Reply To: Stanley 151 Spokeshave

As far as I know, the only real criteria is that the angle of the bevel must be smaller than the angle that the blade sits at in the spokeshave. That way the bevel doesnt hit the wood before the cutting-edge does. Stanley’s use of 25 and 30 degrees might show how unimportant the exact angle is, where modern sharpener salesmen have convinced us otherwise. To demonstrate this try buying a second hand honing guide, its really hard, and you wont ever find a really old one, because they only came onto the scene recently and for decades blades were sharpened to a rough approximation.

Presumably, the new spokeshaves come with the blade fitted correctly. That is, bevel down, as you would use it. For some reason alot of the second hand ones that Ive seen have their blades upside-down. A friend complained bitterly that his was rubbush, only to have me turn the blade over for him.

Does anyone know if there is there a reason that people put the blade in upside down (apart from ignorance)? Possibly something strange, like the oddly lying bench planes on their sides which apparently comes out of British woodworking classrooms?