Until recently, I never owned a wooden spokeshave. The reasons were mostly that when I was studying we didn't use them, and most of the woodwork I did didn't call for shaves. However, as I have gotten older, I have gotten more interested in complex furniture shapes and I found that I needed something aside from a rasp to sculpt my work.

My first shaves were metal, but I never got them to work as well as I thought they should. Then I discovered wooden spokeshaves and I was converted.

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What I like most about wooden shaves is that they are light and nimble. They have the same feel as for example, our bowsaw where the tool is so light it doesn't influence the cut and you really feel that you are moving a blade over the work, not running a machine over some wood.

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The second feature I really like is that I normally set a shave for a fairly fine shaving but if I want a thicker cut all I have to do is loosen the screws at the top by a quarter turn and the shavings just push the blade out and you get a thicker shaving. I don't have to stop and think and that's important.

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Finally with a wooden shave the blade angle is really, really low and cutting end-grain is a snap. In the picture below you can see a chamfer I cut on a piece of construction grade pine, with the shave in the pictures above, using the blade as it came from the factory. Nearly an ideal cut (it took about three or for shavings), and the blade isn't even as sharp as I would get if I actually sharpened it.

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While I could have bought an old shave, I built the shave in the picture from Ron Hock's most excellent spokeshave kit. I kind of like the idea of building my own stuff, it's practical - and this kit is even easier to make than our bowsaw kit. Most important it was a fair amount of fun. You glue on the brass, cut away the waste, and shape your handles to your heart's desire. The actual cutting geometry is already done for you. It took me maybe an hour start to finish. And it works great. I might want to add some relief to the brass to give easier action, but I am waiting until I sharpen it first.

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This "Tools & Craft" section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.