Tool Porn Update - Plane and Spokeshave handles

WIA is only 5 days away and very much looking forward to seeing some old friends and make a few new ones in this great world of woodworking.

I had promised a good friend of mine some new handles for his Boggs spokeshaves and spent the weekend turning a few.  He sent me some wonderful Blackwood and Rosewood to make the handles from. Here's a quick iPhone shot of the finished handles.

I will be delivering these on Friday in Cincinnati.


I was making a new set for my two Lee Valley shaves as well and they use a different attachment method which I did not like. They used a small hanger bolt with a 1/4"-20 thread to attach to the shave. I did not think this gave me enough material in the handle to be secure. I am sure it was fine for the original bubinga handles but some other handle materials, not so much. The Boggs shaves attach with a 1.5" long 1/4"-20 bolt with a hex head for an allen key. This put about 1-1/8" of material in the handle which was more like a tang and I felt added more strength. I bought some threaded rod and cut some for myself and inserted them into the wood with a double-bolt setup. Here's a few process shots on the LN ones, but I ended up using the same process for the LV ones.

Tapping the 7/32" hole for the 1/4"-20 threaded insert

The threaded inserts placed in the blocks. Important point here is that they
are not glued in place; once they are installed in the spokeshave and grain aligned,
they will be glued - we must align our grains...



Stage 1 of turning, setting length and diameter, before the final go

The finished Lee Valley Spokeshaves:

Honduras Rosewood and Cocobolo

I also received my newest plane from Konrad Sauer, its a K9 - that is Konrad-speak for 9" long plane. This plane is made from the most spectacular Desert Ironwood I have ever seen. Not much I can really say about this, the picture will just have to speak for itself:



Sauer and Steiner K9 in Desert Ironwood