Spokeshave

Also called: spoke shave

A spokeshave smooths curved surfaces that a longer plane cannot follow. Hasluck (1897) placed it precisely: "The spokeshave is a tool coming between the draw-knife and the plane; it has its blade in the centre, and a handle at each end." The draw-knife itself is a wide blade with a handle at each end, pulled through the wood to remove material quickly.

Flat sole or round

A flat-soled spokeshave is used on convex curves and a round-soled version on concave ones. At its simplest the tool is no more than a knife-like blade mounted in a holder, but an iron-bodied example takes an edge as readily as a plane and its blade adjusts to different curves; Hasluck (1897) put it plainly: "An iron spokeshave can be sharpened as easily as a plane, and is adjustable to suit different curvatures." On the convex-soled version, the placement of thumb and forefinger against the tool gives fine control over the angle of the blade, and it cuts only with the grain. A version with a concave, hollow-ground blade works well for rounding stock.

Sharpening

The basic method of sharpening a spokeshave is the same as for an ordinary bench plane. Its curved cutting edges, though, are honed with small stones called slips, the same stones used on bead and moulding-plane cutters. Because the blade is so short, sharpening it can be difficult and even hazardous.

Using it

As with a jack knife, the tool must be worked in the direction that avoids tearing the grain. Where a large amount of waste must come off, one fallback method saws cross-grain kerfs into the waste, chops it out with a chisel and mallet, and finishes the surface with the spokeshave and a rasp. To round a chair rung from an octagonal blank, the tool pares the corners off it. More generally, a block plane or a spokeshave can bring a piece down to a round form, after which one end is pointed.

In the trades

Wheelwrights use a purpose-built version, with a hollow-ground flat iron held by a knock-in wedge, for rounding wheel spokes. Chairmakers shape a chair leg with the spokeshave, a rasp and a scraper, working the lower portion first unless a chairmaker's vice, a clamp shaped to hold curved chair parts steady, is available; some chairmakers split their stock accurately enough to go straight from the axe and froe, a wedge-shaped splitting tool struck with a mallet, to the drawknife and spokeshave, skipping the hewing hatchet entirely. In glazing work, wood cut out with a fret-saw is rounded to a drawn profile with the spokeshave, then trimmed further with the spokeshave and glasspaper, an abrasive paper and early form of sandpaper; a cardboard template cut to the correct outline is used to mark out the wood first, and before fitting, the rounded edge is wiped with a linseed-oil rag and polished. For hand-cut work generally, the correct bevel is formed with the spokeshave, then checked by standing the piece over its plan and testing it with a set square. In one example, an edge worked down to fit was checked with a straightedge, the spokeshave used to remove the waste.