Spoke shavers

[A.Merrill]

   I'm looking to buy a spoke shaver for doing some stock shaping. What brand and model do you guys like ?   Al

[Mikeh]

         
  WWW. Hocktools.com   
  888-282-5233

[David R. Pennington]

My favorite to use is a small simple antique wooden one. The knife is adjusted by simply tapping the ends of the knife. The blade is marked Sheffield.

[Elnathan]

Wood or metal? I have a couple wooden ones, antiques that I got off ebay, that I like, plus a metal Stanley I got twenty years ago from a hardware store that was going out of business. Both kinds work well once adjusted, but the wooden ones are low-angle planes and the metal one is a high-angle, so they work differently with different kinds of grain.

The bigger of my two wooden ones came with the throat worn away (I got it cheap in consequence) and required splicing a new piece of wood to close the throat, plus the blade needed flattening and resharpening. If you have more time than money that is one way to acquire one. The Hock blades are highly spoken of, if you just want to buy something new, and the adjustment mechanism on them looks more user-friendly than the traditional ones I have.

[J Henry]

  All depends on what surface you are working,streight,round,inside /outside curve??

[WKevinD]

I have both a wood and iron ones. The wood one is nice but harder to sharpen well. The iron ones, antique Stanley #151 is easy to sharpen and precise in its adjustment. After watching a Paul Sellers video on how to sharpen the Stanley it has become a favorite after making it scary sharp. Grain direction is important for fine cuts on curly wood.
Stay away from the China imports, look for those mane in US or England.
The wood ones cut with a bevel up blade and the iron ones cut with a bevel down most of the iron ones I've found in junk shops or yard sales have the blade in bevel up making them impossible to use well. That is a five second fix.
Kevin

[sqrldog]

I have a spokeshave that I purchased from Dave's Shaves. I use it often in shaping a stock. You can buy a kit and build your own or let Dave build it correctly.  It is ready to use straight out of the box. He offers straight and compass shaves. I also learned a lot from the video sold by American Pioneer Video that features Mark Silver shaping a stock using a spokeshave and various hand planes. Tim

[Hungry Horse]

For traditional wooden woodworking tools, with the best blades I’ve seen, you will have a hard time finding anything better than those built by Hock tool. They also make quality blades to fit old spoke shaves, and plane. And they do make custom blades, so you might even make a low quality import tool run with one of their blades. But, the blade will likely cost more than the import spoke shave, or plane.

  Hungry Horse

[P.W.Berkuta]

   I'm looking to buy a spoke shaver for doing some stock shaping. What brand and model do you guys like ?   Al

I have a Stanley #51 - (no thumb screws) and two #151 and like them all. Actually the #51 works the best for me. I also have a very small Xacto one that gets into tight spots very well.

[Gunnermike]

Thumbs up to the 2 members who said Hock Tools.  I bought one of the spoke shave kits and have to say they are a good value.  They have other plane kits available, too.    The spoke shave kit is already inlet, you just have to shape the 2 arms.  http://www.hocktools.com/products/kits.html

Mike

[David R. Pennington]

Here is my favorite spokeshave

[WadePatton]

Although I've not done it yet, despite strong inclinations to do such, Paul Sellers has a video on making your own spokeshave.

Have an antique Stanley and a Stanley copy. Like them both. Spokeshaves are another easy-to-sharpen/modify/make tool for the bench.