re: spokeshaves

Round vs flat bottom

I've never found round bottom spokeshaves all that useful.  Flat ones seem
to fair most of the gentle curves I make.  Round bottom ones help with very
tight radius concave curves I suppose, but then the changing grain
direction causes problems. My advice for newbies would be to ignore the
round bottom shaves and stick to flat bottom ones to start with.
  Even better, find an old wooden boxwood shave that still has some blade
left and learn how to sharpen it with a diamond paddle hone. They're
fantastic tools.
Cheers
Claudio