothing.


TonyC

[Jim Koepke]

Stanley typically sharpened their blades with a 25º bevel.

For sharpening my blades a piece of 1/4" oak scrap has a screw and nut installed at one end. A fender washer helps to hold a blade in position while it is being worked on the stones.

For spoon work you may want to get a shave with a rounded bottom to work on the inside curves.

Lee Valley has a nice one:

http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/pag...t=1,50230&ap=1

As well made as it is, mine did benefit from a little fettling. Mine was purchased when they were first introduced.

jtk

[Bill Houghton]

As a general rule, on bevel down planes - which is what you've got there with the 151, just with a very short bed - 25 to 30 degrees will work.

[Peter Daniels]

Thanks everyone.
I had started bringing the edge in at my typical 25° but it looked like it was different than whatever the previous sharpening had been.
30° did fine.

Snowing here. A great time of year to make wood shavings!

-PMD.