diff --git a/lib/simple_oauth/header.rb b/lib/simple_oauth/header.rb
index 422c9dd..16aa6e4 100644
--- a/lib/simple_oauth/header.rb
+++ b/lib/simple_oauth/header.rb
@@ -6,33 +6,43 @@ require 'cgi'
 module SimpleOAuth
   class Header
     ATTRIBUTE_KEYS = [:callback, :consumer_key, :nonce, :signature_method, :timestamp, :token, :verifier, :version] unless defined? ::SimpleOAuth::Header::ATTRIBUTE_KEYS
-
-    def self.default_options
-      {
-        :nonce => OpenSSL::Random.random_bytes(16).unpack('H*')[0],
-        :signature_method => 'HMAC-SHA1',
-        :timestamp => Time.now.to_i.to_s,
-        :version => '1.0'
-      }
-    end
-
-    def self.encode(value)
-      uri_parser.escape(value.to_s, /[^a-z0-9\-\.\_\~]/i)
-    end
-
-    def self.decode(value)
-      uri_parser.unescape(value.to_s)
-    end
-
-    def self.parse(header)
-      header.to_s.sub(/^OAuth\s/, '').split(/,\s*/).inject({}) do |attributes, pair|
-        match = pair.match(/^(\w+)\=\"([^\"]*)\"$/)
-        attributes.merge(match[1].sub(/^oauth_/, '').to_sym => decode(match[2]))
-      end
-    end
-
     attr_reader :method, :params, :options
 
+    class << self
+      def default_options
+        {
+          :nonce => OpenSSL::Random.random_bytes(16).unpack('H*')[0],
+          :signature_method => 'HMAC-SHA1',
+          :timestamp => Time.now.to_i.to_s,
+          :version => '1.0'
+        }
+      end
+
+      def parse(header)
+        header.to_s.sub(/^OAuth\s/, '').split(/,\s*/).inject({}) do |attributes, pair|
+          match = pair.match(/^(\w+)\=\"([^\"]*)\"$/)
+          attributes.merge(match[1].sub(/^oauth_/, '').to_sym => decode(match[2]))
+        end
+      end
+
+      def escape(value)
+        uri_parser.escape(value.to_s, /[^a-z0-9\-\.\_\~]/i)
+      end
+      alias encode escape
+
+      def unescape(value)
+        uri_parser.unescape(value.to_s)
+      end
+      alias decode unescape
+
+    private
+
+      def uri_parser
+        @uri_parser ||= URI.const_defined?(:Parser) ? URI::Parser.new : URI
+      end
+
+    end
+
     def initialize(method, url, params, oauth = {})
       @method = method.to_s.upcase
       @uri = URI.parse(url.to_s)
@@ -65,11 +75,7 @@ module SimpleOAuth
       attributes.merge(:oauth_signature => signature)
     end
 
-    private
-
-    def self.uri_parser
-      @uri_parser ||= URI.const_defined?(:Parser) ? URI::Parser.new : URI
-    end
+  private
 
     def normalized_attributes
       signed_attributes.sort_by{|k,v| k.to_s }.map{|k,v| %(#{k}="#{self.class.encode(v)}") }.join(', ')
diff --git a/spec/simple_oauth/header_spec.rb b/spec/simple_oauth/header_spec.rb
index ce7070a..466a6e3 100644
--- a/spec/simple_oauth/header_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/simple_oauth/header_spec.rb
@@ -22,29 +22,29 @@ describe SimpleOAuth::Header do
     end
   end
 
-  describe ".encode" do
-    it "encodes (most) non-word characters" do
+  describe ".escape" do
+    it "escapes (most) non-word characters" do
       [' ', '!', '@', '#', '$', '%', '^', '&'].each do |character|
-        encoded = SimpleOAuth::Header.encode(character)
-        expect(encoded).not_to eq character
-        expect(encoded).to eq uri_parser.escape(character, /.*/)
+        escaped = SimpleOAuth::Header.escape(character)
+        expect(escaped).not_to eq character
+        expect(escaped).to eq uri_parser.escape(character, /.*/)
       end
     end
 
-    it "does not encode - . or ~" do
+    it "does not escape - . or ~" do
       ['-', '.', '~'].each do |character|
-        encoded = SimpleOAuth::Header.encode(character)
-        expect(encoded).to eq character
+        escaped = SimpleOAuth::Header.escape(character)
+        expect(escaped).to eq character
       end
     end
 
     def self.test_special_characters
-      it "encodes non-ASCII characters" do
-        expect(SimpleOAuth::Header.encode('é')).to eq '%C3%A9'
+      it "escapes non-ASCII characters" do
+        expect(SimpleOAuth::Header.escape('é')).to eq '%C3%A9'
       end
 
-      it "encodes multibyte characters" do
-        expect(SimpleOAuth::Header.encode('あ')).to eq '%E3%81%82'
+      it "escapes multibyte characters" do
+        expect(SimpleOAuth::Header.escape('あ')).to eq '%E3%81%82'
       end
     end
 
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ describe SimpleOAuth::Header do
     end
   end
 
-  describe ".decode" do
+  describe ".unescape" do
     pending
   end
 
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ describe SimpleOAuth::Header do
       expect(normalized_attributes).to eq 'a="4", b="3", c="2", d="1"'
     end
 
-    it "url-encodes its values" do
+    it "URI encodes its values" do
       header.stub(:signed_attributes => {1 => '!', 2 => '@', 3 => '#', 4 => '$'})
       expect(normalized_attributes).to eq '1="%21", 2="%40", 3="%23", 4="%24"'
     end
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ describe SimpleOAuth::Header do
       expect(secret).to eq 'CONSUMER_SECRET&TOKEN_SECRET'
     end
 
-    it "URL encodes each secret value before combination" do
+    it "URI encodes each secret value before combination" do
       header.stub(:options => {:consumer_secret => 'CONSUM#R_SECRET', :token_secret => 'TOKEN_S#CRET'})
       expect(secret).to eq 'CONSUM%23R_SECRET&TOKEN_S%23CRET'
     end
@@ -276,7 +276,7 @@ describe SimpleOAuth::Header do
       expect(signature_base).to eq 'METHOD&URL&NORMALIZED_PARAMS'
     end
 
-    it "URL encodes each value before combination" do
+    it "URI encodes each value before combination" do
       header.stub(:method => 'ME#HOD', :url => 'U#L', :normalized_params => 'NORMAL#ZED_PARAMS')
       expect(signature_base).to eq 'ME%23HOD&U%23L&NORMAL%23ZED_PARAMS'
     end