Carver's Drawknife

[Herman Trivilino]

Found an old carver's drawknife in a box of tools my Dad used to own.  It shows lots of evidence of repeated microbeveling.  The blade is 10" long and less than 3/4" wide.  There's no distinct blade, the metal bar has just been ground to a sharp edge on one side only.

The handles are perpendicular to the blade.  I did some searching and found that 25^o is an angle recommended by one sharpener.  Does that sound right to you?

And here's a curious thing.  The round wooden handles have flat spots on the same side.  On the same side as the side you grind the bevel on.  The handles have lots of nicks and gouges, but the flat spots seem to have a bit fewer of them.  Same patina, though.  Anybody have a clue as to what that's all about?

[nobby1967]

May be flat spots on handle to register in hand to a certain use.

[Ken S]

Herman, the two guys who 1)are well known and 2) (probably more important) are very experienced in the use of the drawknife are Michael Dunbar and Brian Boggs.  Both are very accomplished chairmakers, however, they work in different styles. 
Both have made their livings using tools like drawknives.  I would suggest you google both.

Christopher Schwarz talks about the drawknife in his book The Anarchist's Toolchest.  (Don't be put off by the title; Chris explains his choice of title in the book.  By the way, this book is also on my "should have" list.)

Keep growing and keep posting.

Ken

[Herman Trivilino]

Thank for the info, Ken.  I'll look into it.

I was cleaning the drawknife last night and noticed that there is a blade, or rather what I found are the remnants of a blade.  On each end of it I could see that about 1/8" of blade is left sticking out.  I think this tool has had it. Maybe a wall decoration is all it's good for now.