Concave edges

[DanCant]

Does anyone have a method to sharpen a spokeshave blade with a concave edge such as used for shaping table legs?

[Ken S]

Dan, good question.  I would suggest shaving the edge of a board to create the profile of the spokeshave blade.  Cover the profile with wet or dry abrasive paper.  220 or 320 grit is a good starting point, more or less coarse depending on the condition of the blade edge.  Use this as your sharpening stone. Secure the block in a vise. Just like sharpening plane blades or chisels, switch to finer grits when you raise a burr.

My thought would be to resharpen often, before the blade needs a lot of work.

As I recall, Leonard Lee has some good thoughts on this in his well done sharpening book.

As an alternative, you could use diamond paste on the wood blocks.  Keep the blocks in a plastic bag between uses.

Keep us posted.

Ken

[Mike Fairleigh]

I agree with Ken's approach.

Do you have the back of the blade perfectly flat?  If so, then as long as you don't get nicks in the edge, you might find that you get it adequately sharp just be re-honing the back on a perfectly flat stone.

[Ken S]

Good thought, Mike.  This reminds me of an earlier thread on sharpening scalloped bread knives.  The usual and quicker way is to touch up the back (the side without the scallops).  That's fine.  I chose to use a dowel with very fine  adhesive backed abrasive attached and file the scalloped bevels.  I keep the dowel with abrasive attached in a kitchen drawer.

The next time I do this, I might try using the dowel with diamond paste.

Sharpening either the back or the bevel will get the job done.  I would lean toward sharpening the back with a complex edge, such as a bead or radius.  With a curved spokeshave, once you have the block shaped, save it.  The next time the spokeshave needs to be sharpened, it's much quicker.

One of the things I find fascinating about sharpening is that it can be done many different ways.

Keep us posted.

Ken

[DanCant]

Thanks. I will give it a shot