Drawknife
Encyclopedia
Woodworking
Woodworking is the process of building, making or carving something using wood.-History:Along with stone, mud, and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked by early humans. Microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood...
hand tool
Tool
A tool is a device that can be used to produce an item or achieve a task, but that is not consumed in the process. Informally the word is also used to describe a procedure or process with a specific purpose. Tools that are used in particular fields or activities may have different designations such...
used to shape wood by removing shavings. It consists of a blade with a handle at each end. The blade is much longer (along the cutting edge) than it is deep (from cutting edge to back edge). It is pulled or "drawn" (hence the name) toward the user.
The drawknife in the illustration has a blade 23 cm long; much shorter drawknives are also made. The blade is sharpened to a chisel
Chisel
A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal. The handle and blade of some types of chisel are made of metal or wood with a sharp edge in it.In use, the chisel is forced into the material...
bevel
Bevel
A beveled edge refers to an edge of a structure that is not perpendicular to the faces of the piece. The words bevel and chamfer overlap in usage; in general usage they are often interchanged, while in technical usage they may sometimes be differentiated as shown in the image at right.-Cutting...
. Traditionally, it is a rounded, smooth bezel
Bezel
Bezel may refer to:* Bezel setting, or bezel, the rim which encompasses and fastens a jewel, watch crystal, lens or other object* The sloping facets of the crown of a cut gem such as in diamond cutting...
. The handles can be below the level of the blade (as in the illustration) or at the same level.
Purpose
A drawknife is commonly used to remove large slices of wood for flat faceted work, to debark trees, or to create roughly rounded or cylindrical billets for further work on a latheLathe
A lathe is a machine tool which rotates the workpiece on its axis to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, or deformation with tools that are applied to the workpiece to create an object which has symmetry about an axis of rotation.Lathes are used in woodturning,...
, or it can shave like a spokeshave
Spokeshave
A spokeshave is a tool used to shape and smooth wooden rods and shafts - often for use as wheel spokes, chair legs ,, self bows,and arrows. It can also be used to carve canoe paddles.-Modern:...
plane
Plane (tool)
A hand plane is a tool for shaping wood. When powered by electricity, the tool may be called a planer. Planes are used to flatten, reduce the thickness of, and impart a smooth surface to a rough piece of lumber or timber. Planing is used to produce horizontal, vertical, or inclined flat surfaces on...
, where finer finishing is less of concern than a rapid result. The thin blade lends itself to create complex concave or convex curves.
Unlike a spokeshave
Spokeshave
A spokeshave is a tool used to shape and smooth wooden rods and shafts - often for use as wheel spokes, chair legs ,, self bows,and arrows. It can also be used to carve canoe paddles.-Modern:...
it does not have a closed mouth to control chip formation, and so lacks the spokeshave's superior cutting and shaving precision .
They are also a vital piece of equipment in hand-made Cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
bats, being used to shape the curve of the bat.
Blade hardening
A blade found to be too soft as it rapidly loses its cutting edge can be hardened. The blade is heated to red hot (as observed in an indoor room in average Autumn–Spring daylight (not bright)) and immediately quenchQuench
In materials science, quenching is the rapid cooling of a workpiece to obtain certain material properties. It prevents low-temperature processes, such as phase transformations, from occurring by only providing a narrow window of time in which the reaction is both thermodynamically favorable and...
ed rapidly in water, until completely cool to safely handle with hands.
Operation
The drawknife ideally is used when the operator is seated position astride the traditional shave horseShave horse
Shave horses are a combination of vice and workbench, used for green woodworking. A foot-actuated clamp holds the work piece securely against pulling forces, especially as when shaped with a drawknife or spokeshave....
, which safely grips the working stock, and they can also use their legs for additional pulling power.
The ideal working stock has the grain of the wood running parallel to the shavehorse, and perpendicular to the blade of the drawknife—so that the drawknife shaves away the entire wood fibre, not cut against it.
