# Travisher



## Sheffield Tony (1 May 2014)

Last month some of my green woodworking group were having a go at making stools from the "prunings" of a very large walnut tree which had to be topped out for safety reasons. So, I got to have a play with a friend's travisher. . They are a great fun tool to use, very theraputic. I'd quite like to have a go at making a Windsor chair soon, so decided that I _needed_ one. The one I played with came from here, but I didn't want to just buy one, so I took home a few sketches of it and key measurements. 

For the the cutting iron I found a spare piece of 1/8 x 1" O1 ground flat stock. Most of the work is sawing and filing; I roughly ground the bevel whilst it was still flat, then bent the curve hot using a home made bending tool I made earlier







Then bent up the two tangs. Nearly set fire to my plan offering up the curve to the drawing ! 






One of my better ideas was to make the curve of the blade just a_ little _bit larger radius than that of my wet grinder, so that I could shape it easily. Before a final grind, I hardened it by heating to red heat (took a MAPP gas torch in one hand an a propane one in the other to get it all hot enough), and quenching in oil. I now know why it is not a good idea to use a plastic tray for your quenching oil  - fortunately I had anticipated trouble and had a wet cloth to hand to extinguish the flames. Then tempered in the oven at 210C for an hour, and given a final grind and sharpen. 

Then that nice block of mahogany - it was a recycled bit of old window frame, and the only bit of hardwood to hand of large enough section. A bit of sawing, drilling and a while with the spokeshave, and here we go:














Not quite so curvey as the original yet, but I figure I can shave away any bits that annoy me at a later stage when I've used it a bit, but I can't put wood back if I take too much off now !

It was fortunate that I left making the wooden body until after I had finished the iron, because during the hardening process the curve relaxed to a slightly larger radius than intended, which I could work around by making the body to fit. Next time, I'd do an annealing/stress relieving step, and make a final tweak of the shape before hardening.


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## marcros (1 May 2014)

nice job there Tony.

I assume that this is a final finishing tool after shaping roughly with an adze?


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## AndyT (1 May 2014)

Lovely work! That will be so satisfying to use.


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## Richard T (1 May 2014)

Very good Tony. That's what full size plans are for - setting fire to. 

I assume the two hex socket bolts hold the blade in place by putting pressure on the tangs. What are they threaded through? Is it just the wood or did you have to let in nuts?


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## Sheffield Tony (1 May 2014)

marcros - Ahh yes, an adze - i need one of them too. Bit beyond the capabilities of my Mapp gas torch though, I may have to buy one. You can use an adze first then finish with the travisher, or if you are not in a hurry, when set for a heavy cut the travisher alone can do the job for a chair seat. Especially if the wood is still a bit green.

The two screws do clamp the iron; the original travisher had inserts that looked suspiciously like those threaded inserts used for chipboard furniture. I used some short pieces of steel M10 studding to make threaded inserts; drilled and tapped an M6 hole down the middle of them, then tapped an M10 thread into the wood, screwed the inserts in using a shorter capscrew as a setting tool. I'm not entirely convinced by the design; overtightening the blade clamp (or wood movement with humidity) might crack the handles ? Hope not. They don't seem to need to be very tight.

Incidentally, I remember reading somewhere (I think in Fine Woodworking) that ordinary metal cutting taps don't work well on wood. This was not my experience - a regular tap, lubricated with linseed oil, produced quite a nice thread. Mind you, it was a nice old Sheffield made Presto tap.


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## sdjp (2 May 2014)

Sheffield Tony":2st0ik73 said:


> You can use an adze first then finish with the travisher, or if you are not in a hurry, when set for a heavy cut the travisher alone can do the job for a chair seat. Especially if the wood is still a bit green.



I thought the classic tool for rough shaping a chair seat was the scorp - essentially a curved drawknife. Indeed, I sometimes consider the travisher to be the 'curved spokeshave' of the hollowing tools, and think of them as the same sort of tool. I believe that scorps are better on green wood, as with a drawknife.

The reason I raise that is that it might be easier to make a scorp than an adze - as a scorp (or drawknife) is not an impact tool, the steel can be thinner than for an adze (and fitting the handles is somewhat simpler than drifting a eye for the haft, although no doubt the fidliest part of such a build would be the handles).

