The first thing that I thought was, "No, I have a couple in the shop. And they don't work all that great anyway." John indicated that John Gunterman was going to give a class in making wooden spokeshaves and there would be several Galoots attending. Well, that sounded like fun! Maybe I do need a wooden shave. After all, some guys swear that they cut much better than the metal ones. I signed up.
I dragged myself out of bed at 5:15 AM in order to be able to get gasoline for the car, hit the post office, get coffee from the Quickee Mart, and drive the 80 miles to Mt. Palomar College, in San Marcos, California so as to arrive prior to 8:00 AM. It worked! I got there with 20 minutes to spare.
The previous evening I had set up a travelling toolbox. I didn't know what kind of facilities they would have, so I took the Black&Decker WorkBox, with a space for tools inside, and a top that acts like a vice... kind of like the WorkMate, but smaller. As it turned out, Mt. Palomar College has a great shop in building "T" (I assume for "Technology") where the class was held. Plenty of full-size workbenches with vices and dogs. Also a good selection of "loner" tools, and stationary power tools.
My box held the recommended items, taking a load off the loaners: pencil, square, rule, marking gauge, clamps, #4 plane, chisels, scraper blade, 4-in-hand file, Coping saw, backsaw...
I wandered up the twisted, windy path from the parking lot, and met Russ Filbeck, one of the staff instructors at Mt. Palomar. He graciously directed me to the coffepot and the quarto de baños. Students began to filter in. Many were apparently regulars, as Russ greeted most of them by name. Chris Dunn was the first brother Galoot that I recognized. We exchanged the secret Galoot handshake (uses all fingers of your right hand) and he introduced me to John Crum. John Solie, Steve Kolacki, Bob Forgey rounded out the Galoot contingent, counting Gunterman, of course, at six of nineteen woodworkers present. (Next time, I'm going to call for a show of hands, Galoot-wise, so I don't miss anyone!)
Mr. Gunterman brought several other tools to loan out: His Lie-Nelson #1 and #164 planes, a float, and some ScarySharp supplies.
After introductions, each student selected a piece of wood and a blade. John had brought a boxload of curly maple, mahogany, ironwood, and assorted other wood blanks. The blades are a new item from the famous custom knife and plane blade maker, Ron Hock. Each of us were given a printed instruction sheet to refer to.
We all laid out the critical measurements on our respective shave blanks, centered the blade and marked for the mounting studs. A trip through the drill-press lines, and we had the blades dropped down onto the wood stock. Next, we carefully traced around the blade, marked out the throat, and removed the material. Then we began the critical process of morticeing for the blade. Once the blade was flush to the stock, we could put a one-degree bevel in front of the mouth.
At this point, we were able to pull shavings off a piece of scrap! The rest was fine-tuning! John didn't lie when he said that everybody would be able to pull a shaving before we broke for lunch. For those who wanted to put in a wear-resistant piece of wood in the mouth of the shave, John had brought along strips of lignum vitae, ebony, and ironwood. I chose lignum, the traditional inlay. It has natural oils that assist in smooth planing, and is extremely long-wearing. After carefully removing a strip of wood from the mouth, the inlay was glued in it's place.
After lunch, I jointed the exposed surface of the inlay, and re-established the one-degree angle. I spent quite a while re-tuning the shave after putting in my inlay. At one point, I had it perfect by shimming the blade up with a folded piece of paper. "OK," I thought, "all I need to do is remove the paper, and whack off about .004 inches from the sole." So I did. But that closed up the mouth a bit due to the angles involved, so I had to open up the throat area to re-establish that. But after fussing with it for a while, I got it to cut as before... nice thin shavings that didn't jam in the throat.
We marked out the handle shape from a template that was provided. Each had their one idea as to how to get to the proper shape. Band Saw, Scroll Saw, Sanding Wheel, Files/Rasps, etc. I knocked mine out on the Scoll Saw. It was getting on toward mid-afternoon, and I was anxious to get back home. I left a few minutes early, and finished shaping the handles the next day in my own shop. A little oil and wax, and the spokeshave is almost too pretty to use! I guess I'll have to make another one out of some kind of trashy wood!
In summary, John Gunterman was an effective teacher, able to offer suggestions and advice to all who needed guidance. He was quite patient, even when I recommended that he inlay an ebony wear-plate on the shave he was making. The body was ebony. He just blinked and dead panned, "Why?"
"You need a shave," wrote John Crum several months ago. I was a bit puzzled, since I had never met John, and he couldn't have known that I wear a beard and mustache. Or that I hadn't cleaned up the scruffy edges or the wild hairs on my cheeks for a while! It became clear soon that he was referring to a spokeshave.
