About Draw knives

About Draw knives
A draw knife or 2 handed draw knife is commonly used to remove large slices of wood for flat faceted work, debarking trees, or to create roughly rounded or cylindrical billets for further work on a lathe. Drawknives can also shave like a spoke shave plane, where finer finishing is less of concern than a rapid results. A wood working draw knife can also be used for various applications such as: making furniture such as chairs, removing the bark from round logs including didgeridoos and bow making.

peeling logs with a draw knife

peeling logs with a draw knife
When using a drawknife, it’s generally easier to work from the centre of the piece to the end. You then reverse the piece in the shaving horse or vise and work from near centre out to the end again. Once you have removed all of the bark and excess go back over the surface of the object and lightly scrap to remove the high and lows of the surface. If you are making a didgeridoo, you could use a sanding machine to finish the surface. When operated conventionally with the bevel-side upward the drawknife takes deeper cuts. When you first use the draw knife you may have tendency to “dive” (cut unintentionally deep). When using the tool with bevel-side down there is the advantage of removing less stock, but the blade dulls more rapidly, requiring frequent honing.

More about Drawknives

More about Drawknives
Draw Knives were originally called drawing knives because you drew the tool toward you. Drawknives consist of a flat or curved blade made in a variety of sizes. The blade on drawknives is normally chisel-shaped in section and bevel-ground on its front edge. Tangs on the ends are tapered at both ends of the blade are bent at right angles to the cutting edge and are usually fitted with wooden handles.


Who would use a Drawknife?

Who would use a Drawknife?
Drawknives are used in many different trades for the removal of surplus wood and for rounding and chamfering. A Drawknife is included in a group of Viking Shipwright's Tools c. A.D. 100 in the State Historical Museum in Stockholm. Drawknives  were widely used in medieval Russia for smoothing a surface after using the Axe or Adze.



How to use a drawknife

 

Sharpening a drawknife

 

Sharpening a drawknife