Spokeshave for hogging off material

[Silly_Billy]

Please could anyone recommend a spokeshave that's suited to hogging off material?

I'm guessing that I need something with a mouth that's quite open, as well as a flat bottom and a blade that's easy to sharpen. Being easy to adjust wouldn't go amiss too, although I'm happy using light taps for blade adjustment.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

https://www.oldhandtools.co.uk/american ... spokeshave ?

http://www.sawdustandshavings.com/hand_ ... review.asp

Or maybe https://www.classichandtools.com/acatal ... P3201.html

One can never have enough spokeshaves IMHO

 

[El Barto]

I’ve got a couple of spokeshaves made by James Mursell of The Windsor Workshop. They fantastic. I thought I’d need the bigger one to hog off more material but actually it rarely gets used because the small one is so good.

They aren’t difficult to sharpen but can be a bit finicky.

https://thewindsorworkshop.co.uk/tools/small-spokeshave

They don’t come cheap!

 

[Inspector]

Drawknife,
Pete

 

[AndyT]

^^^This. Plus careful reading of the grain.

Depending on what you are making, stop cuts with a saw then a chisel and mallet can also be very effective.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

I'd certainly echo the use of a drawknife for hogging off material. It's truly amazing how fast you can diminish a piece of wood, and how precise you can be with one, too. With some practice, you can end up with a surface that needs very little by way of finishing.

The old wooden spokeshaves are available second hand in a range of sizes, and one of the larger ones, set rank, can shift wood at a fair rate. If you can find one with the brass strip across the mouth, it will be less likely to have suffered the mouth wear that tends to afflict well-used wooden spokeshaves.

 

[D_W]

agree with the above - drawknife and careful reading of grain.

https://i.imgur.com/mI3VyZP.jpg

I've made a small bunch of fender style guitar necks now, and even when they're solid rosewood, a drawknife is nice to use.

So is a nicholson super shear and a card scraper as you're getting close to done.

For a shave, for someone wanting some error prevention without a huge bulky shave, the LN shave is really nice - I hate to recommend expensive tools, but it's really nice. When you want to really increase the volume of wood going through it, though, it will let you know when you've reached too much by really making you work to bend the wood through a mouth that may be a bit too tight for a set.

Stanley's spokeshaves (record, preston, whoever made shaves of that pattern) are nicer for heavier work - but tentative work as mentioned above and no absent mindedness is needed to prevent breaking wood out.

 

[Racers]

An axe is the best tool for hogging off material, and suprizing accurate with a little practise.

Pete

 

[dannyr]

If any UK woodworkers wonder what a Nicholson Super-shear (D-W above - good suggestion) is - I believe it's a milled then hardened rasp/file/plane used a lot in the car body repair industry for lead filler, fibreglass, plastics and light alloys. 'Invented and patented by Nicholson in 1953' ---- but it's awfully like a milled then hardened Firth Brown Tools 'Millenicut' or curved tooth 'Dreadnought' invented and patented by FBT (before 1900, I think) -- plenty available on the UK second-hand market, often in good shape - check for touch sharpness and not too much clogging. The modern Japanese 'sculptors files' are very similar, some with an extra etch after milling.

And if you were considering buying a new plane-making 'float' - these are functionally similar the flat float.

Although there seems to be a standard cut in these various 'files' now, there have been at least three cuts and a useful combo would be a large coarse and a small medium. The curved tooth is easier to keep on course, but not a lot of difference between the two. The straight tooth usually have an interrupted cut. There are also flex body versions (eg by UK Aven tools or French Facom) - (can do this as the hardening is surface only (sometimes nitriding?).

Quite aggressive, so take a little getting used to - like a low tpi saw I would suggest just starting with the weight of the tool - just pressing down when you get the feel.

 

[D_W]

the discussion of milled tooth tools is a little off from spokeshaves, but they work very well with them (especially in finishing ends where a spokeshave won't get all the way to the end of a stopped cut).

I've got floats (for planemaking), which are just a straight milled tooth, vixen (which are like a half moon uninterrupted file used mostly for bodywork on cars over here as far as I know), and super shear. There are others, but I haven't tried them.

I try to find all of these used - they're expensive and they do get dull (but can be honed by services that will hone files - I'd imagine there's a liquid honing service in the UK - boggs tool is a well known one here in the states for reference).

With some patience, I can find a super shear for about $10 used (and with good enough pictures to confirm it's not really used), and vixens for $5-$10. The super shear is ideal because I believe it's intended for non-ferrous metals and things of the like, so it's a bit finer than a body file that's intended to be used on broad flat surfaces, and they (super shears) are really sharp. As mentioned, if taken across a narrower area, they can remove material fast, but on a flat area, they can also leave a plane-like polish (including on large areas of end grain).

Not a replacement for spokeshaves or anything else, but a nice addition to - but again, easiest to find used (or NOS unused) else $40 this and $40 that starts to add up really quickly. The new ones are priced for people who charge the expense to clients and can write it off.

 

[thetyreman]

the shinto double sided rasp is good for this, so are worn out old wooden spoke shaves with an open mouth.

 

[AndyT]

the shinto double sided rasp is good for this

That reminds me - rxh showed us a clever diy version from old bandsaw blades - no shopping required!

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