Antique and Vintage Spokeshaves

Plane-like tools called draw knives, spokeshaves, or sometimes just shaves are used to smooth rounded surfaces. The name of this hand tool goes back to its use among wheelwrights to shape the spokes of wheels for carriages, wagons, and industrial purposes. They were also widely used by cobblers to bevel the leather used on shoes. Unlike regular planes which are generally not much wider than their cutting blades, spokeshaves feature handles that project at roughly right angles from the blades, allowing a woodworker to pull or push the tool across the surface they are trying to shape, level, or smooth. Whether these handles are made of wood such as beech, cast iron, or some sort of plated steel alloy (some metal spokeshaves feature wooden handles), they function the same. Antique wooden spokeshaves tend to show lots of wear on their sole, which is the tool's flat or curved surface surrounding the opening from which the cutting blade protrudes. At some point, spokeshave toolmakers began lining the soles of their wooden tools with strips of metal such as brass to give them more life and keep the cuts more accurate. Blades on spokeshaves, whether wood or metal, are adjusted on the top, non-working, side of the tool, via one or sometimes two thumb screws. In the United States, one of the most influential spokeshave designers during second half of the 19th century was a former cabinetmaker from Boston named Leonard Bailey (1825-1905), who secured several dozen key patents for planes and other tools from the mid-1850s though the mid-1880s. Naturally, Bailey's intellectual property attracted the attention of Stanley, which acquired Bailey's firm in 1869. For almost the next decade, the two parties would battle in court over revenues from these patents, with Bailey coming out on the losing end of the fight in 1878. One Bailey-designed spokeshave that stood the test of time for Stanley was the #51, a metal spokeshave with comfortable curved handles. When Stanley improved on Bailey's design by adding a second thumbscrew for finer adjustments of the blade, the company named its new spokeshave the #151. Another late-19th-century toolmaker who also produced spokeshaves was Miller Falls, whose No. 1 spokeshave was produced until the first decade of the 20th century. Unlike Bailey's spokeshaves, whose handles keep the user's hands away from the wood they were working, the Miller Falls No.1 resembled a cigar, whose handles were made of exotic woods such as cocobolo. Because the tool was cigar-shaped, it had a rounded sole, which meant the tool was well suited to tight spaces, where a more prominent sole would only get in the way.