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A spokeshave is a tool used to straighten and smooth wooden rods and shafts, often for use as wheel spokes or arrows. Spokeshaves usually include one or more sharpened notches along which the wooden shaft is pulled in order to shave it down to the proper diameter. Historically, spokeshaves were made of metal. However, prehistoric spokeshaves were made of stone. In archeology, the term spokeshave is used to describe a tool, usually a uniface, that has at least one retouched lunate notch in one edge. In a sense, the term is a descriptive "catch-all" category, since it is difficult to determine if this was actually the way in which such a tool was used; the categorization is based entirely on the appearance of the tool.
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