Crown Drawknife - thumbs up!

[bae]

My Father's Day present this year was this nice Crown 11-inch curved draw knife.

It arrived nearly shaving-sharp, it took me mere moments to get the edge the way I wanted it, and seems of good quality.

(Spyderco Delica in picture for scale)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uhFMgoCMNP0/T-PiUypA1YI/AAAAAAAAFq8/X1u192BYvl8/s576/Awesomized.jpg

My 20+ year old BBQ grill had its handle finally rot off today. So...time to play with my new toy!

A few minutes working with the bottom section of this small tree (the part that is already cut off, I didn't take a picture until afterwards :-( ) with the draw knife, and a little carving with a small axe, yielded me a nice new handle:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-4sVhffGHCos/T-PiQk2P11I/AAAAAAAAFq0/FDpPU9c97so/s640/Awesomized.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DGYwCU8Jmoc/T-PiJ7fEf_I/AAAAAAAAFqs/Itk2Iw10zp4/s576/Awesomized.jpg

And a little mess:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-hMdCmjxM3j4/T-PiHGBpHNI/AAAAAAAAFqk/DqAjuc2Pktc/s576/Awesomized.jpg

One trip to the lumber yard avoided!

[rosarugosa]

Nice work Bae! So that type of knife is used specifically for working with branches/small logs? When we prune some of the bigger branches from our Halesias, I always think we should craft something beautiful from those branches, but it hasn't happened yet.

[bae]

Yes, the large-sized drawknife is meant for stripping the bark and outer layers off of logs and large branches. Smaller ones are used by woodcarvers and furniture makers for all sorts of stuff, but my carpentry skills are more on the Fred Flintstone end of the scale. (The railroad tie and tree stump workbench may have given that away...)

My plan is to turn some of my excess or intrusive trees here into useful poles and timbers as needed. Our local lumber yard only has a very limited selection of materials, everything else is a pain to get. I am going to build a nice outdoor forge workshop later this year or next out of timber and rock, and I figured I might as well use on-site sustainable materials.

[redfox]

I know the value of a good drawknife! I once spent every spring evening hand for months peeling fir saplings to make balusters for a staircase... With an old, thrift store kitchen knife. Good thing the saplings were freshly cut green ones... I had a lot of blisters that spring... And never built the staircase. 20 years later, those peeled poles are still under my house in storage... Oy.

[Mrs-M]

Looks great! What are your plans for sealing/protecting the handle?

[ToomuchStuff]

Looks good. I've picked up one or two used for my father, who has rehabbed them. I know at some point I will want to use one (play around) but what I wonder is the difference between the straight and the curved bladed ones?

Thanks

[MsSpot]

Hi Bae! I hope you enjoy watching the woodworker where I work at Historic Washington State Park in Arkansas. He's using a 19th Century "shaving horse". I believe if you construct a similar shaving horse, you will have a MUCH easier time of shaping your piece of lumber. Jon hand finishes his wood products by hand burnishing with a piece of glass. An old glass paper weight works well and give a high gloss to the wood without using any kind of varnish or shellac. All you have to do is rub briskly along the grain of the wood with the glass. DON'T rub too hard because you actually cause it to burn due to friction. I've seen Jon produce smoke when he'd burnishing his pieces.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGqzZzt5F64

Here's the URL to a picture of a vintage style shaving horse. It acts as a vise to hold your piece of lumber and is fairly easy to build even if you DO have Fred Flintstone skills. :) The plans for one can be found by a simple Google search.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/19th_century_knowledge_carpentry_and_woodworking_s having_horse.jpg

Enjoy honing your pioneer skills! Take care!

[Tussiemussies]

Neat handle!

[puglogic]

Gorgeous tool. Kudos to your family for giving you something so beautiful and useful.