Stanley 151 Spokeshave
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Tagged: 151 spokeshave.
- This topic has 28 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 7 months ago by Brian A.
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21 January 2018 at 10:38 pm #447193
Recently I proccured the above spokeshave new – it was much cheaper than used and seems to work fine. The threaded adjusters are so nice to use.
As some of you will know, these are now made in Mexico.
The attached picture shows part of the pouch it came in.
Curiously, it recommends a different bevel angle for English and Spanish speakers. Can anyone shed any light why this might be? With as long as Stanley has made this model they surely know all the ins and outs of its usage.
🙂
Rick
- This topic was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by Richard Guggemos.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.You are right to question Stanley’s expertise. Paul has often commented how today’s tool designers and manufacturers have no real-world experience in using tools. In this case, the packet seems to be correct for ALL languages though. It’s describing TWO angles on the Cutting Iron.
25-degrees is the first, known as the Bevel-Angle. (sometimes achieved with a grinding wheel)
30-degrees is the second, at the tip, known as the Honing-Angle. (achieved on your sharpening plates/stones) You’ll only need to concentrate on refining the Honing-Angle at the tip (30-degrees) for now. Check-out Paul’s Blog/Videos on sharpening spokeshaves.I notice the Health and Safety Brigade were consulted to cover Stanley.
They recommend Safety Glasses. Wot no Gloves, Ear-defenders, Dust-extraction..?
What if you drop it on your foot? I hope you’re wearing you Toetectors!
That’s a warning for the Grinder, not the spokeshave. This type of irresponsible warning just serves to dilute the impact of REAL warnings – we start to ignore them.Please comment later on how you get on with it, when you’ve used it.
Does it need a lot of fettling? Is the Steel any good at holding an edge (staying sharp)?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?
I just picked up this plane new, online. I’ve been fiddling with different blade positions and still can’t get it to sit right. The mouth is rounded off at the corners, making the corners of the opening smaller than the blade. Therefore the blade rides up on one or both side edges so the topside of the blade touches the opening of the mouth, and the underside of the blade doesn’t touch at all. So in short, the blade seems too big for the mouth, which is rounded on all of the inside corners. Should I grind down the sides of the blade? Or try to file the corners into actual corners?
27 August 2018 at 3:48 pm #550622If it doesnt fit , take it back. Check another and see if it too has the problem. If you are not familiar with the tool this will give you a standard. If all of them do what you describe its you,if only yours does it its the tool..
MAYBE the clerk can point you right.T’would be a solution, if there was a shop of spokeshaves within a hundred miles.
But soft, such a shop does not exist, unless you know it does?Nor does the helpful clerk exist to aid me in my quest for a good working tool. (Though depot people do their best in these unsettlin’ times).
Methinks that I yet need to file away upon this half-made tool, and see what comes.
And yet alas, to slim the blade, or the unruly mouth?That is the question.
-B
28 August 2018 at 4:57 am #550658Post a picture of the mouth with the blade in it, but offhand, I’d file mouth square. For one thing, it’s easier to file cast iron than filing or grinding tool steel.
Paul just posted pictures of what the mouth should look like from top and bottom here;
https://paulsellers.com/2018/08/the-stanley-spokeshave-works-great/
28 August 2018 at 3:05 pm #550673Might just be the camera angle, but it looks like the bevel is facing the wrong way. Still, that won’t stop the blade from sitting down on the seat unless something is machined wrong. What’s funny is, the only part of the casting that’s machined is the sole. The blade seat is just as it comes from the foundry. My blade measures exactly 2 1/8″ wide.
28 August 2018 at 3:40 pm #550681What it looks like in your picture is the blade is resting on the front of the casting and it should be resting on the back of the casting. Is there something holding the blade off the back? One can see all the way past the blade in your picture
28 August 2018 at 3:52 pm #550682The 151 casting is slightly different from the old 51 – the mouth is a little more open. I’ve got a 51 too, but the blade has to go down against the seat regardless and his doesn’t look like it seats against anything. It’s just hung in the mouth or on the side of the casting somehow. I took mine apart and tried to figure out how to get it to do what that one is doing and I can’t make mine do that.
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