Spokeshave honing clamp

Those of us who are spokeshave fans will know that the irons are just a bit tricky to hone. This clamp is designed to help with that by giving more grip and getting the hands away from the whetstone’s surface. I have been meaning to build a clamp like this for a while and was prompted by buying a little spokeshave from a car boot sale last weekend, which turns out to be a ‘sweetheart’ Stanley no 64.

The handle is oak and I have rasped out some thumb and finger grips to enable a really good hold. Ash is used for the fixed plate, while another slice of oak provides the moving plate. The clamping bolts are really for roofing and are provided with additional washer and wing nuts to give rapid adjustment and final tightening. The little wedge is of oak and is the only thing glued (with Titebond 3). This is because the wedge would not screw on dry, so I fixed one end and then glued and clamped it in the correct position.

This wedge is cut at 28 degrees. Thus, if the clamp is placed on the whetstone with the wedge down, the iron is fixed in the clamp square and just short of the whetstone surface. Then when the iron’s edge is tipped forward onto the whetstone, a honing angle of approximately 30 degrees will be achieved and the wedge will be lifted clear. This should ensure that the iron can only wobble out in one direction. That’s the theory.

Everything in this clamp is from the scrap bag apart from the metal fittings and glue.

I hope that this is useful to everyone.

-- Stanley generally struggling