Spoke Shave tips needed

[Badger]

  I love the spokeshave but not on every wood. Most white woods I prefer the spokeshave to the draw knife. A sokeshave has a littel bit of a learning curve, maybe a couple of hours to really get a feel for it. No way a scraper can keep up with a spoke shave. They do work best on clean staves or boards. Once a chatter starts you need to stop and use the rasp to flatten it back out or just go to one side and gradually come back into the bad area. You need to turn and rotate the spokeshave while you use it and this just happens automaticaly as you grow comfortable with it. I would say make the time investment to get comfortable with it, watch some online vidios. It is a great tool. As you gain epxperience with it you cn use it one handed and hold the stave with your other hand, this is a huge plus when working in the field.

[Hamish]

There are spokeshaves and then there are spokeshaves. Its pretty much all been said, but quality of the tool a veritas or lie Nielsen are made with thicker blades and finer tolerances(cost a lot more than a vintage or Stanley etc). Some of the older mass produced spokeshaves are really only good for straight grained pine.
 You need to know how to sharpen the blade.
Upside down blade trick sounds good, as it increases the angle of blade making it less likely cause to tear out. I haven't tried it with a spokeshave but have used it many times successfully with handplanes.
That being said spokeshaves work best if the wood is already straight grained, they aren't much use on knotty, character wood.

[Josh Shuck]

They do OK on rounded belly bows because they were made to make spokes... I find them impossible in wavy grain and wide flat limbs.

[jasonoflivingston]

I am a big fan of spokeshaves.  That being said, a poorly set up spokeshave is a nightmare.  My original, and recently damaged spokeshave was a vintage flat/concave combo shave.  It took a lot of work to get it set up using the info in the article below, but once it was, I could do very little wrong with it. 

https://www.canadianwoodworking.com/tipstechniques/tuning-and-using-spokeshave

I have since replaced it with a Veritas flat spokeshave and was initially getting a great deal of chatter with it.  Again, fine tuning and setup made a world of difference.  Another thing to pay attention to besides squirrely grain and knots is grain direction.  Spokeshaves don't generally like going against the grain.  As a side note, the convex shaves can be quite difficult to get a feel for because they rely more heavily on hand control than the flat soled shaves.  That means a lot more focus is required, but they have their place. 

[autologus]

That was a great article on the spokeshave Jason I learned a lot.  Now I have some tuning to do.

Grady

[Adam]

I completely agree with JW's suggestion of keeping the blade bevel down.  The main problem that I've had with mine is not getting the blade depth set correctly.  Here's what I've done that helps me.  I put a few sheets of paper or a card scraper on a flat surface (a bandsaw table works great).  I put the rear heel of the spokeshave on the scraper with the blade adjustment screw loosened.  Then I hold the spokeshave handles as close to level as I can and slowly lower the blade until it just touches the table and tighten the screw.  If it is digging into the wood too much, I'll readjust by removing a few sheets of paper to shallow the blade's cut.  If it's not taking enough off, I'll add a few sheets.  I hope that makes sense.  One minor warning though, spokeshaves can remove a lot of wood fairly quickly.  I just recently made a really dandy hinge in a bow I was working on.

[Adam]

It didn't show up well in the above photo, but that's a scraper under the spokeshave.  Too many things the same color!

[Prarie Bowyer]

I have two and I love them.  Only use the rasp for curly grain.

I have one like dells that I made from the rudder bow shave blade.  Put it in a walnut body.  Front edge is worn but it cuts great!

Then I have the black one from japan woodworker.   Stainless sole. Again works great.  Learn to tune and sharpen it.  Also skew it when you cut.  Oh, if the grain is curly you need a rasp.

[Mark Anderson]

The key to keep it from chattering is to hold it and pull it at an angle. Alternate right to left to keep it even.
Mark

[Jodocus]

I have and use and like spokeshaves 

but it wont work on every wood. It works phantastically on elderberry, maple, yew, pear. It wont work at all on sloe, apple, cherry. And it's only really good on surfaces that are at least slightly convex. Like a spoke.

when I use them, I use tem instead of the rasp. They're not quite as good for rounding, bit they leave no marks.