STANLEY 55 mm Flat 151 Spokeshave

Product Information

By using the screws on the top of the spokeshave’s body you’ll be able to adjust the depth of the cut, making for bigger or smaller shavings depending on how much material you’re looking to take off. These screws should be easy to turn and feel sturdy. It’s important that you get a handle on them before digging into the wood as different spokeshaves can have slightly more or less intuitive adjustment mechanisms and you want to make sure you’re in complete control of the shaving size. Preparing a spokeshave Overall, I managed to get the Kunz to do a good job, but the Stanley was easier to set up and it did a better job than the Kunz.

STANLEY Hand Planer, SpokeShave, Flat Base (12-951) STANLEY Hand Planer, SpokeShave, Flat Base (12-951)

In the case of a spokeshave the most important steps you need to take care of are sanding, flattening and sharpening. Sanding There are four types of spokeshaves. The flat spokeshave, round spokeshave, concave spokeshave and convex spokeshave. The flat spokeshave is the most frequently used and the most versatile.In an ideal world, all spokeshaves would come perfectly flat out of the box, smooth to control and pristine. Unfortunately, reality doesn’t measure up, especially for more budget friendly options. Spend some time flattening and polishing the sole with sandpaper and you’ll make almost any tool usable. Sharpen If you’ve got a bit of knowledge on how to prepare and care for it, this Swpeet spokeshave will do its job just fine for a fraction of the price. Flatten the sole, sharpen the blade and wax between uses to avoid rust and you’ll find shaving with it is an enjoyable experience. The problems my particular sample had mostly involved poor drilling and tapping work. (Mostly; some of the design work is questionable too, particularly in regards to the iron's holder's shoulders not really touching the main body's cut-outs!) Due to those things, I generally felt like this tool could be described as being Stanley's blade, in a cheapie or counterfeit casting. I'm not saying that's what it absolutely is: that's just how I'd try to describe how it felt to me, when I was tinkering with it.

Stanley Spokeshave - 51 / 51R - Review - Find My Tool

There were only four screws on this unit, and two out of the four gave me some initial hassles -- but the fixes were all easy to implement. Play around with it to get a hang of how to work it as the 2 wheel mechanism works the screws simultaneously modifying both the lateral and depth adjustment. After a bit of trial and error you’ll be ready to put it to good use.

Disclaimer

Adjust the tool for the desired shaving size before getting to work and make sure that the blade is nice and sharp. Although the spokeshave isn’t as demanding as a drawknife and can be pushed or pulled, always go with the grain when shaving. To me, I can't give it five stars since it's one of those "will need lots of work, to get it functional and useful" sort of things; but for what I actually paid for it, I can't complain. To me, even a fairly decent blade ("iron") at the price I paid for the whole tool, would have made it a fair-enough exchange for the money I paid for it. I have to admit, though, that I'm saying that now that I got it working half-decently. While I was trying to figure out ways around the bad machining work and design flaws and so on, I would have rated this tool much lower! There are multiple types of spokeshaves available but the most popular and adaptable one is the flat bed so that’s the one we will be covering in today’s guide.

Spokeshaves in 2023 - Top Picks by Woodsmith Best Spokeshaves in 2023 - Top Picks by Woodsmith

This tool is a great buy if you’re willing to put in 30 minutes or so of work before you use it. It’s affordable and has all the functionality you would expect from a flat base spokeshave. You can adjust it pretty easily but this is not the kind of tool you’ll be able to put to work straight out of the box. This spokeshave comes with five hard and durable blades to be swapped out as needed. It will be easy to use, easy to adjust and you won’t have to worry about the blades getting dull or repurchasing for quite a while. The bottom of the tool is made from wear resistant material, aiming to give as much use out of the tool as possible.

Use Of Content

Every single screw minus the adjustment knobs for the blade were machined with slots for a screwdriver on the Stanley -not so much on the Kunz. The cap iron screw is some sort of elongated machine screw with an enormous knob that just feels cheap! The cap iron on the Stanley is much larger and covers more surface area compared to the Kunz. The Stanley’s is made of iron while the Kunz’s is made of cheap thin aluminum.