A teeny little drawknife I made

[george wilson]

These are some quick shots in the afternoon light of a little French style drawknife I made back in about 1970. It has seen a lot of use,as you can tell.

The actual cutting edge is only 4".The whole length of the blade is 6 1/4".The handles are Turkish boxwood. The ferrules are just 3/8" dia. model brass tubing.

I made this before I had any metal working equipment. The blade was sawn out of 1/2" X 3/32" 01 or W1 tool steel.I can't recall which. The arches were bent into the arms of the blade while it was still soft.. The bevel was filed on,then it was hardened with a propane torch. The soft tangs come out of the fat ends of the handles,and are bent over. Some of the blue temper remains on the arms. I advise drawing something this small blue,so it doesn't snap.

Anyone could make a similar tool without fancy equipment,just as I did this one. I used it a lot on violin necks.

[Berl Mendenhall]

That is a beautiful tool. This is the reason we love those old tool designs. Compare a commercial saw handle with those old beauties. No contest. There are some tool makers who feel the same way as most of us and are making real works of art. I can't get enough of these type tools. George, I don't know what I could say about your work that hasn't already been said other than beautiful.

Berl

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

Very nicely done, George!

Bruce

[Brian Kent]

The blade just looks so inviting. I bet it's a wonderfully accurate tool. How do you saw O1 or W1 tool steel? Hack saw before hardening?

[george wilson]

Yes,it arrives soft. You can saw and file it. Then you harden and temper it. That tool was strictly made by hand,except for the wood lathe.

[David Gendron]

Again, It is realy nice work! It seems that we always like hand made tools or furniture better than machine or comercialy made stuff!!! Anyway, I do!

[george wilson]

David,the sad fact is that most commercial designers cannot design their way out of a paper bag. It isn't just because a better design might be harder to make. It's sheer lack of good design background.

Most commercial furniture could be designed so much better. The junk that most stores sell is just a conglomeration of poor decisions. And I'll bet if you went to a commercial furniture factory,and offered to improve their designs,they'd tell you that they think they are doing just fine. That's because,as always,poor organisations start at the top.

I know a so called 'industrial designer." Her work is so incredibly boring,yet,she really thinks she is the greatest. She has never reacted to any of my work. She's too egotistical to say anything positive,though all she designs is tourist trinkets. She can get all excited about a plastic key fob with a dolphin outline on it. Looks like it would come out of a gumball machine.

She makes drawings that specify measurements to a ten thousanth of an inch,because she has no concept of what trouble it would be to make it. they always want it as cheap as possible,too. When I ask her boss(I sometimes make their prototypes) about the absurd dimensions,he says "Oh,ignore that." It really gets under my skin. Most of the time,I turn down their work. I don't need the aggravation. End of rant.

[Mike Cutler]

George

That's a nice looking, obviously very functional, tool you made. Well done.

I'll say it again, you really need to catalog the work you have done through the years.

[Dave Anderson NH]

George, you are cracking me up with your comments about designers and tolerancing. I have to deal with this constantly in my day job when some idiot designs a rubber or sponge gasket with hole tolerances to +/-.001" and then wants it die cut. The commercial tolerance on the standard punches for a steel rule die is +/-.002". In fairness though, most of us can be just as anal about our tolerancing when we work wood.

That's a really nice drawknife and I'd love to know where you got the Turkish Boxwood. It's so much harder and more stable than the native stuff. I have my G-G-G grandfather's small James Swan which is either 4" or 5", but more in the standard pattern and with the rather pedestrian mystery wood (probably beech) handles.

[Jeff Willard]

Nice shoes.

[george wilson]

Dave,the boxwood was bought in 1970 from Unicorn lumber in Canada,Toronto,I think.

Jeff,those shoes are wearing out,but I can't find any others that are more comfortable.I have tarsal tunnel in both feet,and it can be terrible.It can come on when I am in a recliner,with shooting pains up the legs,and there is no way to get away from it.

I have some $300.00 shoes with $300.00 orthopedic pads in them,but the shoes weigh a ton. So,since retiring,I've gone back to my old ones.

[David Gendron]

George I don't know if you mantion it some where but I was woundering, for how long have you been doing the tools, guitars, furniture thing for?

[george wilson]

David,I started trying to make guitars in 1954,when I was 13. Since I had hardly any tools,I soon got into making them.

When I came to Col. Williamsburg in 1970,my need for authentic 18th.C. tools compelled me to get even more into making them. I was given a room with bare walls,and had to make everything from shelving to workbenches to start out. I was very busy in the first few years just getting the shop presentable,making the large harpsichord,and other instruments for the music teacher's shop,as well as for my own.I worked like crazy,and did get a lot done.

[Bob Haverstock]

George,

I really enjoyed seeing the drawknife. It is very timely for me that you posted it. I like playing with hot pointy iron. I've been asked to do an edge tool forging demomstration for a local historical group. I had already desided on a curved blade draw knife. I should have a shoe box full of them by November's demo.

Thanks,
Bob

[george wilson]

Are they full sized,or miniature drawknives,Bob?

[Bob Haverstock]

George,

I had to go back and read the posts again, I think that I'm the only Bob that posted.

I will keep the blade to six inches or shorter. I'm sure that in forging the cutting edge, I will incure some twisting. I don't want to get hung up for 20 minutes trying to fix an OOPS, so the blades will be short.

I got to practice turning the handles, The wood will be common to Illinois.

Not every person who attends a demo is really interested in that exact project, but most are interested in the various techiques. It will be a hammer and anvil thing, no flypress or trip hammer. Yes, I guess it will be kind of a Neander thing.

BTW, George, I was given a bunch of VCR tapes. One of them was a Roy Underhill tape on planes (1982). Did I see one of your beautiful brass bodied planes from the music shop in Roy's hand?

Bob

[george wilson]

Hi,Bob.I have no idea about the brass plane in the VCR. Roy did do a show in the instrument shop,but it was many years ago.I can't remember what we covered.

[Bob Haverstock]

Thanks to George for his inspiration, I've start making a small draw knife.

I've got a good start, and a ways to go. The handles are scrap walnut.

Bob Haverstock

[george wilson]

Bob,it is good to see that you have made something from inspiration. That is actually the best outcome from having posted something.