Bronze Spokeshave Set

I have had a chance to use these on a couple hobby projects. I've run them across eastern white pine, cherry, red oak and poplar. No problems with any of those species to speak of.They set up like any small, basic hand tool. It takes some patience and a basic understanding of planes and spoke shaves but in no time I was shaving off delicate little curls of wood. Like any plane they favor going with the grain and work best being held askew to the grain.The irons are soft and that makes it tough to avoid a heavy bur when shaping and sharpening. The iron does work. It is cheap metal though and mostly just provides a template for future replacement with a quality blade.That said, the bronze casting is fine with just a little filing so the iron seats well. These are so small that tweeking the cast doesn't take long. I comfortably use these with both hands or just one.Nice little tools. Can't wait to get a decent set of irons for these.

Definitely needs to be sharpened upon arrival like others have said, but with a good stone it isn't that big a deal. The spoon-bottom is a bit challenging to sharpen, but still doable. Once done it takes a little effort to set them up right: tighten screw, test, loosen screw, move blade--repeat. I set one up to be kind of a hog, the second as a fine tuner, and the third as a spoon-bottom. After a few minutes I found a good way to hold each with one hand drawing toward myself during the cut, and made short work of the custom hand-rail I was building. Worked out perfectly. It was especially nice to be able to hold the piece with one hand while making the cut with the other. Great product.

My intended use is for trimming thin wood used in model boat building. I have made some trial shaves and they work as expected. The blades are not finished or ready for use. That was clearly stated before purchase so no bad marks for that. The tools are so small that it does require a little finesse when sharpening and adjusting blade setting. The crude stock bevel seems a bit too steep and the gap in the sole a bit large. It is also a bit hard to get the feel for the proper cut angle as the very short handles make my grip a bit hard to hold with my arthritic fingers. I can and will use them but they are not perfect, my reason for four stars.

I ordered the small bronze spokeshave set for quick shaping of furniture parts, where smaller detail tools arenecessary. The tools arrived quickly, were finely made, and sharpen easily. They hold an edge well on walnut.I also got a great catalog of other wood working tools. I like this outfit and will be ordering more stuff.Deifenbacher Tools is a great outfit to do business with. They carry top brands from Germany, and have abig selection IN STOCK. I would also recommend this set of spokeshaves to gunsmiths, or anybody who makes wooden gunstocks.Small sharp radius curves are no problem, with clean across-the-grain cuts.

I ordered these spokeshaves on Wednesday, they were at my door Friday afternoon. I bought these for some finer work on some decoys that I am carving. After tinkering for a little bit (sharpening blades, adjusting depth of cut, and watching Youtube videos because there were no instructions in the box) I was finally able to test these out.The handles themselvs seem to be as close to bulletproof that you can get. They are exceptionally well made. If you have large hands (like I do) they will seem a bit on the awkward side. Trying to find that "sweet spot" that these act just like you want them to do takes a little bit of practice, but a few hours of playing, and I had it.

I haven't even used them yet. One of those cool tool bargains you think you need to have. Hopefully they'll come useful when I build a ukulele in the future. Need to make a jig to hold the blades for sharpening.

The body of the shokeshave is well machined. The blades are what one would expect for the price. I am making a jig for adapting the smaller size blades to my Worksharp 3000 sytem and hope to be able to put a good edge on them. These are special application spokeshaves and will not be used as much as my other full size spokeshaves, so keeping them sharp should not be much of a problem.

The blades need some sharpening and honing, but I'm impressed with the body and design. Good little tools at a great price.