It's About Time...

OK, so it took me about four months, but the spokeshave that I alluded to a while back is finally done.  Well, all done but sharpening the bevel, that's a subject for another post.  Here is my list of excuses in no particular order:  Back pain, foot pain, tax pain, Wood '12, yard work, building fence, and general laziness. 

The shave is made using a kit from Lee Valley and the wood came from a pallet.  After working with it I decided it was poplar.  It's finished with three coats of tung oil.

You may notice that the lines are not exactly those of the traditional shave in the background.  I wanted this shave to have an aggressive look, almost evil.  Here's another shot of the front.

The shape is not just for looks though.  Ergonomics played a big roll in determining the way the shave was shaped.  If you look at the grip that I use you can see that my fingers fit naturally on the shave in a way that they can't on the traditional shave.

On the back side those walnut plugs cover up a couple of nail holes.  They also add a sort of  'thumbs go here' target reference. 
Finally, here is that brass strip I was posting about earlier.

Yeah,  I overdid the polishing, but I did get a nice, reflective surface.