Shop-Made Spokeshaves
There’s no better way to create smooth, even curves than using a tool designed specifically for that purpose. And you can’t beat the satisfying results when it’s a tool you’ve made yourself.
A spokeshave is the perfect choice for smoothing out a convex or concave surface quickly and easily. Buying a spokeshave is an option, but there's nothing like the look and feel of a wood-bodied spokeshave. And having a pair is best, one with a flat bottom for convex curves and another with a curved bottom for concave surfaces. The body of a spokeshave is nothing more than a piece of wood with a narrow opening at the bottom for the blade. This throat opening widens toward the top, creating a bed for the blade and clearance for shavings. Trying to create this shaped opening from a single piece could be a real challenge. The solution is to make each spokeshave from two parts, a narrow front piece and a wider rear piece. Using two parts makes it easy to create a precise opening and an angled bed for the blade.
SELECT YOUR PLAN PACKAGE
What You Get:
- 7 printable (digital) pages of step-by-step instructions
- 40 full-color exploded views, photos and illustrations
- Full-sized patterns for the curved parts
- Materials list and cutting diagram
- Retail sources for hardware and supplies
Product Recommendations
We don't have any links to project supplies and hardware for this particular project yet, but here are some other products that might be of interest to you. (We may receive commission when you use our affiliate links. However, this does not impact our recommendations.)
Similar Woodsmith Plans
Imperial Plans
The United States Customary System of Units (USCS or USC), more commonly referred to as the English or Imperial system, is the standard set of units for our plans. It uses inches and feet for measurement. This is the one you probably want if you are in the United States, and it is the one we have traditionally offered on this website.
Metric Plans
The International System of Units (SI), more commonly referred to as the metric system, is the alternative set of units that we have available for some of our plans. It uses millimeters, centimeters, and meters for measurement. This is the one you probably want if you are outside the United States. These plans are provided by our business partner, Australian Woodsmith, and are based on the original Woodsmith plan. However, dimensions and other elements of the plan may vary between the metric and standard versions. Be sure to double-check the plan before building.
Premium Plans
All of the information that you need to build our plans can be found in the standard plan. However, if you want even more granular detail to make your job easier, you should consider our premium plans. These come with additional shop diagrams that we drew when creating the prototypes. Shop drawings are not available for every plan.