Round sole spokeshave?

[Strichev]

Does anyone use or has used a round spokeshave? Are they any good?

I have a spokeshave with a flat sole and it works great on convex and flat surfaces but is not all that suitable for those concave spots on character staves. It seems that a round spokeshave might be very useful for such tasks but I've read that people generally dislike them for lack of control and the innate tendency to chatter. Since rasping, scraping or even just using a drawknife works fine I'm reluctant to buy a new spokeshave. Still, it's a rather tempting thought - shaving nice even shavings, easily following the stave's character, not worrying about toolmarks and tearout.

[Jim Davis]

"not worrying about toolmarks and tearout"

Not my experience with any spoke shave. I can only get  good results where the grain is straight or tending downward in the direction of the cut.

Scraper for me  in concavities.

[gumboman]

My spokeshave set has a flat, rounded and concave sole. I have tried numerous times to use these when building muzzleloaders. I am always disappointed in performance. There is chatter, tear outs and gouges in the hardwoods used. And shavings get stuck between the blade and the blade slot in the sole. These shavings have to be removed. This is not always easy. Sometimes the use of pliers is required to remove the shavings and eventually I have to take the blade out.

I am forever hoping I can use them to shape wood but always go back to rasps and scrapers. I tried yet again a couple of weeks ago on an Osage bow I made. Same result. Had to make repairs to the stave with rasps after making gouges with the spokeshave. That has been my experience. Others may have different results.

[DC]

I had a Stanley round sole one that I just couldn't make work. I finally ground the sole flat and now it works great as long as (like Jim says) the wood is right.

[Strichev]

Thank you everyone, I'm going to stay away from it.

[willie]

I have a stanley that was a flat sole until I qround a slight convex radius from front to back. I also made a block of wood to hold my blade when sharpening that has a single pivot in the middle. I allows me to sharpen the blade with a slight side to side convex radius. this helps keep the corners of the blade from gouging the stave.

[Hamish]

Round soled spokeshaves can be useful for shaping around the dips, handle of a flatbow. Like many other guys have said they aren't too good on other areas unless the grain is straight and free of knots.


There is one good spokeshave on the market, small curved sole, by HNT Gordon of Australia. What makes it good? It has a tight radius sole, the blade is bedded at 60 degrees, rather than 45 degrees or lower so the wood is less likely to tear out. It is also available with a hss blade which outlasts tool steel many times over when working hard, abrasive woods. The blade can be flipped over, which turns it into a 90degree scraper. The only downside is that it is very expensive.


Another good spokeshave like tool, is a gunmakers scraper. Its a scraper blade set in a spokeshave like holder(either rounded or flat sole. Used for smoothing curves in riflestocks. Woodjoy tools used to make a really good one, I don't think he's offering them for sale at the moment, though he might make another run of them if enough people show interest in them.

[gumboman]

I neglected to mention that the spokeshaves work nicely on some softer woods. I made a timid attempt on yew and encountered tear outs so I gave up. My blades are very sharp by the way.