Wooden Spokeshave Wear

[Jelly]

I've just found an old wooden spokeshave in a box of odds and sods, with really significant wear to the sole.

Not had a chance to try it on any wood yet, but my guess is that it's going to make it take a deep cut that's much easier to dig in.

With regards to sorting it out, would creating a shelf across the front of the sole and facing in brass be the best fix, or would an L-shaped front and sole facing of brass be better, or even letting in the brass just across the width of the blade?

See this sketch for clarity on what I mean.

Left to right: worn, sole faced, sole faced across mouth, front and sole faced.

 

[Racers]

Just a single piece the width of the blade or slightly wider depending on the amount of ware.
Make it slightly to wide and file the mouth edge after fitting.

Pete

 

[Jacob]

Facing it in wood would be easier. Make a straight rebate with a rebate plane, stick in a piece of beech, shape to fit.

 

[bugbear]

I'd replace the worn wood with good wood, and then plate the sole in front of the mouth with brass.

I think that's "sole faced across mouth", your second option.

The abrasion on a spokeshave is hellish - even solid boxwood shaves (you sometimes find small ones
like this) show massive wear on the mouth, so even a boxwood or rosewood patch won't help for long.

Brass is traditional.

BugBear

 

[Jelly]

Facing it in wood would be easier. Make a straight rebate with a rebate plane, stick in a piece of beech, shape to fit.

Come to think of it I have wee blocks of Purpleheart and Jarrah which I've been saving for this kind of thing, they won't be as wear resistant as the brass would... But still much tougher than beech (By my logic replacing worn beech, with more beech to wear down in the same way seems like it's not addressing the root cause).

 

[DTR]

I have wee blocks of Purpleheart and Jarrah which I've been saving for this kind of thing,

They're probably easier to work than brass (not that brass is difficult), and a lot cleaner. Brass filings have a habit of going everywhere!

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Many moons ago, I remouthed a couple of spokeshaves with slips of boxwood. Bugbear's right - they've not been heavily used, but they are already showing wear. Next time, I'll use brass.

It's a slightly tricky job because there's not much to get hold of. Planing the waste off might be tricky because the job would keep popping out of the vice under plane pressure, though you might get away with a shoulder plane set fine. I pared mine with a sharp chisel, but next time I'd try to take most of the waste out with a dovetail saw, then just clean up with the chisel. Then fit a piece of brass as per your middle sketch, and do any shaping last with a file and the blade out, holding the shave in one hand and the file in the other, test-fitting the blade from time to time.

 

[Bedrock]

Do it once in brass and you won't have to do it again. I did as CC and used a shoulder plane to fir the brass plate right cross the width. Two c/s brass screws, then file to shape in situ, is fine. Also check whether the "horns" for the blade, which wedge into the body of the spokeshave are loose.

If they are, you will find that you can't keep a constant blade projection. Easy solution - drill into the front of the shave body at right angle to, and in line with each of the horns, and insert a couple of Allen head screws to hold the adjustment. The boxwood should accept them self-tapping, but using a tap for the first part of the hole, leaving the rest to self-tap, might help.
On the two I have done this with, it seems to last pretty well.

 

[ED65]

(By my logic replacing worn beech, with more beech to wear down in the same way seems like it's not addressing the root cause).

That's logical, but isn't the real issue what it took to get the spokeshave into that condition? What I mean is years of service or being used on particularly hard woods. If you'll mostly be using it on softwoods and easier-worked hardwoods on the other hand then beech should be acceptable, it might take a decade of regular use before the wear again becomes an issue.

 

[Jelly]

Sorted, Used some 5mm brass as I was able to shape it to the curve of the original shave better.

Bandsawn to rough shape, filed to close to the mark, linished to finished form* and polished on a mop, the most challenging bit was securely holding the spokeshave in a machine vice to drill pilot holes for the screws.

* We have one of those crepe rubber blocks that cleans belts, incredibly useful for working soft metals.


All nice and shiny looking:

Here you can see how the blade itself is worn back slightly in the middle, giving an open mouth in effect.

And yet with the new brass facing, it's possible to get extremely fine clearance, and take very thin slivers off.

Whilst it won't wholly replace it, this one is a joy to use compared to my early 2000's Stanley 151R, (which itself is inumerably improved since I attacked it first with shims made of pop bottles, and then by re-doing the grinding and milling which Stanley had approached so haphazardly...), totally worth the painful burn I got by absent-mindededly picking up the brass straight after cutting the rough shape.

 

[bugbear]

Nice work, welcome to the wonderful world of low angle shaves!

BTW, nice anvil, but what's the red stuff?!

BugBear

 

[Jelly]

Nice work, welcome to the wonderful world of low angle shaves!

BTW, nice anvil, but what's the red stuff?!

BugBear

I'm not 100%, I think it's the thermoplastic polymer for the 3D printer, melted into puddles for dramatic effect... I assume someone either forgot about it cooling and needs to come collect it or was just mucking about and forgot to clean up after themselves, such are the joys of a shared workspace.

The anvil is only really useful (to me) for straightening saws mainly, but we have a few people who use it (and it's even tinyer counterpart) to cold-work precious metals for jewellery, which is phenomenally impressive to watch.

 

[Bedrock]

Good work bringing an old tool back to life. I much prefer these old wooden spoke shaves to any of the metal ones, and now have three of different sizes, two with the brass strip fitted.