What is a Spokeshave?

I love my power tools, but every once in a while when I turn off that switch, crank up the tunes, and pull out some of my favorite hand tools, a spokeshave being one of my most favorite, if that's even possible, hand tools at all. You know, most woodworking is about making things straight, smooth. Spokeshaves, just the opposite. They're about sculpting, making shapes that are round, curvaceous things, beautiful things like that. A spokeshave is really just a plane.

Kind of odd-looking plane though, isn't it? Imagine a plane sitting in my hand here. I've lopped off the front of it, lopped off the back of it, and I stuck some handles off the side. So basically it's a plane blade at the normal bedding angle, 45 degrees, bevel is down. The logo is up, that's how in case you ever get mixed up about a tool, when you don't know which way the blade goes in, just look at where the name brand is.

That always goes up. And it's a tool that can be used either in pushing or in pulling, and it rides along with the curves. It's a wonderful tool to use. Not the easiest thing to sharpen in the world. This particular one, though, is easy to adjust, like a plane.

These two little screws right here move the blade up and down, and normally when you set a tool like this, or set a plane that is, you set the blade so that it's dead-level with the sole. With the spokeshave, don't have to do that. In fact, it's better to set one side of the blade a little higher than the other, so that as you're using a spokeshave, never taking off a full-width shaving, just a narrow one. You can make a heavy cut on one side, a light cut on the other side. Wonderful tool to use and get to know.

Hope you enjoy having one yourself.