(Although, I'd be tempted to rough out with gouges and a mallet. Not because it's 'better' in any absolute sense, but the tool you have is more useful that the tools you don't … )



Sheffield Tony":2st0ik73 said:


> Incidentally, I remember reading somewhere (I think in Fine Woodworking) that ordinary metal cutting taps don't work well on wood. This was not my experience - a regular tap, lubricated with linseed oil, produced quite a nice thread. Mind you, it was a nice old Sheffield made Presto tap.



I've cut some threads in birch with a cheap tap made of 'HSS' (from China, via ebay). Worked fine, dry. M5 or thereabouts.


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## Cheshirechappie (2 May 2014)

Nice work, Tony!

It's amazing how much more complicated it makes things when a curve is introduced somewhere, so kudos for getting a nice working tool at the end of the efforts!


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## MMUK (2 May 2014)

Could you not just call that a large spokeshave? Where does the name "Travisher" come from?


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## Spindle (3 May 2014)

MMUK":3hewxcdb said:


> Could you not just call that a large spokeshave? Where does the name "Travisher" come from?



Hi

It's a classic chair makers tool - why call it something it's not :roll: 

http://www.classichandtools.com/acatalo ... isher.html

I have one and it's all I use to shape a seat, I think it would be easier to use than a scorp as the blade protrusion can be adjusted but I'd be interested to hear a scorp user's experience.

Regards Mick


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## Richard T (3 May 2014)

I'd guess that drawknife to spoke shave is equal to scorp to travisher. Both smaller versions of the same profile blade but set into a frame with a mouth for smoothing and finishing work.

What a spokeshave does is evident in its name but does a travisher travish? Is that a verb? - I bet it is; but when I Googled it I got endless American males who seem to have been christened 'Travish'.


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## sdjp (4 May 2014)

Richard T":12f1f5cm said:


> IWhat a spokeshave does is evident in its name but does a travisher travish? Is that a verb? - I bet it is; but when I Googled it I got endless American males who seem to have been christened 'Travish'.



Oxford English Dictionary, which is pretty much the definitive guide on this, says that the etymology of 'travisher' is uncertain, but notes that 'travish' is recorded as a dialectal form of 'traverse' (it the vain hope that this observation somehow means anything). There's no other record of 'travish' as an english word.

Which is interesting, because my understanding from reading about them was they tended to be used _along_ the grain, not across it…

I was interested to note that the earliest attestation that the OED records is 1923, which seems somewhat late to me (although it might have not be _written_ prior to that).


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## Sheffield Tony (6 May 2014)

Hmm. I don't know the etymology of "Travisher", but Google asked me if I meant "ravished" :shock: The way I was shown to use it was indeed across the grain, leaving a finish rather like a scrub plane, which can be refined by setting the blade closer, or with a card scraper. 

I don't have a scorp, but it looks like a more difficult tool to me. The great thing about the travisher is that not only can you set the blade protrusion, but the line of appled force is not far above the cutting edge, reducing its tendency to tip and take a nosedive if the blade goes a bit deep. With the scorp, it looks to me as though if it started to go deep, the increased reistance would tend to tip the tool in a way that would make it go deeper still ? Must try one sometime.


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## Spindle (6 May 2014)

Hi Tony

I can identify with all you say about the travisher and scorp. I purchased my travisher form Tom Thackray after a particularly enjoyable and informative chat at a Scottish Woodworking show. He demonstrated and coached me in using it across the grain.

http://www.tomthackray.co.uk/shop/

I've always intended to go on one of Tom's courses but to date have not found the time  

Regards Mick


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## Bedrock (6 May 2014)

I have used small cap head bolts ( 4BA I think, because that is what I had at the time) to give new life to a couple of boxwood spokeshaves, where the tangs had become loose. One uses the bolts from the top, alongside the tangs, acting as depth stops, but there is not always much room to engage with the blade, outside the cutting area. The other uses the bolts from the rear surface, engaging with the vertical tang, to hold the blade at the required setting. Of the two, I would fix from the rear another time, as this provides a direct fixing of the blade setting, whereas the depth stop alternative only prevents the mouth opening from closing up, under load.

Both are tapped into the boxwood direct and so far, after 9 months use, have not given any problems with the thread stripping. I have also used 10mm s/s cap heads into end grain oak, to fix a coffee table top to its legs. Again, 18 months later, no problem at all, and I would have confidence in standing on it, should the occasion arise.
Any reasonably dense hardwood should be fine, but I suspect that frequent bolting/unbolting, would need a threaded insert.


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## CStanford (6 May 2014)

Ravishing travisher...


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