Brian,

I have two Record shaves that I tuned (flat and round sole), and I ground the cap so that it would sit flat against the blade, without a gap to catch shavings. I don't set the cap very close to the blade edge, as I do on my planes. I don't like either of these spokeshaves.

Although you can get good work out of them, I found the new Record shaves to be very aggravating due to the extremely wide mouth openings that are used (the slit in the bottom of the sole). To help close the mouth I bought an excellent Hock carbon steel blade, that is much thicker than the stock blade. Although this helped, the throat was still too wide for my tastes. Some folks use brass shims behind the blade for a fix, others just live with it. I eventually searched some of the old tool web sites and bought several antique Stanley shaves. My favorite is a Sweetheart-era #151, that adjusts with two threaded posts, like the modern Record. The mouth opening is very fine which prevents tear-out and is more in tune to the fine work that these tools are designed for.

If you frequent the old-tools mailing list, you will hear frequent gripes about the quality of modern Stanley and Record planes and spokeshaves as compared to designs produced before WWII. Although the old tools are not always perfect, they usually have much finer machining, tight mouths and nice rosewood handles (on planes) rather than plastic. I prefer to buy antiques in fine shape, unless the tools are offered by Lie-Nielsen or some of the new makers that are again building high quality hand-tools.

Greg Stamer
Orlando, Florida