It is best not pulled with blade perfectly perpendicular
Perpendicular
In geometry, two lines or planes are considered perpendicular to each other if they form congruent adjacent angles . The term may be used as a noun or adjective...
to the wood stock, but pulled slightly upward toward them in a skew
Skew
Skew may refer to:In mathematics:* Skew lines, lines that are neither parallel nor intersecting* Skew-symmetric matrix, a square matrix whose transpose is also its negative...
ed (blade at a slight diagonal
Diagonal
A diagonal is a line joining two nonconsecutive vertices of a polygon or polyhedron. Informally, any sloping line is called diagonal. The word "diagonal" derives from the Greek διαγώνιος , from dia- and gonia ; it was used by both Strabo and Euclid to refer to a line connecting two vertices of a...
) or slithering fashion, aiming not to take off as much wood as possible, but gradually "shave" the work: The operator gently levers the blade to "bite" into the wood and then controls the depth of the cut by raising or lowering the handle
Handle (grip)
A handle is a part of, or attachment to, an object that can be moved or used by hand. The design of each type of handle involves substantial ergonomic issues, even where these are dealt with intuitively or by following tradition...
s as he pulls the drawknife.
Straight cuts
One works from the centre of the piece to the end, not the entire length all at once. The operator then reverses the piece in the shavehorse or viceVice
Vice is a practice or a behavior or habit considered immoral, depraved, or degrading in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a defect, an infirmity, or merely a bad habit. Synonyms for vice include fault, depravity, sin, iniquity, wickedness, and corruption...
and works from near centre to trim the "fatter" end to match the centre and just finished original "skinny" end. Final work can be done by spokeshave, sanding block or lathe.
- When operated conventionally, that is blade bevel-side upward the drawknife takes deeper cuts and some noviceNoviceA novice is a person or creature who is new to a field or activity. The term is most commonly applied in religion and sports.-Buddhism:In many Buddhist orders, a man or woman who intends to take ordination must first become a novice, adopting part of the monastic code indicated in the vinaya and...
s may find it has a tendency to "dive" (cut unintentionally deep). - When operated bevel-side down there is the advantage of removing less stock, but the blade dulls more rapidly, requiring frequent honingHoningHoning may refer to:* Honing , machining a surface by scrubbing an abrasive stone against it* Sharpening edged tools with a manual hone* Henkjan Honing , Dutch musician* Honing, Norfolk, English village* Playing Heroes of Newerth...
.
Convex
The operator applies little leverage from centre and most leverage, so the blade "bites" deeper, thus removing more wood as they approach the end grain.Concave
The operator applies minimal, then most, then least force on the handles from centre toward the end grain. The work stock is reversed and same method repeated this time commencing a tiny distance away from centre so as to leave a coarse raised section. The coarse raised section where the two concave curves meet can be finished with a raspRasp
A rasp is a tool used for shaping wood or other material. It consists of a point or the tip, then a long steel bar or the belly, then the heel or bottom, then the tang. The tang is joined to a handle, usually made of plastic or wood. The bar has sharp teeth...
, file
File (tool)
A file is a metalworking and woodworking tool used to cut fine amounts of material from a workpiece. It most commonly refers to the hand tool style, which takes the form of a steel bar with a case hardened surface and a series of sharp, parallel teeth. Most files have a narrow, pointed tang at one...
, spokeshave or other tool.
Splitting
For very rapid and rough removal of stock, blade is drawn toward user and rapidly levered into the wood to make as deep a cut as possible. The operator immediately stops pulling, and uses the drawknife blade to lever upward so as to "flick" the splinter or splice out of the worked piece. This technique is advanced and may damage the worked piece and drawknife blade if due care is not observed.Traditionally, the waste shavings are used for basket-weaving, which are particularly durable or for kindling
Kindling
Kindling is a term to describe small pieces of wood and twigs used to start a fire.Kindling may also refer to:* Kindling, a 1915 film directed by Cecil B...
. The shavings make excellent compost
Compost
Compost is organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment. Compost is a key ingredient in organic farming. At its most essential, the process of composting requires simply piling up waste outdoors and waiting for the materials to break down from anywhere...
and plant bed material.
Large drawknives can be used to dress log
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
s, and small sizes for carving and shaving. A common use of a drawknife is to create a roughly cylindrical billet of wood for turning on a pole lathe.
Fifty million tent
Tent
A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or attached to a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs...
-pegs were manufactured in the UK throughout the Second World War via drawknife method, with as little as 18 draws completing a piece from tree cut log, to peg.