Drawknife Bevels and Sharpening

[Jason Lester]

I've been making the Jennie Alexander chairs this year. I'm currently making #7 and #8. I started with an Ohio Tools drawknife I bought from Ed's Tool Store in NC. I had trouble sharpening it and bought the Draw Sharp jig which makes it pretty easy.

I stopped by Ed's coming back from the beach and bought a Sargent folding handle drawknife. The bevel on it seems much shallower than the Ohio. Rather than resetting the jig, I sharpened it by hand.

The Sargent goes through the wood so much easier than the Ohio. There's almost no effort required. It does dull relatively quick though. I can do probably twice as many rungs with the Ohio than the Sargent before sharpening. This is all in green freshly-split white oak.

Should I think of it as the equivalent of the Ohio being like a mortise chisel and the Sargent being like a paring chisel? I'm not sure how to measure the bevel angle, but they're noticeably different visually. There's not much info that I can find about sharpening drawknives like you can find on chisels, plane irons, etc. If anyone has tips or knows of any good resources, I would appreciate it.

Thanks, Jason

[Jim Koepke]

I'm not sure how to measure the bevel angle, but they're noticeably different visually.

For measuring the bevel angle, one of thise comes in handy:

467276

Available from all the usual sources.

jtk

[Stephen Rosenthal]

Lots of really helpful info on YouTube, particularly Curtis Buchanan and Brian Boggs (Lie-Nielsen channel). I don’t have a gauge like Jim’s but use my Starrett combination square with the protractor head to measure bevel angles.

[Scott Winners]

I agree with Stephen about Chris Buchanan and Brian Boggs on youtube. Also in Peter Galberts _Chairmaker's Notebook_ is a good section on draw knife sharpening. Also watch the for sale section for here for any drawknife being sold by John Keeton as sharp. I have two of those that are not touching wood until I can make my other drawknives look like John's.

[Edward Weber]

In big general terms, most draw knives I've come accross are anywhere between 20 and 35 degrees. Higher angles for roughing and hardwoods, lower angles for softer woods. Much like your chisel analogy. There are certainly lots of other things that come into play as usual, like the steel, the curvature, bevel up or down and so on.
I have a few 100 year old ones that are all sharpened in the 23 degree range

[Jason Lester]

Thanks for the tips. I've watched the Curtis Buchanan videos, but it seemed awkward when I tried his way. I had never seen the Boggs one, that's a really interesting and easy method.