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:
IMG_0246.jpg
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?