Veritas Low Angle Spokeshave

MarcW · 6 Oct 2007

Hi all,

We recently had a brainstorming there over in the German forum on how to plane a concave curve of radius 4inches on a board. There were many ideas and I followed the one of the spokeshave. So I ordered a low angle model by Veritas. It worked not as bad as a scraper blade but I couldn't avoid chatter. First trials ended up like this:

1. I sawed with a coping saw.

2. Results of a first attempt. Chatter on the curve.

I came to the conclusion, that the toe piece was to short to make a stable rest and this could cause the chatter. So I built a new wider aluminum toe piece with a slightly smaller radius than the 4 inches of the board's curve.

But the heel of the blade touched the workpiece in the curve.

A second filing session gave the toe piece a smaller radius. And see now it worked okay. Planing first one edge long like I would chamfer, then the other edge always skipping the blade a tad more towards the centre. Finally two or three strokes shave the center. The result is fine ... for me. What do you think? And what did you do?

Thanks for sharing ;-)

Marc

Philly · 6 Oct 2007

Great solution, Marc!
Don't think I could beat that - seems to be the best. And you cuould make a set for different radii.
best regards
Philly

Wiley Horne · 6 Oct 2007

Marc,

Outstanding, as Philly says! I think this would be appreciated on WoodCentral as well. Perhaps it's a good idea for Lee Valley, as they could contour bases for different radii, within some limits.

Wiley

Derek Cohen (Perth Oz) · 7 Oct 2007

I came to the conclusion, that the toe piece was to short to make a stable rest and this could cause the chatter. So I built a new wider aluminum toe piece with a slightly smaller radius than the 4 inches of the board's curve.

Hi Marc

That is excellent work indeed!

A few notes in support.

A short while ago I reviewed the HNT Gordon spokeshaves, these being flat- and a round based types. The full review is at http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/dCohen/z_art/HNTspokeshave/hntSpokeS1.asp

A notable feature of both spokeshaves was the placement of the mouth, which was centred in the sole. Here I have compared it with a (shimmed) Stanley #51R.

Terry noted that "The enemy of a spoke shave is the fact that it wants to roll when the blade engages the wood so the longer the front of the shave the more it will stop the role effect." So you can see that your conclusions are in good company!

I compared the HNT Gordon round against the Stanley and the Veritas in bullnose setup. One of the conclusions I reached was that the Veritas was not only short in the nose, but too long at the rear of the sole. This then rode on the curved work surface.

For all this I was able to use the Veritas down to 4" (although the quality of the cuts was not great at the end).

Incidentally, the Stanley did succeed quantitatively on the test.

The HNT Gordon planed beautifully, both in regard to handling the radius and the quality of the planed surface, which was partly due to its high cutting angle that allowed it to go further against the grain than any other spokeshave.

Regards from Perth

Derek

MarcW · 7 Oct 2007

Hi all,

Indeed I expected someone to come and say, Marc that's all flimflam. This low angle spokeshave is a very versatile tool. You can shave straight edges, concave or convex curves. - At some point it reminded me the Stanley #45 for its tedious setup. So someone could have pointed out, that I did not have had enough practice with the tool. He would be right. I hoped someone would say, it's all technique. Maybe he will join in later

My first mistake was that I wanted a curve on the new toe piece that would align the spokeshave on a radius. That did not succeed because of the width of the blade that made the heel touch the work. My idea then was to design the same radius on the new toe piece but to a lower angle (lower than 90°) to the radius. The spokeshave wouldn't be anymore on the radius. It would be lifted. The spokeshave would follow the curve not on a tangent but the blade at a higher effective pitch. This showed to be okay, only drawback is the higher effective pitch angle.

Derek, thanks for pointing me to the review. It seems that Terry has discovered the crux. It's great to see how we came to the same conclusions on different continents 8) :lol:

Thank you for you positive comments, Philly and Wiley.

Chris Knight · 7 Oct 2007

Marc,
That is a great idea and a thoughtful approach to a problem. I had exactly the same problem with that shave (which I never liked by the way) and my simplistic answer was to go and buy a Millers Falls cigar shave. This worked OK but not as well as a Woodjoy circular shave I subsequently bought.

I must say I like the look of the HNT Gordon shave now that Derek has shown how it performs...