Wide wooden spokeshave, particularly useful for green woodworking.

 This is an idea I found in Bob Rozaieski's Blog and I followed his method quite closely and can highly recommend watching his two excellent videos. The main changes I made was to use beech wood. extend the length of the handles to a total width of 18 inches and to use the Hock Blade (SP062). This blade has attached tangs, a total width of 4 1/2 inches with a 2 3/4 inch blade. As recommended by Bob, I shaped the handles to my own taste to fit my use of the spokeshave. The shape of the tool was very similar to a small Marley wooden spokeshave that I currently have and shown below to give an idea of the general structure.

Shape of a Marley 10 1/2 inch spokeshave showing tangs and general shape.

Base of Marley spokeshave showing the mouth and blade position.

This spokeshave's blade is adjusted by knocking the tangs into position and so can be quite difficult to get right. To overcome this problem, the larger blade of the new spokeshave can be positioned quite precisely using two set-screws on either side of the blade.

Two spokeshaves I've made all ready for use.

I won't go through all the details of making the spokeshave but just highlight some of the most crucial steps that I encounted. 

I use kiln dried beech stock and cut and planed to 18 inches long, 1 1/4 by 3/4 inch. I checked faces were flat and at 90 degrees.  I marked the position of the blade and tang and drilled holes for the tangs (5 mm) and checked their fit. I did this free-hand so was careful to get the drill perpendicular to the wood. I then drilled holes for the set-screws. These were 4.2 mm for M5 (1.5 cm long) with T15 heads. Some care is needed in positioning the holes as you need to be able to adjust the set-screws without having to remove the blade. The holes for the screws were then easily threaded with the M5 die. 

The next step was to mark-out the position of the escarpment that allows the shavings from the blade to escape. To do this I fixed the blade in place and scribed around it and marked the rest that needed chiselling out. By iteration I adjusted the depth near the blade to just see a slither of light between the blade and the wood; this will be adjusted later as a brass guard is set.

Cutting the escarpment 1/4 inch from the top edge and to the cutting edge of the blade. I concave aspect should help to clear shavings. At this stage the blade is not morticed into position.

Bottom of the plane before morticing blade into the bed.

Details of the base of the plane with the blade and guard in place. In the second spokeshave the guard just goes across the blade.

Final escarpment with the blade morticed in place.

 

Top of the plane showing the blade tightening knurled nut on the tangs, adjustment set-screws and shape of the wood. In the second plane I put the set-screws closer to the knurled nuts to give more room in the escarpment.

The next step was to mark the blade mortice so it fits flush in the bed of the plane. This is tricky and care is needed near the edges and also to make sure the blade sits deep enough. Again, this can be adjusted once the guard is in place.

 A slope of 8 degrees  right along the length of the plane was planed extending from the cutting edge to the edge of the plane. This is the surface in which the brass guard will be fitted. After this the brass guard was cut and morticed into the bed. It should be as flush as possible to the bed but can be filed down a little when glued in place. Also it is important to get a 8 degree angle on the guard. The glueing of the brass plate to the wood was also tricky. I used both super glue (CA glue) and also epoxy. Both worked but even though I was careful with the final filing, both joints failed. In the end I found that scratching the brass plate before applying glue helped and that the Gorilla two -part epoxy gave a good bond. When the joint was dry (left overnight) I carefully filed the edge of the guard facing the blade to the angle of the escarpment and also the rest of the plate so it fitted snugly in the mortice. Note: in fact the glue did fail after some use so I removed the glue from the wood and metal, used coarse sandpaper to roughen the surfaces and used a good covering of superglue (ethyl 2 cyanoacrylate) on both surfaces and then press fitted them together. Lastly, I files the brass to get a good smooth fit and polished to complete the job. Hopefully this will work.

 I then sharpened the blade from 250 to 1200 grit. At this stage I tried the plane on some waste wood to check the gap (also adjusting the set-screws) and operation. Final adjustments were made to the bedding of the blade and escarpement. I found it took a little time to get the blade position so it didn't clog and to produce fine shavings.

The final stage and most creative was to shape the plane. To do this I made some carboard cut-outs of half the plane for the shape of the top and side. I used the cut-outs to mark the wood ready for sawing with a coping saw and rounding saw and final shaping with a spokeshave and wood carving files. I based the general shape on the Marley spokeshave (photo above) and what felt right for my use. I found the little thumb grips either side of the blade useful for control when pulling the plane towards me.