I plan on doing a lot of self bows, and I want to get a high quality draw knife. And I mean a LOT.
If I can find some, I'm going to start out making some hickory bows. Once I can make a high quality, sweet shooting bow, I wanna move on to Osage.
And according to what I have read, Osage is a pretty hard wood.
I also found a small piece once, and had a really cheap draw knife, so I messed around with it for a bit. And man did it dull the blade.
These are new waters for me, so I'm looking for a little guidance.
All suggestions are appreciated :)
Thanks
I like the old ones. My best one is from an antique store. Cost me $20 and was in perfect shape. Check the blade for pitting if you buy an old one. I have taken the bark and sapwood off of probably 70 staves with it and never sharpened it.
Flea markets are another good place to find old draw knives.
Yeah, you want the older ones as was mentioned.
I ise one i got from my father. Its pretty old bit still does the job.
I see. Well, I'll start looking around at flea markets and antique shops.
Thank you everyone. I knew I came to the right place :)
Antique shop or flea market for sure. An old one will be much less expensive and higher quality than a new one. I got one for $15 and a vise for another $15. Anything like that, tools with substantial weight of metal tend to be good antique buys. I wouldn't hesitate on an antique hatchet or sledge or ax either. New ones cost a bunch of money.
The one i bought I never sharpened and it anihilates hickory, jatoba, oak(haha), maple, and anything else i've thrown at it.
Best bow making tool i've ever bought. I made like 6 bows before I had one, and theres just nothing like it. It's great for material removal but you can really do some pretty fine work with it also. Happy hunting.
There are 308 listed on Fleabay right now, probably the best place to find one.
I like a big, heavy, straight blade draw knife. The top one in the picture has debarked, removed sapwood and chased grains on hundreds of osage staves and billets.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/bow%20making/fourdrawknives.jpg)
I got an old "well worn ( sharpened a lot )" drawknife on "fleabay" 2 years ago, been using it all this time. Just a couple of months ago an old friend gave me a "new" drawknife - very sharp! I thought now I will try this on chasing grain. Not a good idea, kept going through the grain and had to chase another growth ring. Its too sharp! I like to use the old one for chasing grain, I can hear it crunching the summer growth as I go. Another problem I had with the new one was it cut off the nodes and ripped off a bit of wood with them. So now I use it for debarking, then the dull one to chase rings!
Thanks guys. Lol wildcat, I didn't think a draw knife could be too sharp!
Andrew, I don't know if you have access to a welder or not, but I make my own draw knifes out of old lawnmower blades. That way I can position the handles where I like em and not straight back like the store bought knives. My handles are closer to the one in the last pic that Eric posted, more of a 45 deg. angle rather than straight back. It feels like I can get more power on it and more control when debarking. I can also use it straight up on edge for scraping without switching from knife to scraper constantly. Then when I get down real close and need to go slow I use an old fish fillet knife for the fine detailed clean up.
Hope that helps.