Marples spokeshaves Download a hi-res version of the above image here
These two simple wooden 1" and 1 1/2"spokeshaves were purchased new at Buck & Ryan, the legendary London hardware store, in the early 1970's. Made by Marples, the wooden plane company that was part of Record tools, these spokeshaves were the standard English shave for over a century. Interestingly, the early 1930's Buck & Ryan Catalog underneath the shaves shows the 1 1/2" shave as the smallest size - Buck & Ryan didn't think the 1" size was worth catalog space. The more popular sizes were around 2" - 3". The Hawley Collection at the Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield has a publication on how these shaves were made. Ken Hawley also filmed both the forging of the blades and the making of the wooden body, although I cannot find the video of the making the body online.
The pictures in this blog are in medium resolution. If you like the pictures, feel free to click on the links to download pretty high res versions (for up to about a 14" printed picture) for your own personal use. The pictures also might make a nice screen saver or the like.
Response to these images has been great! If you have the urge for a larger print of any of the pictures in the photo blog series, the source material I have can be used to print even larger images - up to 36" - than the free download file size. Click here for available prints. Large prints of tools might go really well in an office or business settings. I certainly would find tools are more interesting to look at than yet another picture of a the New York skyline (not that it isn't lovely).
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