TESTED: Slimline shaves
Above: ‘Slimline’ spokeshaves, designed for light and fine control. Top to bottom, Australian made Ironbark and HNT Gordon, and US-made Caleb James.
Review: Damion Fauser
Photos: Raf Nathan
Spokeshaves are extremely versatile tools that see a wide variety of usage in my workshop. Shaves with narrower, rounded profiles excel at getting into tight curves such as sculpted joints for example – others use them for tasks such as guitar necks and cabriole legs.
For the last few months I’ve had the opportunity to road test three different offerings, the HNT Gordon small curved sole spokeshave and two others released to market in 2024 – the Caleb James cigar shave and the Ironbark Tools spokeshave.
After some research into the difference between a spokeshave and a cigar shave, it’s evident to me these tools blur the line between the two, so I’ll be referring to them as slimline shaves.
To test each tool I made a series of straight and curved cuts in both hard and soft woods, on surfaces and edges. From this I was able to gauge the quality of the cut surface, the ease with which the cuts were made, in addition to how easy the tools are to assemble, set up and adjust, and importantly, how each of them felt in the hand.
Rather than review each tool in turn, I’ve compared them head-to-head against key functional, design and ergonomic criteria.
Let me say, at the outset, that whilst these three tools have some clear differences, they all excel at their intended function – so I hope the following comments may help you to choose the one most appropriate for your needs.
Design
For three tools essentially designed to do roughly the same thing, there are design differences that are immediately apparent. The HNT Gordon and the Ironbark are essentially metal-bodied tools with wooden handles attached, whereas the Caleb James is a wooden-bodied tool with an inset brass boxing strip and an attached blade.
The Caleb James and Ironbark are both designed with the blade inserted bevel down and a section of flat sole, allowing for on-the-fly, tactile adjustment of the depth of cut by rocking the tool forward and back. The HNT Gordon has a curved sole, meaning there is one engagement point required to be found to achieve a cut, and the blade can be mounted bevel up or down, allowing for either a planing or a scraping cut.
The Caleb James is elegant in its simplicity, the HNT Gordon is intuitively simple and the Ironbark breaks new ground with some slightly more complex features that offer significantly more adjustability and in one case, basically eliminate one of the traditionally frustrating aspects of spokeshave use – disassembling the tool to clear a blocked mouth aperture.
The curved sole and narrow (9.5mm, 3/8") radius profile of the HNT Gordon allows for working into radii as tight as 12.7mm (1/2"). Both the Caleb James and Ironbark shaves have slight flat facets on the sole and slightly thicker bodies. The Caleb James is able to cut into 1-1/2" (38.1mm) curves. This metric for the Ironbark was not available at the time of printing.
1. Innovative adjustment on the Ironbark shave. Twist the brass end knobs to secure and, if desired, skew the blade.
Ergonomics
For me the ergonomics of a tool come down to both technical metrics and the feel of the tool in the hand. Whilst all three tools are visually diminutive, their comparative metrics are substantially different.
The Caleb James is 247mm long and weighs a tiny 80g. It has two subtle yet immediately functional scallops on the front edge of the body that just invite a comfortable thumb placement – pick up this tool and it just falls into place in your hands. This tool is as light as a feather and incredibly comfortable to hold, meaning longer work sessions are not likely to result in any discomfort. It has an asymmetric profile though, and my impression is this tool is designed for using only on the pull stroke.
The Ironbark has distinctly more mass, coming in at 230g, giving feel of heft and strength to throw the tool through rapid, coarse work. It is shorter than the others in length, so even with my small hands, I found I had my little fingers hanging off the end of the tool in use.
The cylindrical profile of the central part of the tool body provides a comfortable surface to rest the thumbs, and allows for slight adjustments of thumb position when rocking the tool back and forth to adjust shaving thickness on the fly. Whilst at first glance this tool could perhaps be used in both a push and pull stroke, I feel the protruding depth-setting screws are right where I’d want to rest my thumbs when holding the tool for a push stroke.
2. The Ironbark blade fits into a dovetailed keyway in the tool body and is stopped against two stainless steel screws.
The HNT Gordon, like the Caleb James, is particularly light, coming in at a stated mass of 90g (the one provided to me weighed in at 87g on the digital scales) and is 235mm long. Some elegantly machined facets and curved sections on the handles, some of which beautifully transition from timber handles to the brass body, provide ample comfortable registration points for the thumbs in either the push or pull stroke. This is the narrowest of the three, with the main brass body measuring 12 x 12mm and tapering down the ends of the handles to 10 x 8mm. Whilst some with larger hands may find this difficult to grip with any strength, I don’t see this as a downside as this profile means this tool almost demands to be held and used with a delicate yet effective touch.
