Renovating a Drawknife

[mudman]

As I've posted elsewhere, I've been bringing some old mortice chisels back to life. As part of this process I'm going to have to make some new handles for them so I decided as a break from back-flattening, I thought I'd get the old drawknife that had been stuck in a draw for a year or so since I bought it off eBay.

Looking at it I realised that the rust pitting was pretty bad and that this may take a while (Sorry no photo at this point). However armed with my new x-coarse/coarse DMT stone, I went at the back with some gusto.

You can see from what's left of the middle the sort of state it was originally in.

I had a good couple of hours of this last night and as I've taken the day off today, I decided to get it finished.
Unfortunately the pitting along the edge is very deep in a couple of places and to remove it completely would be a soul-destroyinly long task. So, as the middle 6 inches or so was now in a pretty good state...

...apart from one tenacious little pit:

I decided that this would be good enough.

I then started on the bevel.

The bevel was a single bevel at an angle of about 20 degrees. I think that this is probably too slight for decent edge retention and to also minimise the amount of metal to be removed, I freehanded the DMT to put a secondary bevel of about 30 degrees on it. This I refined with a 1000 waterstone slip followed by a 4000 and finished off with a rub from an arkansas slip. You can just see it in this shot:

Then it was time to try it out on an old piece of oak I had lying about:

It works lovely. It actually leaves an acceptable finish on the wood if you take thin shavings and I'm looking forwards to trying it out properly when I start on the chisel handles.

I cleaned up the handles with some Briwax and I now have a really nice tool that works very well and that I'm well chuffed to have rescued and brough back to life.

It's nice to bring these old tools back to life you seem to feel a sort of connection with the previous generations of woodworkers who used these tools before you.

Was wondering how old this tool might be and found this on the Old Tool Archive:

• Greaves, Isaac
  Scotland St. -1825-1833-
  Broad Street Lane -1837-1900-

Here

So it is over a hundred years old and possibly as old as 182! :shock: I wonder what its life story would be?

 

[George_N]

Nice one Barry, it looks like a good tool. I've never used a deaw knife, so I'll be interested to see how you get on with it. I'm currently following the other thread on re-handling chisels using Alf's method of shaping the blank into an octagonal cross-section, with a block plane. What sort of shape are you aiming for with the drawknife (presumably for roughing out the shape before other tools are used).

 

[mr]

So it is over a hundred years old and possibly as old as 182! :shock: I wonder what its life story would be?

It's odd that as I get older this aspect of an old tool becomes increasingly important to me. If that drawknife is 180 years old - think of the hands that it passed through on its way to yours, the wood that has been shaved away by its blade. It almost demands attention from you doesn't it. It's probably something to do with getting nearer to the end of ones life and beginning to appreciate the things that carry on and carry a bit of ones self with them as they do. And on that note and before I disappear up me own bum I shall away
nice knife by the way

Cheers Mike

 

[Philly]

Well done, Barry!
Glad to see you got this old thing working well. As has been said, it gives a feeling of pride to keep these tools alive.
best regards
Philly

 

[mudman]

Thanks all, it has been a pleasure to get it into a state where it can do the job it was made for. I've just made it a nice leather jacket (okay a bit of leather tied around it) to keep it safe and warm.

Mike, I understand exactly what you mean. When you use an old tool, you can't help but wonder what sort of person used it before it came your way? What was it used to make? What was the path that brought it from Sheffield to South Wales? Was it used by a bodger in the woods around Wycombe or perhaps by someone making tent pegs even? I know these are things that I can never know but it is nice to ponder these things whilst using it and appreciate the craftsmanship that went into making a tool that can still be used over a hundred years after it was forged.

Ooh, I've gone all philosophical. Anyone else get affected like this?

 

[Alf]

You do realise all this misty-eyed wondering about a tool's history and that feeling of pride at putting it back to work are signs of taking a dangerous turning on The Slope towards fully-fledged Galootdom, don'tcha? Just thought I'd warn you...

Proper job, Barry. =D>

Cheers, Alf

 

[MikeW]

Ah Barry--what a wonderful knife restoration.

Great set of pictures describing how you brought that wonderful tool a new lease on life. It's a nice looking drawknife. Thanks for posting about it.

Take care, Mike

 

[Denis]

Ooh, I've gone all philosophical. Anyone else get affected like this?

Sure

I've been thinking abut these things lately, since taking up woodworking a couple of months ago...

And since you asked, here is how I feel about this:

I guess that from a certain point of view, it could be said that amateur woodworking is just another manifestation of "mid-life crisis".

Middle-aged men usually get two kinds of reaction to this crisis - some start chasing young girls and/or buying sports cars ("I want to REALLY taste life before I die"), and others start making things/art/whatever ("I want to leave my mark on the world, something that will be there once I'm gone").
I guess us woodworkers fall into the second category

You realize you're not immortal, and suddenly you start paying attention to things you never noticed or thought about before. You become interested in things that were man-made (as opposed to being mass-produced by machines), and learn to appreciate craftsmanship. Makes you realize that a well-made tool or a piece of furniture is bound to outlive you

And if something you made yourself is appreciated by others, you feel like you "made your mark in this world".

