Spokeshave

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A spokeshave is a tool used to shape and smooth wooden rods and shafts, often for use as wheel spokes, chair legs or arrows. It can also be utilized to carve canoe paddles.

Spokeshaves can be made flat bottomed or with concave or convex soles, depending on the type of job to be performed. Spokeshaves can include one or more sharpened notches along which the wooden shaft is pulled in order to shave it down to the proper diameter. Historically, spokeshave blades were made of metal, whilst the body and handles were wood. By the twentieth century all metal versions were the most common.

Prehistoric spokeshaves were made of stone. In archeology, the term spokeshave is used to describe a tool, usually a uniface, that has at least one retouched lunate notch in one edge. In a sense, the term is a descriptive "catch-all" category, since it is difficult to determine if this was actually the way in which such a tool was used; the categorization is based entirely on the appearance of the tool.