Wooden Spokeshave Blade Removal ?

[xy mosian]

Hi All,

I have just been given a slender wooden spokeshave. Unfortunately I cannot remove the blade with the usual smart tap from a hammer on the top of the pins. Of course it is rust which is gripping the pins. What helpful advice can you muster to help me remove the blade for general fettling?

I particularly want to return this spokeshave to working condition, firstly because it belonged to a now departed friend, and secondly because it is finer than any other I have.

Thanks in anticipation.

xy

 

[Argus]

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Rust will usually respond to heat, (I'm not talking about getting the thing red hot) especially where you can expand the metal slightly, without loosing the blade temper..

I used to free up rusted bolts with this technique:

Fix the shave in a vice so that the blade pins are down and the blade uppermost and flat.
Get a bolt or screw with a flat head that will sit upright on the area over the pin unaided. In this case two will be better that one.
Make sure that you have a good thermal contact between the blade and the bolt head.
Take each bolt in turn and heat it with a small blow lamp (Not to red heat, but get it good and hot). Stand it on the affected area so that the heat travels down into the pin. The idea is that the heat expands the pin slightly and breaks the rust seal. You may need to do it several times before it responds to a hammer tap.

Hope it works for you.

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[xy mosian]

Hi Argus,

Yes that sounds good to me, thanks. In this case the blade is sub-flush to the body of the shave, good thermal contact between bolt head and blade will be difficult. However to get around this, but using a similar principal, I will apply heat with a 150W electric soldering iron as a first attempt. Of course the soldering iron will not have the thermal capacity as a bolt, and may not be sufficiently hot, but as a first attempt I'll give it a whirl tommorow.

Thanks again.

xy

 

[xy mosian]

Hi Argus,

In one word BINGO!

I just could not wait untill tomorrow. I tried it with the soldering iron, as I mentioned above, and well as you said it loosened the blade.

Thanks again. A five star tip to keep.

xy