Spokeshave Recommendation

[Tony Shea]

Joe, I've basically been in the same boat as you. Wanting to get into making chairs with round tapered legs but don't own a lathe and probably won't for some time. I had some split ash from a tree that was cut down behind our apartment that had dried beautifully and used this for some legs on a perch stool. I decided to make some round legs with nothing more than drawknives and spokeshaves. This ended up taking some time but was so much fun. Basically just make the tapered shape you're after, make an octagon, hexagon, etc until it is basically round. I left the legs slightly faceted but the only way you can tell is by running your hands on the piece. Visually they look perfectly round.


Chair Stretcher.jpg Ash legs finished.jpg Boggs Shave.jpg Perch Stool Legs.jpg Stool.jpg

[Stephen Rosenthal]

I was just going to add that a shave horse will elevate your spokeshaving to another level when I noticed Tony’s photo of using the Boggs while seated on one. They’re relatively easy and inexpensive to make and numerous videos and free plans are available on YouTube and the Internet respectively.

[steven c newman]

Best ones I have ever had....were made by Seymour Smith & Sons.....might keep an eye out for one....IF they happen to turn up, again ( and..I don't find them first.....)

[Joe A Faulkner]

Tony it does indeed sound similar. I shaped these from a walnut log the electric company dropped on my property over two years ago. Hand split the log, then cross cut of a piece with a handsaw, then used the bandsaw and table saw to make the blanks. A saw horse is on my round-to-it to-do list. I have plans, but am resisting starting that until I finish two projects that are cluttering up the shop with parts. So for now my knife and shave work is done at the regular bench. Not having great luck with fine shavings with these legs; they need a bit more work, but they are coming along. My apologies that the blank photo is upside down. Your stool looks great. How did you shape the seat?

[Tony Shea]

I shaped the seat with gouges, spokeshaves, drawknives, travishers, and scrapers. The seat is hard maple and really took some work to carve. I don't recommend making a windsor style seat out of maple. It was my first attempt at that style of seat and really made it hard on myself by picking hard maple.

[John Keeton]

I shaped the seat with gouges, spokeshaves, drawknives, travishers, and scrapers. The seat is hard maple and really took some work to carve. I don't recommend making a windsor style seat out of maple. It was my first attempt at that style of seat and really made it hard on myself by picking hard maple.

Yes, you did!!! I can feel the pain from here. Poplar or white pine are the woods of choice. Butternut (hard to find) and perhaps soft maple might be some alternatives.

[Joe A Faulkner]

My first attempt at spoon carving was on a blank of kiln dried hard maple. What a bad idea that was.

[Aaron Liebling]

I got the LN boggs flat as my first spokeshave few months ago and absolutely love it. Besides the main task of shaping some curved furniture legs for a credenza, I also used it to make the tentacles for a wooden squid for a kid's birthday gift. For the latter, I made shapes similar to the chair spokes then cut them in to sections, drilled them out and threaded them with yarn. It was a huge hit!

I just ordered the Veritas curved spokeshave and look forward to lots more curved projects!

Note: the squid tentacles were from leftover hard maple from my workbench and the boggs cut it like butter!

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[Jim Koepke]

Aaron,

Your images do not show up.

jtk

[Aaron Liebling]

To pile in, I love the boggs, but the throat is relatively small for hogging off large amounts of material. What's a good spokeshave for that, assuming I'll have the boggs for finer work?

[Rob Luter]

To pile in, I love the boggs, but the throat is relatively small for hogging off large amounts of material. What's a good spokeshave for that, assuming I'll have the boggs for finer work?

I'm told that a Stanley #53 and #54 are both good for that, with adjustable mouths and all, but I've never had great luck with them. I'm on my second set (shown below with Kunz cutters) and they are about to start looking for another home. My LN Boggs shaves work well. They aren't great for heavy stock removal, but these are shaves not drawknives. I'd rather thake two light passes than one heavy one anyway. For smaller work I have the LN and LV small shaves.


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[Kevin Adams]

Sent you a message, Rob.

[Kevin Adams]

Rob, you need to clear out some messages as I can’t get my reply to go thru. Thanks.

Kevin

[Rob Luter]

Just cleaned out my inbox.

[Jim Koepke]

To pile in, I love the boggs, but the throat is relatively small for hogging off large amounts of material.

It never occurred to me to use a spokeshave for "hogging off large amounts of material."

Is there such a thing as a scrub shave?

jtk