Mursell Travisher, an Excellent Tool.

I was surprised to learn that James's travisher was his best selling tool, I had naively assumed that his spokeshaves would be more popular. That was until I used one! It worked superbly both across and with the grain. He sells them as a complete tool or in kit form for about 2/3rds of the price. As I noticed one or two of his well used travishers had a worn nose I decided to buy the kit and inlay a lignum Vitae block.

Here's a couple of shots after initial shaping of the block on the band saw.

The nose needs to be relieved so that the blade can make contact in the hollowed seat and this was done with a medium rasp ( below).

Here are some shots of the finished shave which took about 1 1/2 hours in all to complete.

The instructions say that the shaving exit can be through the top (as recommended) or via the rear. James says the advantage of the top is you can place your thumbs behind the blade for the best control which is certainly the case. I also found that you could see exactly where the shaving was being taken which was very helpful when I came close to the lines. This is a wonderful tool to use and I will be using it on a work shop stool in the near future.