Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Draw Knife
Bill Schreiber, Litchfield NH
>All,
We have been cleaning out my father-in-law's house, and I ran across a draw knife. I know he worked as a lumber jack in Canada in the late 40s early 50s and it must be from that time period. It is really a beautiful old tool.
My question: how do you sharpen a curved shape like that? Free hand with a sharpening stone seems the most likely, but I was wondering what the rest of you do.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Regards,
Bill Schreiber
Re: Draw Knife
Dave Anderson Chester, NH
>Hi Bill- The simplest way I know without making any purchases of stones, grinders, etc is to take a bit of sandpaper and wrap it around a block of wood, angle it appropriately, and sharpen away. Depending on the condition of the cutting edge vary your starting grit for maximum efficiencies. Any questions, give me a call tonite at home.
Re: Drawknife holder
Dave Mount
>I made a simple holder for my drawknives to hold them while sharpening. I cut a kerf in the face of a piece of 2x4 at the desired bevel angle (relative to the horizontal). Make the kerf wide enough that the blade of the knife will slip down into it, but not so far that the cutting edge will sink below. Clamp that in or on your bench, then use a stone or sandpaper on a block to sharpen.
Besides holding an otherwise awkward piece stationary while you sharpen, this also gives you a good reference for the bevel angle, in that you just hold the stone/sanding block parallel to the benchtop. The angle changes a little around the curve in the blade, but it's not significant. Small differences from drawknife to drawknife may require a dedicated block for each knife, just depends.
Next stop: shaving horse. All aboard!
Dave
Re: Draw Knife
Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA
>There was a thread on this a while back. You might search on "drawknife."
Re: Draw Knife
Bob Hackett
>The easiest way I`ve found is to hold one handle under your chim and play the thing like a fiddle using the stone or abrasive wrapped block as a bow.
The best part about this is you don`t even have to get up off the shaving horse if you keep the stone of choice within grabbing distance.
Mainely,Bob
Re: Draw Knife
George Huron
>For grinding, I clamp a belt sander into my bench vise upside down, then hold both handles of the drawknife with the blade bevel down and the sharp side facing upstream of the belt as it moves (haven't cut an 80 grit belt yet). I hone the edge from both the flat and beveled sides of the edge using medium then fine stones using the fiddle method discribed by another poster in this thread.
Re: Draw Knife
Ron Smith
>My draw-knife happens to have a large groove running the length of the blade. I place a short length of appropriate diameter dowel in this groove, lay a diamond stone on the dowel and sweep back and forth to form, and sharpen the bevel side. Move to a slightly laarger dowel to hit the 'micro'bevel' if I wish. I havent thought it through, but it seems one could use a small, fitted, block of wood in this manner to hold a perfect sharpening angle for most blade configurations.
Re: Draw Knife
George Huron
>One reason I like grinding a drawknife freehand is that I use it bevel down and rub the bevel against the wood then change the angle to where the blade takes a shaving. If the bevel were hollow ground, then I feel some measure of control is lost since the blade geometry is such that you are either cutting or not cutting with no real control mechanism. The curved bevel allows for steering if you will. A flat bevel or a hollow ground bevel do not allow for this. Now, granted it is more difficult to grind free hand, but it allows me to shape the bevel. I also believe that it is a skill that is manageable to learn.