Making Your Own Spokeshave
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Making your own Spokeshave - by Gerry Coon There are not many things as rewarding as being able to custom make your own tools. Our Brisbane staff member, Gerry Coon, spent a wet weekend in the workshop and tried out our Veritas Spokeshave kits. Well, I had a wonderful weekend in the shed working out the wooden spokeshave kits by Veritas.They are available in two imperial sizes. Blade lengths are an inch and seven eighths for the small one and a massive two and three quarter inch for the large one. Both are equipped with threaded thumbwheels and lock nuts for precise height adjustment, a tap for threading the thumbwheel, and an A2 steel blade. Veritas also supply comprehensive instructions with the kit. Step. 1 Istarted with a few small and select pieces of rosewood. Though the timber was well seasoned, I kept the blanks thoroughly waxed throughout the shaping process. After each stage in the cutting, as a precautionary measure I simply reapplied wax to avoid any unwanted stresses from changing humidity. Step. 2 To make the spokeshaves, the blanks are milled to dimension, drilled and tapped for the posts, then the blade is fitted.In fit- ting the blade I began by lapping the top, back and sides as well as the primary bevel of the blade to a near mirror polish on my favourite surfacing plate with 320 grit sandpaper. 1. 2. 2. Step. 3 Then with the thumbwheels and blade in place, I started the layout lines with a fine marking knife. The lines for the blade recess and escapement are taken di- rectly off the edge of the blade, then chopped out with a chisel. Next the process is repeated for the brass wear strip ahead of the blade. With the blade and wear strip installed and tuned to take fine shavings with no clogging, you are ready to shape the han- dles. You can use an old spoke- shave as a pattern as I have done with the Tulipwood spokeshave or make up your own design. 3.
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Making Your Own Spokeshave
Transcript of Making Your Own Spokeshave
Making your own Spokeshave - by Gerry Coon
There are not many things as rewarding as being able to custom make your own tools. Our Brisbane staff member, GerryCoon, spent a wet weekend in the workshop and tried out our Veritas Spokeshave kits.
Well, I had a wonderful weekend in the shed working out the wooden spokeshave kits by Veritas. They are available in twoimperial sizes. Blade lengths are an inch and seven eighths for the small one and a massive two and three quarter inch for thelarge one. Both are equipped with threaded thumbwheels and lock nuts for precise height adjustment, a tap for threading thethumbwheel, and an A2 steel blade. Veritas also supply comprehensive instructions with the kit.
Step. 1Istarted with a few small and select pieces of rosewood. Though the timber was well seasoned, I kept the blanks thoroughlywaxed throughout the shaping process. After each stage in the cutting, as a precautionary measure I simply reapplied waxto avoid any unwanted stresses from changing humidity.
Step. 2To make the spokeshaves, the blanks are milled to dimension, drilled and tapped for the posts, then the blade is fitted. In fit-ting the blade I began by lapping the top, back and sides as well as the primary bevel of the blade to a near mirror polish onmy favourite surfacing plate with 320 grit sandpaper.
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Step. 3Then with the thumbwheels andblade in place, I started the layoutlines with a fine marking knife.The lines for the blade recessand escapement are taken di-rectly off the edge of the blade,then chopped out with a chisel.Next the process is repeated forthe brass wear strip ahead of theblade. With the blade and wearstrip installed and tuned to takefine shavings with no clogging,you are ready to shape the han-dles. You can use an old spoke-shave as a pattern as I have donewith the Tulipwood spokeshave ormake up your own design.
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Step. 4In forming the handles I found theJapanese rocket rasps to be mostuseful. They cut quickly and cleanly,like planemaker’s floats and leave afinish comparable to 220 gritsandpaper.
Step. 5I finished the shaping with flat andround sanding blocks and sanded therosewood up to 1200 grit. I coated thefinished spokeshave with two thinnedcoats of linseed oil a day apart andthen waxed them again. This is aneasily renewable finish and one I canreapply every time I clean myspokeshave.
Step. 6The final step is to sharpen the blade and enjoy an old world toolwith some modern advantages. I’d suggest it would be goodpractice to ease the tension off the locking mechanism whenyou’re not using your spokeshave. This will allow the wood tobreathe in and out with seasonal changes.
The threaded thumbwheels give precise control of the bladeprojection with no chance of slippage and the A2 steel gives along lasting and fine edge. This was an enjoyable project whichproduced a lovely and useful tool.
Go to www.carbatec.com.au for information & pricing on ourspokeshave kits.
