Low angle spokeshave.

[Kevin Harris]

I have the woodjoy which is good and also a couple of the LV LA shaves that I built from their kits. They are all very good for end grain shaping, but I prefer the metal 45° LV spokeshaves for shaping long grain.

[Dave Anderson NH]

To brass or not to brass... that is the question. The answer is a definite "it depends". Unbrassed works well for harder woods like ebony, boxwood, and some others but eventually you will wear away part of the sole and widen the mouth. I have a couple of low angle shaves like that which I built. At the point the wear becomes too prominent and cut into the ware (sorry, I couldn't resist) you can retrofit either a brass plate or do it the way I favor which is to epoxy in a piece of end grain lignum vitae. I have also made Lee Valley Veritas kits out of both walnut and Cocobolo. Since both are brassed wear is not an issue. The choice has to be dependent on the type of wood you use for the body. Anything softer than hard maple needs some form of wear resistant surface at the throat be it brass, Lignum Vitae, or bone (the current replacement for ivory).

[george wilson]

Ivory is not such a good material for resisting wear in a spokeshave. I have a spokeshave I made from boxwood,with an ivory wear plate. It got pretty worn after a while. The boxwood got worn too,as the ivory got worn away. Brass would be much better,or an inlet piece of steel. I never used a spoke shave that much,either. When I did,though,it was on maple ,mahogany,or other hard woods used in instrument necks.

Even if I made a shave from hard maple,I would inlet a brass plate in it.

Bone is harder than ivory,and would last longer. I'd go for brass,at least.

[Tony Shea]

I think you should def take the time and inlay the brass wear plate. It truly is not a difficult task to get right, not much more difficult than inlaying some hard wearing wood.

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