Which Spokeshave?

[Archie England]

I'm just discovering "spokeshaves" as a woodworking tool. Looking around, I just happen to have a 51, 52, 53, 64, and 80 lying around. How are these for woodworking. Are they mediocre, good, or great users? Is there some special ritual or procedure that I must undertake before getting good results.

IOW, since I have no experience here, what should I be looking for? OTOH, if the old Stanley's are not the best, what is?

many thanks,

Archie

[Brian Kent]

I do not know the differences between these, but I will say in general that these can be very effective users. Google "Spokeshave tuning" or something like that and you will find some detailed help.

Once the blade is sharp, sitting on a nice flat surface and adjusted they will work great.

Now since I do not know the difference between the shaves (I think my Stanleys are a #51 and #52) I would love to see your response once you have tuned and tried them, to see what works best for you.

My favorite users are sold at Lee Valley. They are tiny, beautiful, cheap, and do a really terrific job once the blade is honed. They call them Countour Planes and they sell for 2 for $27.50:
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...=1,41182,46334

[harry strasil]

the 80 is a scraper, you adjust the screw to bow the scraper blade to make it cut deeper or shallower. you will basically need a flat bottom sole and a curved sole to work inside curves. Spokeshaves are generally very touchy about grain direction, just think of them as a baby drawknife with a depth control.

FWIW, I like to sharpen the 80 blade at a 45 then hone and make a burr on it, like a scraper plane blade.

[Bill Houghton]

I'm just discovering "spokeshaves" as a woodworking tool. Looking around, I just happen to have a 51, 52, 53, 64, and 80 lying around.

I love my No. 52. I find the straight handles just fit me better than the gull wings of the 51 - though this seems to be a minority opinion historically, since there are way more 51s than 52s. I like the 52 so much that I bought a second one in case I dropped the first one; no, I should be honest; I bought it because it was there and I had money.

I own a 53 but have never used it; and a 64 with a dreadfully funky iron that I've also never used - not sure that this smaller shave has much advantage over the 52 or 51, though I suppose it might be nice for model or similar small work.

The magazine comparos praise the Veritas and the Lie-Nielsen shaves, but I think it's mainly because the mouths are tighter than on (current) Stanley and other shaves. You can tighten up the mouth on a 52/51 by buying one of the aftermarket irons (I like my Lee Valley iron, but there are others) - in fact, when I got the Lee Valley iron, I had to file the mouth open a bit on my 52 before I could use it.

In your place, I'd either use the shaves you have until you get frustrated, or buy an aftermarket iron for one of them and use until you get frustrated, before buying one of the fancy ones.

Note: One of the reasons I like the 51/52 shaves is that they DON'T have the adjusting nuts at the top of the iron. In tight inside corners, these can get in the way. You have to learn to adjust by guess, but this isn't rocket science; and, if you store your shave intelligently, once you adjust it, you can leave it like that until you need to sharpen the iron.

If you do a lot of work with inside corners, you'll eventually reach the limits of this type of shave. Look, then, for a "cigar" shave, which will do tighter corners, or start experimenting with the wooden shaves.

Holding a Stanley shave: The impulse, when you pick one up, is to grip the handles as if it's a tiny motorcycle. I learned from a Fine Woodworking article some years back that a more effective grip is thus: hold the body of the shave on each side between thumb and forefinger, right at the sides of the iron or thereabouts. Use the handles as a convenient place to rest your other fingers. You'll get more control this way. The grip is slightly different, but kind of intuitively so, pulling than pushing the shave.

Some people like the low-angle shaves (woodies, Veritas low angle shave - technically the cigar shave is low angle too, but it's kind of specialized, in my opinion, for inside corners). The angle has to do with how the cutting iron presents to the wood - low angle shaves are more like holding a chisel flat on the wood with the bevel up; high angle more like holding the chisel bevel down. From my limited experience, low angle shaves are nice on end grain, but high angle shaves - which the Stanleys you have are - are just fine on long grain.

There - I hope I've said enough contoversial things to get plenty of posts....

[James Scheffler]

I got a Lee Valley blade for my vintage Stanley 151, which was a huge upgrade from the stock Stanley blade. It's much thicker, greatly reducing chatter. And of course, it stays sharp much longer.

The Lee Valley web site says they also fit the 51/52 models.

It's also very affordable at $17.50 (O1) or $18.50 (A2). A very worthwhile upgrade.

I think David Finck used to sell spokeshave blades that were even thicker (1/8"), but I don't see them on his site right now.

Have fun....

Jim

[Graham Hughes (CA)]

There's nothing especially wrong with 53s; I have one, and it works okay but required a lot of fettling. The shave should cut smoothly and freely; if it doesn't, something is wrong.

No experience with the 51 & 52s.

