Irwin Record A151 Flat Malleable Adjustable Spokeshave

My husband is a custom surfboard shaper and he absolutely loves his new shaver. What an amazing thing to get this new English item through Amazon.

I was under the impression that this tool was made in England. That is the implication given in the description! However after receiving it, and also the convex bottom bottom one, I have discovered that such poor quality tools could not possibly have been produced in England. The quality is rock bottom, and I have discovered that I could have purchased tools of the same poor quality made in China for less than half the price I paid for these! I recommend that if you want to buy tools of this quality that you just buy them from Grizzly! At least they admit that nearly all of their tools are made in China or Taiwan! I am very disappointed in the fact that tools nowadays are sold by such deception!

The cap iron does not match the seating space on the iron handle. The thumb nuts are not machined uniformly and the threaded rods are not installed evenly thus causing the blade not to align properly. The mouth is too wide leaving excessive space on each side of the blade. Blade tends to shift after adjusted. However, the body and cap iron are solid, just poor tolerance on milling of components. Was expecting higher quality from Irwin/Record.

Adjustable bolts are out of alignment with the throat opening of the spokeshave. Blade edge is not square with its sides.

I have some already and got these for students

Compared to my lee valley veritas spokeshaves, it is a POS. I am rating to counteract the 5 star which I do not think it deserves.

Very por may

I was glad to find some new Record spokeshaves to add to the five old ones used heavily in my school shop. These look just like the old ones. I ordered two.One had an extra large throat, which can be useful as a modification, but isn't supposed to come that way. Then I found that the bed for the blade was so narrow that lateral adjustment was impossible. It took 20 minutes work on the sides with a file to fix it.The other shave seemed fine until I found that one of the blade adjustment nuts was stripped and didn't grab the adjustment screw at all. I found a nut on an old spokeshave that fit the thread but is much smaller, leaves a lot of slack in the adjustment and just looks "wrong." Why should I have to search for parts for a brand new tool?The advantage of these shaves, even after having to fix manufacturing defects, is that the screw cap is substantial, unlike other similar shaves on the market which use stamped out sheet metal. The blade seem properly hardened, not cheap.I'll be keeping these tools because I need them and they should be ok after some attention. Record used to be a good producer of quality tools, many of which, like this spokeshave, were based on excellent Stanley tools from the golden age of metal hand tools. Irwin, which is using the Record name, should do better. Two tools, each with major but different defects. Not good, especially at the price they go for.It would be nice if Irwin Record would offer to replace that bad adjustment screw. I guess they don't read these reviews.