Sharpening a Drawknife

[Derek Cohen]

I've just put this article up on my website. The pictorial uses the method of Curtis Buchanan. Perhaps this may be useful to you ..

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Woodwor...Drawknife.html

Feel free to add your own method or comments.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[steven c newman]

Used to have a 10" Greenlee. It came with a special stone. The idea was to place the left handle into the crook of the left elbow, and grasp the other handle with the left hand. Stone was in the right hand. Just a few swipes along the edge to re-hone the edge. More needed? More swipes with the stone. Mine had a groove worn in it, Shaped like a saucer, too. Didn't take all that long to hone an edge, and back to work.

Then, I went all Norm in the old shop for a few years.......and sold the VERY sharp drawknife away. Been wanting it back ever since..

[Pat Barry]

Derek, thanks for the tips and the thorough documentation of the process. I have a question though about the grinder. It seems scary to me to grind as you have demonstrated with wheel rotating toward the blade. Is there any chance of the blade catching on the grinding wheel and creating a kick-back situation? I have always been a baby and when sharpening my mower blade on the grinder I always put the tip down and grind from the body toward the tip.

[Tony Wilkins]

Nice writeup as always Derek. Do you (or anyone) have any experience/reference of the Peter Galbraith (sp?) drawsharp? It seems to be well advertised lately.

[Graham Haydon]

A well presented method Derek. Not a tool I use very often. For those wanting to see chair making this is worth watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP5_OJxNccY (sorry if you have seen it before). 3:10 shows the grinding method, no honing shown but I would assume a simple whetstone of some kind.

[Mike Holbrook]

I like the Brian Boggs video also on YouTube too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lVMcFjoOL4

Curtis demonstrates one of what I have found to be two major methods for sharpening drawknives. Curtis makes a flat back and hollow ground front bevel on his blades. In my young experience this makes a blade that is great at "splitting" large pieces of green wood from work pieces. Peter Galbert used a similar method on the front of knives he sharpened in the Continuous Arm Windsor Chair course he taught at Highland Woodworking. However, Peter and Seth his assistant favored a slightly rounded edge on the back side of their blades. I found the difference to be greater than I thought it would be.

Peter sharpened one of my knives for me and I was surprised at the difference in how it cut. The difference is not remarkable until one tries to make cuts that go relatively deep into the wood and then back out, turning within a cut. This technique is needed in places where there are curves in which the grain direction changes. Windsor seat edges have several of these areas. It is easy to remove too large a chunk of wood, breaking through the grain that goes the other direction. The flat backed drawknife wants to follow the grain and it is tough to force it to make turns. A little curve on the back side of the drawknife makes it easier to turn it up through grain that might want to move the blade in a counter productive direction.

Curtis's videos of making spindles show how much wood he can remove in a hurry with a drawknife with a flat back. Peter and Seth's blades could make much the same cuts but they were better at making the smaller more technical cuts they used. I was very impressed with the tight turns and smooth polished finishes Peter and Seth were able to make with their drawknives. They were able to do more of the more technical cutting on their chairs with drawknives without having to change to spokeshaves, scrapers, planes, sand paper...The difference is sort of like using a spokeshave with a flat bottom vs one with a curved bottom. The curved bottom spokeshave may take a little longer to master. Once mastered a spokeshave with some curve on the bottom can make most of the cuts a flat bottom shave can and still work the curved surfaces that are tough or impossible to work with the flat bottomed tool.

Brian Boggs's video shows how to sharpen a drawknife with a convex edge on the front/top and a small convex edge on the backside as well. Boggs demonstrates how to sharpen drawknives with diamond and ceramic stones, either locking the stone in a shaving horse/mule or simply taking the stone to the knife.

[bill howes]

Derek
Now that your drawknife is sharp you will need a case to keep it in to protect the edge and you.
spokeshave 2.jpgspokeshave 1.jpg
Then you will need a shavehorse and stand to use it comfortably
shavehorse.jpg
I would agree about the rounded edge. I keep one drawknife sharp like yours for doing the edge of seats and other shaping tasks. The other is less sharp and slightly back honed and this seems to work best when I shape spindles and rough leg blanks where you want to maintain the integrity of (follow) the fibres of the wood along the length of the piece to maintain strength.
chair1.jpg
Sounds like you will be busy
Bill

[Chuck Nickerson]

Do you (or anyone) have any experience/reference of the Peter Galbraith (sp?) drawsharp?

I've been using my DrawSharp for three months or so. It's not a factor in the grinding step, but really helps me in the stoning steps.
When it first came out a number of people here dismissed it as unnecessary, but it's useful in my shop.