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I Forge Iron

Forged drawknife for my Grandfather WIP


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I was visiting my Grandfather a few weeks ago and he mentioned wanting to make some axe handles and that he was having a hard time finding a decent drawknife. He'd picked up one at a farm auction a while back but it was missing handles and wouldn't take an edge.

After examining the one he had I concluded that the blade was too worn to warrant reforging so I found a blueprint (thanks to Jay F. Knowlton for putting it together) online for making a drawknife dug up a rusty file out of my scrap pile and forged him a new one. I'm not quite done with the file work yet, once that's finished I'll heat treat and make some wooden handles to go on it.

post-19494-0-45972100-1319690011_thumb.j

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I believe the blueprint shows a fullered groove going the length of the blade. I think it would be hard to do without a striker.Also, is a groove that necessary?
It spreads the metal so less is needed but the cost of the extra metal is insignificant and the fuller is time consuming to make. Is that why you did not make the fullered groove?

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I tried fullering that groove by myself with a chisel style fuller and ended up making a mess. The leftover marks from that little experiment are hiding on the back side of the blade.

After examining some historical and modern draw knives I've come to the conclusion that groove is optional. I think that it's more about reducing the overall thickness of the metal so there's less area to file/grind when sharpening, but that's just a guess.

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it is very importent for the use that the blade is very smooth on the back side and a tiny tiny bit convex


I nearly never use my drawknives with the backside toward the wood so this would be totally unimportant to me. A good bevel and fairly sharp edge is quite important. Because the cuts are splitting and shaving with the grain cuts the sharpness need not be quite as critical as for other carving tools and a secondary bevel is undesirable. I like the look of the one that you've made. I don't see how long the cutting edge is though and that is important IME... I like a blade with 10 inches or more of cutting edge... it allows me to skew the blade where I want to make finishing cuts. A sturdy control of the angle of attack is very important and your knife looks nice there.

I agree that there is no need for a groove. More commonly manufactured models have a thicker rib toward the back of the blade. This adds stiffness but also can get in the way of scooping cuts such as axe handle shavers would often be making. Sometimes you'll see old handmade drawknives with the back edge rounded over to make those scooping cuts easier. Use the blade bevel down (toward the wood) for best results. To avoid marring the work the transition from the bevel to the flat of the blade should be softly rounded... this also gives better control of the cut depth.
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DClaville & bigfootnampa, thank you both for posting! I've never used a drawknife myself. Based on what both of you have said it sounds like I've got a bit more finishing work left to do than I thought but it's worth the extra effort if the finished product works better.

Mark, I didn't take measurements on the file before I started in on it. Due to the taper at the end of the file I was only able to sneak about 6 1/2" of workable blade. Smaller than I wanted but hopefully it'll work for my Grandfather. If not, I suppose I could try making another one with mild steel handles welded on if I can find another source of tool steel.

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Freeman,first off,this is such a Worthwhile project in general that it (almost) don't even matter how "nice" it'll come out in the end.
The reason i think that is that the tool use,the passing on of skill from one generation to the next,and even the very contact,communication,inter-generationally,are all so precarious nowadays,that the very Idea of what you're doing is wonderful,right ON!!!

In practice,a drwaknife can simply be a strip,rectangular in section,with a cutting edge(and the modern ones are,for most part).

The old ones,made by the mass-producing companies of 1800's(such as Miller Falls,say) are Nicer,(as you've noticed),and it has to do with a few things:They were then closer to the hand-made ones,by people that Really Knew.Also,they were selling them to many that still,then,Knew :)

What Clay said about using one is Very valuable(and well put),i'm very glad that you heard him.

I'd like to particularly commend your attempt to forge in a groove,good job,very good forging ethics to attempt something even if you can't get there yet.But that groove was there in part to reduce friction when using bevel-down(very common,just as Clay says).

Well,i've not much of substance to add,it's all been discussed by now.Maybe that the finishing needs not be intimidating:File the back level,and sharpen,later,in re-dressing,the tool and the owner will find the equillibrium of necessary shape themselves,by means of the routine maintenance.

Also,the leaf-spring can provide decent stock for one,and not be so limited in size.

If you were to take this far enough,look up making and using a Sen,it'll really help in the levelling of sharpenable surfaces.

Again,good on you,respect for your effort in this,and the best of luck.

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