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Learn How. Discover Why. Build Better. - Christopher Schwarz
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Chairmaking Tools
by Christopher Schwarz
Copyright
2006. This article originally appeared in the
Fine Tool Journal |
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Both Lie-Nielsen and VERITAS
decided to make shaves that had characteristics of a
high-quality bench plane. The bedding surface for the iron is
fully machined and dead flat. The lever caps that secure the
iron are heavy and machined on the underside to assist in
keeping the iron rock steady. And the tools are substantially
heavier than most vintage versions.
VERITAS offers a
variety of spokeshaves, including its low-angle shave,
which resembles the wooden-bodied shaves common in the
19th century. The three iron shaves have blade
adjustment wheels and different soles: flat, rounded
front to back and concave. Lie-Nielsen offers two
spokeshave bodies – a smaller one and the larger Boggs
shave - that are both available with soles that are
either flat or rounded from front to back. |
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Some of these improvements
are great, but some of them get in the way of
chairmaking. Except for one VERITAS shave with an
adjustable mouth, all of the shaves produced by these
two companies have very tight throats. I suspect this is
a nod to the marketplace. Woodworkers seem obsessed with
the size of the mouth of their bench planes, and so it’s
no wonder that they’d expect the same from their
spokeshaves.
But in chairmaking and
woodworking, you regularly need to hog off a lot of
material in a hurry. The tight throat of these shaves
will not pass a thick shaving. And so you are faced with
a choice. You can file open the mouth of your fancy new
shave, or you can do what I did: Buy a decent vintage
shave (a $15 investment) to use for rough shaping and
save your premium tool for the finish cuts.
Likewise, the heavy lever
caps of these premium tools tend to create a smaller
escapement for shavings, and so the tools clog more
easily than they should, especially in heavy cuts. I
solved this problem by filing and polishing the front
edge of the lever cap. It’s a five-minute job and now
shavings shoot out of my tools. |
Aside from these similar quirks,
the shaves from Lie-Nielsen and VERITAS have some significant
differences. The three iron-bodied VERITAS spokeshaves all
feature blade adjusters that allow you to tweak your cut on the
left and right side of the mouth. Woodworkers who are new to the
spokeshave will find the brass adjustment wheels a nice feature,
particularly with the shave that has a concave sole. There is a
lot of interesting geometry going on at the mouth of this tool,
and the adjuster helps you get a handle on it.
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I have only two criticisms of the VERITAS iron-bodied
shaves. I think the knob that secures the lever
cap is a bit small. I wish it were a bit larger in
diameter and a little thicker to make it easier to turn.
Also, the African rosewood handles of my VERITAS shaves
come unscrewed occasionally during heavy use. This is
the downside to one of the nice features of this line of
tools.
VERITAS offers inexpensive
kits that let you attach custom handles to these tools
with a threaded hanger bolt, which screws into the
ductile iron casting. However, sometimes during cuts
with a lot of twisting, a handle will work loose. In
all, these are minor quibbles about an excellent set of
tools. |
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The
throat of these shaves is extremely tight and it can be
impossible to take a heavy cut without the throat
clogging. Filing and polishing the lever cap helps the
shavings pass out of the throat and is a useful
modification. |
Lie-Nielsen offers two types of
spokeshaves: a small gem-like bronze-bodied tool based on a
Preston model and a beefy bronze shave with wooden handles that
was designed with the assistance of chairmaker Brian Boggs. The
small shave is designed for delicate work, and so I reserve it
for the final detailing of edges.
The Boggs shave, on the other hand,
is designed for war. Its iron is secured by two stout brass
thumbscrews and a lever cap that is fully machined on the
underside. Once you secure the iron, it holds its setting quite
well. My only complaint about both Lie-Nielsen shaves is that
they require a degree of skill to set because neither has an
adjuster. You change the position of the iron with small hammer
taps or by trial-and-error. Place the tool on a flat surface.
With the fingers on one hand, hold the tool down and put a
little pressure on the back of the iron. With your other hand,
tighten the thumbscrews bit by bit, left and right, until they
cinch up.
The depth projection is controlled
by how much finger pressure you exert and where you exert it.
After an afternoon of practice you’ll get it.
After more than a year of using both brands of tools, I find
they perform similarly. I think the Boggs shave is more balanced
and finished to a higher degree. But the VERITAS's adjustment
mechanism makes the tool easier to set, especially after I spend
a month or two away from my spokeshaves. If I had to have one
set of tools, I’d probably purchase the VERITAS concave
spokeshave, the Boggs shave with the flat sole and roll the dice
when it came time to buy one with a curved sole.
