Weekend Spokeshave

[dave d]

I used a spokeshave to do a lot of the shaping on my last guitar neck and found that I could have benefited from a slightly smaller tool than I was using. Not wanting to spend a lot of money though, I thought I should try to make one. It turned out great and was easy to build. The kit (includes the blade, brass parts, tap, you supply the wood) is available from Lee Valley for $38.50US.
I used some sort of exotic hardwood, but can't recall the species. Possibly makore.

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[Kevin in California]

Dave, I've made one as well, the larger kit and I have the smaller kit yet to make up. It does work very well. I have not yet used mine on a neck, but I am working on another guitar now so will be trying it out soon on a Sapele neck. I think I'm really going to like it!

[ken cierp]

Does the blade come ready to cut?

[Kevin in California]

Ken it comes pretty well sharp, but a little honing did it some good too. I really like how it cuts, and adjusts too.

[Kevin in California]

Dave by the way yours looks really nice. I like the dark wood. I made mine with some maple I had. I have some pecan I cut for the small one but I might change that to walnut, as I will have some nice material left from a couple of curly claro walnut billets I will be resawing soon.

[dave d]

Does the blade come ready to cut?

It definitely can slice through wood right out of the box. There are some grinding marks on it, so I took it to my sandpaper-on-glass setup and ran it through the grits. Really easy to do since you can grab the blade by the posts that are threaded into the blade. I could've shaved my arm with it when I was done.



Thanks Kevin for your comments.

[John Parchem]

nice project!