A hobbyist perspective… I’m making some wooden toy tools for my grandson. I put the mallet together with a square red oak handle and said “oops, I don’t know how to turn it into a handle”. I ordered this Stanley 151 Spokeshave and hoped for the best. I expected that the iron would need flattening and sharpening, but I tried it right out of the box anyway… it did not work well. I used my two sided diamond stone to flatten the back first, you can see on my picture that the corners were definitely not flat. Sharpening the bevel was pretty straightforward, I don’t have a jig or anything, just did my best keeping the blade flat against the stone. As you can see the factory tool marks were quite pronounced, I kept going even after it was technically sharp to try to get them all out. I finally gave up with just a bit showing in the center and at one end. Having never used one before I had a bit of a learning curve, but after about 15 minutes of adjusting the blade and adjusting my technique, I had the mallet handle shaped out pretty good. I gave it five stars because it seems like a well made tool that does exactly what I wanted it to do! The quality of the casting and the fit and finish of the components is great, I imagine that this tool will outlast me! Read more
Nice tool, I spent some time sharpening the blade and it worked really well thereafter. Easy to control the depth of cut and skew if needed. Perfect for shaping the edges of a paddle-board project I am doing. Read more
I like using this spokeshave. It is nice, packaging should have been better, was just thrown in a bag. May have damaged the blade, since it had no protection. Read more
Works well enough. The adjustments leave a bit to be desired, but nothing most won’t be able to work with. I dipped the handles in some liquid rubber to make it a bit more comfortable to hold onto. It’ll get the job done. Read more
Looks pretty good, heavy enough and Sharp blade, close to work just out of the box. Easy of adjust, pretty simple, arrived before expected Read more
Another problem for me to solve, but not the one I bought the tool to solve. I took delivery of this Stanley No. 151 spoke shave on 04/28/25. The bosses on the knurled adjustment nuts are not large enough to securely engage the slots on the blade, making the built-in blade adjustment mechanism virtually useless. Moreover, the two threaded posts are loose in their mounts, so they wobble, even when the posts are tightened. I will keep the "Stanley" tool, but put spring-loaded washers on the adjustment posts beneath the nuts, or maybe have a machine shop make replacement adjustment nuts. Maybe I can buy replacement nuts made for a competing product. There are many other spoke shaves on the market, such as the Bench Dog No. 151, also sold by Amazon. A lot of these are based on the same Stanley No. 151 chassis, and in the pictures they all look alike. Are most of these made in the same factory? Meanwhile, I paid about $35 for a blade that has "STANLEY" laser engraved into it, and I got a mediocre implementation of a classic name-brand tool thrown in for free. I plan to buy a second spoke shave of the same design made by a different manufacturer, but get it from a brick-and-mortar store where I can examine the tool VERY CAREFULLY beforehand (e.g. the Bench Dog version sold by Rockler via Amazon). If I can successfully examine the "Bench Dog No. 151" at a local Rockler store and convince myself it is of sufficient quality, perhaps I will order the thing from Amazon so I can write a favorable follow-up review for the benefit of Conestoga wagon people trekking across northern Wyoming. Why can't I be a normal guy and just buy another hunting knife so I can skin and cook squirrels in the microwave? Read more
Needed to be sharpen before it would work good. Still learning how to use but looks promising. Read more
My woodworker hubby says this tool is comfortable, the blade is easy to set, and holds its edge. Read more
