I was given a spokeshave from a friend recently, since he knew I was looking for one. He had picked it up from a garage sale for $2, not a bad deal since it was in decent shape, just neglected for a few years.

Here's a quick little guide to refinishing a spokeshave. I was specifically working with a #151 Stanley spokeshave, which has since been replaced with the near identical, 12-951 spokeshave. Some would say the older 151 is preferable, as it is of higher quality, having been made in England.

Step 1: Gather Your Supplies

You will need:
-spokeshave (obviously)
-wire brush
-cloth rag (paper towel will work)
-pliers/vice grips (optional)
-screwdriver (matched to screws)
-sharpening stone or system

Step 2: Disassembly

Spokeshaves and their cousins, planes, are simple tools usually containing only a handful of screws/thumb turns. When taking it apart, pay attention to the order and orientation of the blade and cover.

Remove all screws and place to the side.

Step 3: Cleaning

Now that all the components are apart, the dirt and rust is readily apparent, but also easy to reach. Start by taking a moist cloth and wipe down all surfaces, some of the surface rust will come off at this point. Let dry.

Take a wire brush, the smaller the better, and brush vigorously. Careful of your fingers, as the metal bristles can cause some pretty good slivers. Most or all of the rust should come off from brushing, if the surface has become pitted removing all the rust becomes difficult, and pitting may compromise the quality of the tool. Minor pitting can be later removed by sanding/grinding, if necessary.

I started with the body.handle of the tool, which is cleaned easily due to it's flat surface. When cleaning the thumb-turns and screws, be sure to get in between the threads and into all the corners, anything you miss at this stage has the potential to continue with corrosion.

The last item I cleaned was the blade itself, figuring, in a worst case scenario, I could just replace the blade.

While there was no pitting on the blade, the cutting edge had been dented and marred. Luckily, YuKonstruct (my local makerspace) has a tool sharpening system, making re-sharpening a cinch. The only problem I encountered was not having an appropriate guide for the spoke shave blade, so I had to free-hand the edge. The system comes with guides for multiple tools, including knives, axes, planes, etc. but due to the fact that the blade of the spoke shave is so much shorter than that of a planer, the guide for sharpening flat blade tools didn't work.