Melbourne Tool Company Spokeshave

Before the advent of electric-powered hand tools, the humble spokeshave could be found in every woodworker’s tool kit. It was an essential shaping and smoothing tool that excelled in chamfering, beveling, and rounding, and was just the ticket for beveling that dory stem or working in the compound bevel on lapstrake planking.

Consult the pages of the Antique & Collectible Stanley Tools: Guide to Identity & Value and you’ll find a plethora of spokeshaves…something for every purpose. Round or flat bottoms; cutters that are straight, concave, or convex; angled guides for chamfering; handles that are straight, others that arch upward like gull-wings to provide clearance for the user’s hands above the work. There were double-cutter marvels that had side-by-side concave and straight cutters; the curious Stanley #67 with handles set at 90° for working into corners; a jumbo version for coopers and diminutive versions for modelmaking. There was even the delightful Stanley #54 with its spring-loaded adjustable throat that effectively changed the iron’s depth of cut.

Photographs by the author

When seen alongside a classic Stanley #54 spokeshave of the 1940s there is an obvious difference in shape. Also, where the traditional tool has but one central screw and slot for adjusting the cutting iron, the Melbourne spokeshave has a pair of adjustment knobs as well as the cap-iron screw.

Alas, by the 1960s, much of the wide variety of spokeshaves had disappeared outside of antique and curio shops. If you could find a new one in your hardware emporium, it would likely be the most basic version: straight bladed, flat bottomed, in Japanned black iron with lackluster casting. It would probably require extensive tuning to operate as intended. The performance of such a spokeshave can be off-putting and make one question not only its purchase but also its practicality.

That said, there are still some new versions produced by smaller manufacturers who are sticklers for quality. Some of these tools are extraordinarily elegant, finely tooled, and cast in bronze. Others are accurate reproductions that have the Victorian elegance of early-20th-century tools. Yet others are 21st-century reimaginings of the classic tool, but with the same attention to detail of their predecessors. Such tools are made by people who actually use tools.

One new entry into the pantheon of modern devices is the Melbourne Tool Company (MTC) Flat Sole Spokeshave; our Small Boats editor sent me a sample to review.

On this white-oak stem with a confused grain, the spokeshave performed well, producing clean shavings and a very smooth surface.

The body of the MTC spokeshave is modern in its appearance. Clean and sleek, it is crafted from a single piece of investment-cast steel, which renders a very clean reproduction with none of the sharp edges occasionally found on cast-iron tools. Cork is inlaid into the upper face of the hand grips, which span roughly 11 1⁄2″. The handles are narrower than those of my 1940s Stanley #54 spokeshave and I did wonder if it would be less comfortable or ergonomic in my hand. But the shape and cork work well, and there are dimples on both sides of the cutting iron into which a user’s thumbs naturally nest, affording better control of the tool.

The width of the cutting iron (or blade) is 2″ and the thickness is 1⁄8″ (twice that of the Stanley, which should make the blade relatively chatter- or vibration-free in use); it is made of M2 High Speed Steel (HSS), which should stay sharp longer. Straight out of the box, the spokeshave’s sole and the back of its cutting iron required no extra lapping to ready them for work. I did add a slight micro bevel to the iron’s primary bevel.

One feature that I especially appreciated was the cutting iron’s adjustment mechanism: a pair of ample knurled brass adjustment knobs. Old-time spokeshave irons typically have a central slot cut into them, which slides under a screw. To get the blade set to the proper depth and without skew usually takes a lot of persnickety trial and error, followed by a lot of hope that the single cap-iron screw holds it in exactly the position you want. With the twin screws, it’s easy to “sneak up” on the desired adjustment and then simply hand-tighten the cap-iron screw.

Even though the handles are narrower than might be found on a traditional spokeshave, their shape, coupled with the soft cork covering, is ergonomic, feels comfortable in the hand, and offers good control of the tool.

Finally, the fixed mouth of the tool is wide enough to allow shavings to pass through, and the leading edge of the cap-iron is sharp enough and set tight against the cutting iron to keep the shavings from jamming or plugging up.

So how did it work? I liked it. I tested it to bevel the pine bottom board of a dory, and a dried and convoluted-grain white-oak stem. On both woods, it performed well, producing clean shavings and a very smooth surface. I then tried it on pressure-treated yellow pine, hackmatack knee stock, and both mahogany and sapele plywood. Again, smooth surfaces were easily produced on all.

The verdict? The MTC spokeshave is a quality tool at an affordable price that simply functions as advertised. These days you can’t ask for much more than that.

Greg Rössel is a builder of small boats and a longtime instructor at WoodenBoat School. He is the author of Building Small Boats, The Boatbuilder’s Apprentice, and Half Hull Modeling, and a regular contributor to WoodenBoat magazine. He is also a member of WoodenBoat’s Mastering Skills video crew, and the presenter of A World of Music on WERU-FM.

The Melbourne Tool Company Flat (and Round) Spokeshaves are available direct from Melbourne Tool Company, and from The WoodenBoat Store currently priced $89.

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