Another aspect is the pure satisfaction in having made something yourself - from start to finish. Today we live in a consumerist society where things are not built to last. Add to that the fact that many of us have jobs which leave us no sense of achievement, in which the end product is not material, something that can be shown, something that has a "soul", and you have all the ingredients of the modern dehumanizing society that leaves us unfulfilled and empty.

In short, for me woodworking is a kind of magic, and satisfies me on several levels:

1) it provides me with instant "psychotherapeutic" relief once the day job in front of the computer gets too much to bear: I just go to the garage, plane whatever offcut is at hand, smell the wood, touch the smooth surface, and in 20 minutes I'm much calmer and feel a lot better. A kind of "physical meditation", if you want. The end (material) result in this case is not really relevant - it's the work that's liberating.

2) It gives me a sense of purpose and control. In my day job I'm a freelance translator, and the result of my day job is not material (i.e. not something you can show others and say "See, I made that"), and is usually just a source of frustration, trying to cope with underskilled, underpaid outsourced subcontractors scattered around the world
It's an endless battle

My woodworking hobby is a total opposite - I'm responsible both for design and the manufacture. Everything depends on me and my skill. I start with a piece of wood, and the possibilities are endless - limited only by my skill and imagination. It's very rewarding and fulfilling.

3) Back to mid-age crisis
When you make something you're pleased with, and which is appreciated and/or admired by others, you get a sense of achievement and purpose - a reward that usually eludes us in our daily lives. The end result (be it a tool or a piece of furniture, or just a nice jewelry box) is something permanent, made to last - and if properly taken care of (i.e. if properly appreciated), it will probably outlive you. And, no matter how imperfect the "end product" is, it was made with love, by hand, it has a "soul" - compared to mass-produced plastic, it almost has magical properties.
Thus, you've earned your little piece of immortality.

BTW, there's something wonderful I stumbled upon a few weeks ago, which made me think and rethink these "philosophical" aspects of woodworking and life in general
It was probably the inspiration for this philosophical outburst which was germinating in my head for a while, just waiting for the proper opportunity to be released upon the unsuspecting public...
Here's the link:
http://uk.geocities.com/sapele_bench/

Some very insightful thoughts, quite in line with my ramblings above.

PS: from my what I've said above, you'd thought I'm some kind of woodworking guru, a master of the craft - I'm nothing like that. I haven't made anything worth showing yet - my total output so far consists of a few handmade tools (marking gauges, couple of wooden mallets, an ugly plane), and two or three crude boxes I'd be ashamed to show in public. But I'm working on it, and will (hopefully) get better. At least I think I have the right attitude

I guess you got more "philosophy" than you asked for, eh?

Regards,

Denis

 

[bugbear]

If you're keen on doing drawknify things, you mind find these two suggestions helpful:

http://home.rochester.rr.com/dmatthews/shavepony/

http://www.geocities.com/plybench/tour.html#vise_stick

BugBear

 

[mudman]

If you're keen on doing drawknify things, you mind find these two suggestions helpful:

http://home.rochester.rr.com/dmatthews/shavepony/

http://www.geocities.com/plybench/tour.html#vise_stick

BugBear

Thanks Bugbear, I've seen those links and guess I need to make something along those lines. That shavepony looks especially useful.

 

[mudman]

You do realise all this misty-eyed wondering about a tool's history and that feeling of pride at putting it back to work are signs of taking a dangerous turning on The Slope towards fully-fledged Galootdom, don'tcha? Just thought I'd warn you...

Proper job, Barry. =D>

Cheers, Alf

Hmm, maybe you are right. :?
I had the feeling that the slope seemed a bit bumpy these days.
Wonder if anyone at the top would mind chucking me a rope down? Might need a long one. :roll:

Denis,

What can I add to that apart from that I think I agree with all you say. It is a warm feeling to know that you are creating something that will outlast you and maybe give pleasure to generations to come. Made me think of Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn.

 

[DaveL]

I had the feeling that the slope seemed a bit bumpy these days.
Wonder if anyone at the top would mind chucking me a rope down? Might need a long one. :roll:

No sorry, all of the rope has been used for pole lathes. :shock: :wink:

 

[mudman]

I had the feeling that the slope seemed a bit bumpy these days.
Wonder if anyone at the top would mind chucking me a rope down? Might need a long one. :roll:

No sorry, all of the rope has been used for pole lathes. :shock: :wink:

Is there no hope, no rescue, no succour? What path have I laid my foot upon that sweeps me on to such uncertain ends? :shock:

 

[engineer one]

dave i know a lot of those migrants live up there, but why do you turn the poles on rope lathes :lol: :lol:

interesting how many computer people are now beginning to realise that they are not the answer to our problems, just another way of avoiding them :twisted:

it is only by trying that you learn, and you must finish every job, even if you are not happy with it, because it is part of the learning curve to increase both experience, and ability.

paul :wink:

 

[Paul Chapman]

Lovely job, Barry =D>

Cheers :wink:

Paul