spokeshaves & How to use them
Some of the earliest wooden spoke shaves date from the 15th century but probably existed well before this time. While they do not look like planes, they function in much the same way and just like the plane, over the years, they have evolved from having wooden bodies, made from beech or boxwood to iron bodies.
As the name implies, they were originally designed and became an indispensable tool to the wheelwright in shaping the wheel spoke’s from hub to wheel tenon. But, chair makers also used them in the production of spindles and rails and even bookbinders made use of spokeshaves for feathering the leather on spines.
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iRON SPOKESHAVES
As the Industrial Revolution moved on, so too did the design of the spokeshave, the wooden bodies gave way to metal bodies, with the blade’s bevel facing down and set at an angle closer to 45°, much like a smoothing plane.
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