Greg Bétit, Crown Point NY
>Do a search for "draw knife" on eBay. You'll get three pages & another page with a search on "drawknife". You can't do much better than getting an old Witherby, Swan, Pexto, Greenlee, Keen Kutter, etc. knife. New ones cost three or more times what you can get a nice one for on eBay. Look for a shiny one with lots of iron left. You'll want to get it scary sharp. Careful with the grinder- you can turn a nice knife into a not so nice one in a hurry. DAMHIKT. Also check the pictures out to make sure a previous owner hasn't already ground the knife incorrectly. Freehand grinding a knife is an art.

For flat and convex surfaces you'll be working mostly bevel up, but for concave ones bevel down is the way to go. A very used drawknife with little iron left is actually an advantage here. I have a nice old one I keep just for the little divots on the sides of shield shaped chair seats; I'll bet it's just the ticket for the transition to the front of the foot of a cabriole leg, as well.

Size matters, too. A 12" or 10" blade is a good general size. If all you're going to be doing is cabriole legs and you're going to only own one draw knife, maybe 8" is better.

greg