I got a message from Brian this morning. 64Longstep Brian, our bladesmith, blacksmith, woodworker and friend.
So I started typing and realized not only was it going to be long, but maybe others might want to hear the tale as well.
the question:
I want to see about picking up a wooden 3” flat spoke shave, what kind of price should I expect to pay for one in user condition?
Brian-
Morning Brian
Depends of course heehe
Do you really need a 3" blade, or is that just a generalization? Most you will see are between 2 1/2 and 3" and there isn't much difference in use. If you really have your heart set on 3" it will be a little harder.
Then there is body material. Beech is overwhelmingly common. Never pay more then $15 for a standard beech shave, English or American either one, but especially British. There literally thousands available at any given time.
A Fields out of Baltimore made shaves from fruitwood around the civil war. Really nice, and elegantly shaped, and these go for a bargain sometimes. I got one in near mint for 10 bucks once and it was a 9" shave (1 1/2 blade)!
My favorite factory made shave wood is boxwood. All of these will be British, but the box is so classy when polished. And yes you can polish box on a rag buff with compound. If you lurk and dangle your hook in the water long enough, one will come cheap enough. I bought 4 of them last year and none were over $25.
When it comes to wooden shaves, a lot of modern guys are afraid of stick tang shaves. They are always looking for tangs with adjuster nuts. This is kind of silly, or excessively paranoid from people who don't use one often or ever really. In the lifetime of a shave you only set the blade to use it once for each go-round and only tap the blade all the way out when it needs to be sharpened. So they last a very long time. When the tang mortices do become too sloppy to hold its a simple matter of gluing in tiny slivers of wood. on this box shave I set in tiny slivers of ebony to match the mouth patch I also did on this one. I expect this repair to last the rest of my life, and thensome.
While you are looking, let me recommend a big one too. 4-5" blade coopers shaves are much harder to find than standard woodworkers shaves but if you get one you will never believe you got by without. Mine in the very first tool I hand any one to try when they come into my shop. Its so effortless and peels away big curls first time everytime. I have been known to peel off wood from behind my back (kind of like Jimi Hendrix heh) just for fun/show. But practically every handle I carve and many other things too, this shave is always used inbetween drawknife and smaller shave. Its like the scrub/jack plane of spokeshaves. Powerful, fast and yet accurate and smooth as well.
If you can manage to get to a tool show, you should be able to load up a grocery sack of unwanted, damaged shaves for less than the gas money it took you to get there. $2-3 dollars apiece at most. Most of these will have perfectly serviceable blades in them. Making your own shave body is a fun project. Making one work?? Well that part you do in minutes. A guy used to tour the country and help people make a shave body that worked in a couple hours tops. Starting from absolute scratch, to a body that works, in the middle of a show/seminar setting, and everyone came away with a working tool.
From there you can shape your body any way you like. I have seen many interesting designs.
I have to tell you though, the early English (and a -few- American too) shave carvers had it down to a deceptively elegant science that is not as simple to carve as it appears. Still fun and the usability of whatever you carve is a given.
Here is the resurrected Johnny Gunterman webpage.
http://web.archive.org/web/20011214105351/http://www.shavings.net/teachshave.htm Expect to pay $25-40 dollars for a new blade. Hock and several others make them. All with threaded tangs for the newbies, of course. But you are going to get your first for nearly free. I know it.
I wrote this so long ago I am not even positive what it says anymore, but here you go anyway :)
I think it at least tells about the little blades I make sometimes.
http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/spokeshaves.htm Of course, this is all just preliminary.
I fully expect to see Longstep large shave blades soon, hopefully in my mailbox!!!! 4 X 3/4", 1/4" thick please.
And a 5" I need a full 5+ x 1" too. :)
I don't need threads. heeheheheheeh
yours Scott
