Last week I walked into work to a brand-new Veritas spokeshave sitting on my bench. Chris had ordered several for students and kindly ordered an extra for me. (I’m spoiled, I know.)
Grateful, I took a picture of my new tool and posted it to my social media account, not thinking much of it.
The following day I received a comment: “Would you mind posting a video of how you file the throat (if you follow Chris’s approach)?”
Huh? File a throat?? This was news to me, but according to Chris, this is common practice when breaking in a new spokeshave.
He explained that in chairmaking, sometimes cuts that are ranker than the spokeshave will allow are needed. The solution? File the throat, just a hair or two to allow a thicker shaving to pass through.
So as asked, we created a video demonstrating the process. Next week’s chairmaking class will be the first to break the new spokeshaves in.
Well, back to work for me. I have two more spokeshaves to file.
Thank you for this! Thinking it was probably the meat and not the tool, I was convinced I just didn’t know how to use my Veritas spokeshave. Very helpful.
I don’t mind filing the mouth to open it up, if it needs it. I’m no longer interested in filing the bed on cheaply made crap spokeshaves. Although, if you have one, it’s 100% necessary.
John- I fix up tools to help people get started in woodworking. Spokeshaves and Stanley 5s (or close equivalent) are in every kit I put together so I’ve gone through a fair number of cast shaves. The best I’ve found is an auger file- they are thin enough to fit through the mouth but the width isn’t ideal. Have to test the blade a bunch for bedding. What worked well for you when you were tuning up a subpar casting?
Hi Chris,
this push stroke thing must be an american or woodworker dogma. The european real metal guys (My son is learning metal at a german ship yard) don’t do that. I don’t do. Clears the gullets from the shaving.
Cheers
Pedder
That’s wild. Thank you. I will have to explore this dogma!
Thank you for sharing this! Out of curiosity, what watch are you wearing in the video? It caught my eye.
I’m absolutely a believer in opening the mouth of a spokeshave. It puts me in opposition to the orthodoxy that believes “all planes must have tight mouths”, but my experience taught me that a tight mouthed spokeshave chokes fast.
Years ago I made my point on Woodnet this way, “If that sucker had a tight or closed mouth it would mean that I would be wasting a lot of time picking its teeth, and that just wasn’t going to happen.” FTR, I’ve always been a Stanley 151 user. In my opinion they’re the best shaves out there.
Love my veritas spokeshave but it has always choked up easily. Eager to give this a try.
I had to do that with the LN Boggs shave, too. Wouldn’t pass a single chip even when new from factory before I did that regardless of how fine the shaving.
I struggled with mine as well and asked LN what they thought. They actually confirmed that they make it right on purpose with the idea that people will file it open to their desired width. They even sent me a video:
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What do you use for a target for that initial mark to file to? Some particular gap in relation to the blade when flush to the sole or just an instrument line 1/32″ at a time until it cuts well without clogging?
Pretty much. A 33nd is a good start
I’ve always experienced some choking with my Veritas spokeshaves even with relatively fine shavings. I filed away about 1/32″ minus and used blue tape on the sole to indicate where to stop filing. This has reduced choking dramatically. Thanks for the awesome tip.
I just couldn’t get my Veritas spokeshaves to work worth a darn, so they haven’t gotten much use – now I know why! Thanks so much!!
Yup, don’t lift! https://youtu.be/xbykic–SKA?si=xtqQvEDS1ykkMOO5
Thansk for that. I stand corrected about the cleaning part of the backstroke.