That said I have LV shaves now, which are delightful.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Ive read a damming post about Kunz recently.
Guy said the blade worked better in his hand free hand than in the casting.
Pretty damming,

[Jeff Johnson]

Ive read a damming post about Kunz recently.
Guy said the blade worked better in his hand free hand than in the casting.
Pretty damming,

Got a link? I've been able to get fair performance out of my kunz shaves, but am not experienced with other maker's products enough to know if I'm missing something.

[Archie England]

Thanks for the input, so far.

I called Walt at Brass City today, and he informed me that my four oldies (51, 52, 53, and 64) ought to perform just great (with some potential fettling). What initiated all this is the desire to learn yet one further aspect of handtool woodworking. I'm not sure how I ended up with these, but folks down here have given me a good bit in the aftermath recovery of Hurricane Katrina. They're old, dirty, dull, and one has a broken handle (about half gone). Drawknives, I've learned and love. I was just curious how I need to proceed in order to enjoy the spokeshaves. So far, I've bought, fettled, or restored old tools; however, I drool over LN and LV stuff all the time. You guys buying the new stuff, keep it up. I want them to be in business when I finally have the dough (got my second daughter getting married).

keep the good info coming. BTW, how do the woodies stack up against the metal ones?

[Bill Houghton]

What with a major front yard re-landscaping, lots of other yard work, stuff with my mother's care, car maintenance, and I forget what else, it's been AGES since I did actual woodworking. This conversation reminded me of how much fun spokeshave work is, so tonight I got out a chunk of pine scrap with a few curves in the edge and spent some time smoothing the bandsaw tracks and chamfering it.

Yup, it's still a lot of fun.

[Graham Hughes (CA)]

There's a good chance that was my post. Old Stanleys are very workable. I cannot make my Kunz work at all; no amount of bed filing, cap iron filing, sharpening, or any other option I can come up with makes any bit of difference. I'm pretty sure it's not the blade because I can handhold it and it works fine; the casting is just mind bogglingly terrible.

[Brad Patch]

There's a good chance that was my post. Old Stanleys are very workable. I cannot make my Kunz work at all; no amount of bed filing, cap iron filing, sharpening, or any other option I can come up with makes any bit of difference. I'm pretty sure it's not the blade because I can handhold it and it works fine; the casting is just mind bogglingly terrible.

Owned a curved sole Kunz some time ago, never could make it work right. A some point I realized that it was just a cheap piece of C--- and threw it away.

[Archie England]

Well, I've watched some spokeshave video clips and taken the plunge to go figure out what I've actually got--user wise. And, drum roll, the verdict is fantastic!!!!! After figuring out that the 51 chattered because the blade was bevel up, I've got four really nice users . . . and, I haven't even sharpened them yet. If I get such good cuts with the blades, as is, I can't wait to see how finely honed blades will cut--just the wood, hopefully.

For those who don't know--

The 51 cuts "big." The handle isn't really comfortable at first. I had to over-compensate initially by putting too much pressure on the front of the sole to get good cuts. The blade adjustment is rather finicky; but, once set to about 1/64th, it really cut like a champ. The mouth is already tight with the Stanley blade. This blade was probably the dullest of the four.

The 52 has very straight handles that are really easy to register to the wood. Everything was set right from the get, but I tinkered to tighten up the blade to as close to 1/64th as possible. Ribbons curled beautifully, both pushing and pulling. This little shave is a shear delight to use. Though I don't own a cigar style spokeshave, the 52 handles in a manner that I would expect of one. You guys with experience, please educate me here.

The 53, though just as big as the 51, cuts far easier, and like the 52 quickly and easily registers the sole to the wood. The ribbons are sweet. In all, the 53 really outperformed the 51, though that might be due to its blade being sharper. This little spokeshave is fun, too.

The 64 was quite a pleasant surprise! Smaller in width, it seriously outperformed all the others. Being more nimble, it cut like a dream, with incredible control. This plane registered the sole to the wood w/o effort. It just addressed the wood in a far more "ready" position.

In all, I'm thrilled to know that I've got some great users. The only problem now is, that maybe I don't need so many drawknives.

[Derek Cohen]

Of the spokeshaves you have, the #53 is THE one. This is one of the finest around owing to its ability to adjust its mouth size. It can go from a coarse shaving (as the #51 typically offers) to a fine shaving (in the tradition of a LN).

I cannot understand why neither LV nor LN have not chosen to make it.



There is a #54 as well, which is has straight handles (as per the #52 to the #51).

I have a #51 and use it as a "jack" for the coarse removal of waste as the mouth is wide. This is not a spokeshave for finish work. It is possible, however, to shim the blade and close the mouth.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Got a link? I've been able to get fair performance out of my kunz shaves, but am not experienced with other maker's products enough to know if I'm missing something.

No, twas in a private list serve of old tool aficionados.