Day 51, A Primitive Spokeshave
Unlike a lot of the antique tools that I collect, this one bears no trademark, patent number, or manufacture date. It is a primitive spokeshave: a specialty sort of plane that is especially adapted for (as might be inferred from the name) wheel spokes or other round pieces of stock. While I have some spokeshaves in my collection, this one is likely considerably older and hand made. There is no screws or other adjustments: the (likely hand forged) blade is merely held in place by the two wedged ends which are driven into tapered holes in the body. I suspect this means that to adjust the depth of cut, it likely would have used a small setting hammer to tap it tighter or less tight.
Three different views of the spokeshave.
A couple of other things I've noticed: there are a couple of small holes in the handle, which seem like they are probably woodworms. Woodworms are actually not worms at all, but likely a kind of wood chewing beetle. As far as I can tell, this damage was likely to have occurred decades ago, and is minor and no longer an issue. My understanding is that the beetles don't attack wood with moisture content below 20 percent or so, and this is certainly drier than that. Nevertheless, I did treat them by dissolving 1/4 cup of borax in a gallon of water and letting it soak overnight. Other than that, I just let it dry out and then rubbed it with paste wax.
Happy Thursday all.