3. The Caleb James cigar shave is easy to adjust and takes wide cuts on a pull stroke.
The business end – the blade
My first impression is that each of the three blades will need to be sharpened freehand, with only the HNT Gordon blade having some potential to be held in honing guides. This is not a criticism, nor a reason to withhold from investing in one of these tools, I’m just making sure you’re aware of what you’re in for.
The HNT Gordon comes standard with an O1 blade, but many select the optional HSS blade. It comes with a 30° bevel and is 19mm wide and so can only be used to take relatively narrow cuts. It is mounted in the tool to achieve a 60° cutting angle, which is nice and steep to help minimise tear-out risk.
4. Lightest of the three, the wooden-bodied Caleb James is comfortable to hold.
The working edge Caleb James O1 blade is 35mm wide, so this tool can take wide cuts where required. I’m pleased to see that the blade is beefed up to 1/8" (3.2mm) in this case, to minimise chattering in the cut.
The Ironbark blade is made from M2 HSS and the available cutting width is 45mm, wide for such a slim shave. It is beefy at 1/8" thickness and mounted to achieve an effective cutting angle of 35°, which is a lot lower than many other shaves. This allows for greater flexibility in adjusting the tool cut on the fly and also opens up better options for shaving cross- and endgrain surfaces.
5. The HNT Gordon has a curved sole and the blade can be mounted bevel up or down to give planing or scraping cuts.
Assembly and adjustments
All three tools have markedly differing assembly processes and adjustment mechanisms.
The HNT Gordon blade is inserted into the body and two knurled brass lock bolts tighten the lever cap in place. Fast and simple. Depth of cut is adjusted manually and the blade can be skewed to one side slightly to allow for varying cut thickness from one side of the mouth to the other.
The Caleb James blade is a custom shape and has more width at the back end of the blade, with two slots machined front-to-back, one at each end. Two small screws lock the blade in place through these slots into metal threaded inserts. Again, nice and simple assembly, with manual cut depth adjustment and the ability to skew the blade.
6. Assembly for the HNT Gordon is easy – insert the blade into the body and tighten the lever cap with two knurled brass lock bolts.
The Ironbark is a totally different beast, and to the best of my knowledge incorporates some new thinking not seen in other shaves. The blade has bevelled edges, like a bench chisel, and is inserted into a dovetailed keyway and stopped against the flat bottom of two adjustable stainless steel screws, which control the blade protrusion.
The knurled brass knobs on the ends of the handles are attached to stainless steel rods with tapered ends. These rods run through the hollow centre of the timber handles into the tool body. Tightening the brass knobs and the ends of the rods engage and elevate stainless steel lugs which lock the blade against the dovetailed keyway. Not only does this rigidly secure the blade, reducing chatter, but it cleverly allows for the mouth opening to be skewed to match any chosen skew of the blade cut depth.
This is a very clever and conscious design feature that would largely eliminate the problem that many commercial shaves have, which is the mouth being clogged constantly because the mouth is too fine for the shaving being taken. This adjustment feature takes a little getting used to (and I mean ‘a little’, like 5 minutes) and works very well, and may well get this more expensive tool over the line for those who’ve been frustrated with clogged shaves in the past.
Your choice
Designed to perform similar tasks, these tools are markedly different in some aspects, and subtly different in others. They all excel at cutting, and I’ve had a lot of enjoyment putting all of them through their paces. Ultimately, you wouldn’t be disappointed with any of them in my opinion.
The Caleb James is a delight to hold, has a nice wide cutting edge, is easy to adjust, but is really only ergonomically- designed to cut on the pull stroke. The Ironbark offers a wide cut and a very shallow cutting angle, vastly improving the cut surface and opening up better options for cutting short and endgrain. It also offers an innovative and very effective multi-purpose adjustment capability but is perhaps a little short and less ergonomic in my view. I must stress this is a very personal, subjective observation and in no way does it detract from the performance of the tool.
If it were me? I’d choose the HNT Gordon, primarily for the versatility it offers, being able to be used comfortably and effectively on either the push or pull stroke and because the blade can be reversed to achieve a scraping cut in sections of tricky grain. It is in my view also the easiest to sharpen. Not as important in this decision, but it is also the more cost- effective tool of the three.
Caleb James tools from calebjamesmaker.com
HNT Gordon from hntgordon.com.au
Ironbark from ironbarktools.com.au
First published in Australian Wood Review, issue 126, March 2025
Damion Fauser is a Brisbane designer maker who also teaches woodwork classes, see https://www.damionfauser.com/