Steelex D3658 Straight Spokeshave

I have bought a few spokeshaves in my time ( I am a high school shop teacher that uses 20 of them for projects) several have been broken over the years and needed more of them. Harbor freight no longer carries the "cheap" ones so I turned to ol' Amazon. The one I bought was about 15 bucks, nicer than the $7 HF one, however after opening the blister package I found out that the blade was inverted when placed together (the beveled edge should BE FACING DOWN, not up), so first thing was to take apart the three piece and flip the blade and re-align the cutting edge. For those that have never used one, it is much like a hand plane, used to cut "spokes" on the old wagon wheels. It is a great tool to cut rounded surfaces on wood, I use it to cut airfoils for the boomerang projects.Pros - heavy, cast metal - the blade chipper cannot fall off unless the screw is removed unlike the cheap ones. Cutting edge was fairly sharp.Cons - not machined perfectly, but is what you get for $15.00model is NOT a steelex, but a shop fox d3659, maybe the same company.....time will tell

I sharpened the blade properly. I tried very carefully to adjust this spokeshave to produce a very fine curl. I carefully rocked it back and forth to try to find a sweet spot. All I could get out of it was gouges into the wood and chattering. I'm not a novice at this and made a serious attempt to get this medium-priced spokeshave to work. I did not fiddle with the base at all, which is the only other thing I might have done to make it work. I have a Stanley, flat-bottom spokeshave that works perfectly. I took them both apart and came to the conclusion that the issue with this Steelex spokeshave is the cap. It only makes contact with the blade across the curved, bottom edge whereas the Stanley cap is flat and make excellent contact with the blade. It seems to me this spokeshave is not going to be satisfactory due to the inferior design of the cap so I returned it.

A spokeshave is a deceptively complicated tool. This one was OK. blade adjustment was easy. The blade was sharp and of good material. The cutting angle was appropriate. The tool needed considerable tuning before it was useable, as the base was not completely machined flat, leaving the throat inconsistent. An hour or two later, I have an acceptable tool in my kit for the occasions when I need a spokeshave. If I was a boat builder or chair maker I would probably need a more expensive tool.

This works like it is supposed to. Comes in handy quite often.

This one is not bad, but not great either for the money.The blade is in serious need of sharpening when it arrives, but it's not too bad of a blade really.I might get the other two styles (flat and concave) if I did more work that required shaves.

Solid but like others have said blade is in wrong on the one I received the mouth is not wide enough for the blade to come out and not parallel to blade. Will have some time in it to fix it

With tools, there are only two options. You buy the cheapest one that will more or less do the job, or you buy the very best, usually at a multiple of the former’s price... This spokeshave clearly belongs to category 1. The adjustment screws are so poorly fitted that they do not even properly engage in the blade’s slots. I think it will more or less do the job, though, but that’s about all.

I rated this average. I am certain that it is due to a lack of experience on my part rather than the product. I found it difficult. I hope that will change with practice

Esperaba mucha más calidad y mejor construcción en una marca alemana.No estoy conforme

Qualidade e robustez ótima ferramenta.

Picked this up for a few projects I had on the go. Expectations weren't too high for a spokeshave at this price point, but I didn't need anything high end. When it arrived and I opened it up and it was pretty much as expected if not a bit better in a few areas. The blade was a bit of a mess, but I find unless you're buying premium products that always seems to be the case. The casting needed refinement as it had some smaller flaws but nothing major. What I was a bit surprised by was the blade adjustment system. Its pretty well designed and allowes for fairly minute blade adjustments. So for the price, and after a little elbow grease to clean up a few things, you can end up with a pretty serviceable spokeshave.Pros:• Blade adjustment is one of the better ones for this price• Price is very reasonableCons:• blade will most definitely need some sharpening before use• casting had some minor flaws. Nothing major• shoe was not levelTips and Tricks• sharpen the blade before use. Factory sharpening is a mess• id highly suggest sanding the shoe, it wasn't level and sanding it flat will help reduce chatter• best way to sand the shoe is glue a piece of dry/wet sanding paper to a piece of glass. Than elbow grease and time.

The blade had a current so it was hard to sharpen, and maybe I just don't know how to use it yet but when I do the blade chatters across the wood

I wasn't sure what to expect but decided to purchase this spokeshave anyway. The "out of the box" condition was unuseable. I scraped the paint off the bed (where the iron (blade) sits) and flattened it with a file so the iron wouldn't rock. Then I polished the sole and sharpened the iron. Now I can cut a continuous thin ribbon of wood with it. If you're willing to take the time to do that, this spokeshave will work for you.