Youtube Drawknife Request

[Tom Leemans]

I do bark removal and most of the sap wood with the bevel up. I flip it over for finer shavings, like a spoke shave. You just have to get used to doing it.

Dano - Were you holding your tongue right?

[Dano]

Prolly not Tom 

[wodpow]

I always have used my Draw knife bevel down so I can use the bevel for leverage to force the cutting edge up and out of a deep diving cut. .Flat side down you don't have the bevel to fulcrum the edge back up and  out of a diving cut it will just stop the cut . flat side up lets you rock the knife on the bevel and have  more control of the blades cutting angle. If it starts to do a diving cut you just twist the handles up as you pull back and pull it out of a dive my tool s are all razor sharp I use red metal polishing compound and leather .

[Kirkll]

I always have used my Draw knife bevel down so I can use the bevel for leverage to force the cutting edge up and out of a deep diving cut. .Flat side down you don't have the bevel to fulcrum the edge back up and  out of a diving cut it will just stop the cut . flat side up lets you rock the knife on the bevel and have  more control of the blades cutting angle. If it starts to do a diving cut you just twist the handles up as you pull back and pull it out of a dive my tool s are all razor sharp I use red metal polishing compound and leather .

this sounds just like the way experienced carpenter uses a sharp chisel for mortising. 

amazingly enough i read in TBB where one of the masters uses a dull draw knife to remove sapwood. he explained how there was a difference in sound that the softer wood makes as the dull blade crushes the fibers rather than actually cutting them. he'd use that to get the majority of the softer wood down to the heart ring he was after, then used a scraper to remove the rest.

i gotta admidt... i never had much use for blades that weren't really sharp myself..... Kirk

[Dano]

Kirk, with all your experience, you oghta show us how to use the drawknife. Have ya found it yet?

[kcbrown]

 I use it bevel down, it is just too aggressive with it up. I stand it straight up and do some scraping but finish tiller with a red devil scaper.

[wodpow]

 most times when i cut the sap wood down to heart wood on a Osage stave the sound and feel are hampered  by the wood being wet but thats when you can really do some easy bark  sap wood removal with a sharp draw knife . Dry osage wood will make the sound I love  like a whistling  that will stop when you hit winter growth when I hear that crunch I move on and work down slowly tilI I hit it again after about a foot of that I break out the  big sawzall blade with the back edge sharpened with a file and get personal with the growth rings.