workshop · 07 · spokeshave · two-handed · cooper's pattern
a small bench plane that has grown a pair of arms. you hold it by the wings and pull it toward you over a curve; it follows the curve the way the eye follows a face. for shaping balusters and chair-legs, and for any place a flat sole cannot reach.
it was bought from a cooper in 1907 and the cooper's mark — three sloped chisel-strikes — is on the underside of the left wing. the shave can take a tissue of beech off a curve so fine the wood sighs but does not flinch.
field-note · learn the cut by feel. the eyes can't follow the corner; the wrists must.