Your Favorite Spokeshaves and why?

[Tony Z]

As an accumulator of all things tools, I have lots of shaves, of which are many vintage Stanley, at least a dozen Prestons and so forth, including many woodies.

My favorites are the small LN's - both flat and curved base. Very tight mouth and just do their job while I watch. If I was buying, I would take a serious look at either the small bronze LN's (like mine) or even more so, the new LV small shave that is patterned after a vintage Preston. The LV is virtually the same size as the LN.

[Belle City Woodworking]

Thanks for that info Tony!

John

[Jonathryn]

The Stanley 53 and 54 spokeshaves have adjustable mouths, which make them better workers in my experience. The 53 has gull wing handles and the 54 handles go straight across. Another nice shave is the Millers Falls No. 1 "Cigar." For some end grain stuff it's nice to have an old fashioned low angle shave; Lee Valley sells a kit you can make yourself.

[AHill]

John's Woodshop said:

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[blockquote]AHill said:

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I'm really liking my Veritas spokeshaves. Very easy to adjust, and thicker blades than the vintage Stanley's. They are a bit pricey at around $95 apiece, but if you plan on using them a lot, they are worth the price. I noticed today that they are also offering the PM-V11 blades for them as well. Too late to suggest that to my Secret Santa, who already shipped my gift!

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Did you get the set and do you find common uses for all of them?

John

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I got the set. I use the flat and round one a lot, but the concave one far less often. I find the concave one doesn't make it any easier to make nice curved surfaces compared to the flat or a set of good rasps or scrapers.

[Steve Friedman]

John,

Lots of good advice, but it depends on what you want to do with them. Shaping or finishing? Flat? Convex? Concave? Rounded?

1. For hogging off wood, none of the new spokeshaves will do what the old Stanley/Record spokeshaves did because none of the new spokeshaves have gaping wide mouths like the old ones do. On the other hand, I think that drawknives are a faster and easier way to do rough shaping.

2. For medium work, the LV wooden handled shaves are excellent. The mouths are not as open as the older spokeshaves, but more open than the L-N offerings. The LV super-sized one is pretty amazing for hogging off wood. The extra width seems to make up for the closed mouth. Significantly, the adjusting mechanism on the LV shaves makes them much easier to set to than the L-N offerings.

3. For finishing work, I prefer the L-N shaves - Boggs and the small bronze ones. It may take a bit to get used to setting the blade, but once you get the hang of it, they are a pleasure to use. The mouths are not as open as the LV shaves, but they are bronze, so it doesn't take much to alter the mouth opening or even change the radius of the sole. As Tony indicated, the L-N small bronze shaves really are amazing. I only have the curved one, but use it as much as any other spokeshave I own. I did have L-N open the mouth for me. I would assume that the Preston shaves (or LV Preston style one) would behave similarly.

All of those are bevel down shaves. Bevel up (low angle) shaves are a different animal. Based on the many positive reviews I have read, I recently bought the LV low angle spokeshave with the PM-VII blade, but haven't taken it out of the box yet. Can't imagine it will replace any of my bevel down shaves, but am hoping to be able to use it for tight inside curves because the prospect of getting my Millers Falls cigar shave to work doesn't look promising.

Hope that helps,

Steve

[Paul K. Murphy]

John's Woodshop said:

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Is there anyway to close the gap on the 151?

John

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First thing I do with a new 151 is file mouth more open. A tight mouth is a bad idea for a spokeshave.

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

I used a 151 for my starter shave and it worked well with light cuts, skewed, and a very sharp blade. I eventually found a nice deal on a set of LV's and they are a joy to use when needed. Although my 151 worked well on domestic hardwoods, the LV's thicker blade was very noticeable in comparison to the Stanley. Where the Stanley might stick and chatter a bit, the LV would keep gliding. No surprise, the thicker blades are nice. The LV adjusts easier as well but once I set up a shave I typically don't adjust it unless I absolutely have to.

[Belle City Woodworking]

Steve,

I want to be able to do all of the things you stated. Thanks for that detailed response! I believe for the type of work I do and the things I imagine I would want to try, I think the VERITAS set would best suit my needs going forward. Now I just have to wait for Rob Lee to run a sale on the set. Rob...... are you listening?

Thanks again!
John

[Bibliophile 13]

I only have a couple spokeshaves, but my Veritas Low-Angle shave works really well. The low angle does tend to cause tearout, but you can compensate by closing up the mouth really tightly. It balances well and is quite light, which makes it very good for long shaving sessions. I can also use it comfortably with one hand if necessary.

I got to handle quite a few shaves at WIA this year, and I found a considerable size difference between many of them. The Preston shaves and ones like them are just too small for my hands. The regular LV shaves were much more comfortable. It's totally a personal preference thing, but something to be aware of when selecting a new spokeshave.

[Paul K. Murphy]

I was at a restaurant posting with a smart phone when I replied earlier. That's why my post was so brief.
Just for some more perspective I'll offer the following.
In 1981 I got my first full time job. I was working in a small cabinet shop where we made furniture for some of the more affluent towns nearby. I was the chairmaker. For six years I built Queen Anne chairs with bandsaws and spokeshaves. I never built runs of less than six, and sometimes did runs of twenty four. Being the chairmaker, often called framemaker in the trade meant that I built most of the frames, i.e. chairs and tables. I might literally report to work five days in a row and spokeshave wood all day of an eight hour shift. As such, we all had very mercenary and unsentimental views of what we wanted/expected from our spokeshaves.
The first thing I did with a new Stanley 151 spokeshave (kit) was open the mouth. If that sucker had a tight or closed mouth it would mean that I would be wasting a lot of time picking its teeth, and that just wasn't going to happen. (Incidentally, I strongly believe that even occasional or hobby users should do the same thing) Next I would round the toe with a file to a radius of about a pencils diameter. The heel would be slightly rounded, and the whole sole sanded smooth. The wedge would get hollow ground just behing it's toe so that I could be sure that it seized the iron right behind its business edge. Last of all, the iron was sharpened with a pronounced camber of about one eighth.
In use, with a straight attack and a deeply set iron, I could really get down to business and remove wood fast. Lighter cuts could be made quite often without resetting the iron, but by simply shaving out towards the edge of the iron. For really light precise cuts sloughing was the preferred technique. Sloughing means moving the shave in a straight line but presenting it to the wood in skewed fashion. Sloughing, and working the edge of a finely set iron allows great precision and control. The finest cuts can be taken.
As the framemaker I also made a lot of Country French (Louis XV) drawleaf tables. All with cabriole legs, and always to a minimum order of six tables. I recommend opening the mouth of the shave.