Drawknife sharpening jig

[Dave Anderson NH]

Technique will prevent you from cutting yourself while sharpening a drawknife. I clamp the knife in place and move the stone DOWNHILL only on the bevel at a slightly skewed angle as if I was drawfiling. I also wear a pair of thin leather gloves. Personally, I'm of the school that puts a small back side bevel on the drawknife which allows climbing out of a cut.

[Chris Griggs]

Thanks Chris, glad you like that jig!

I forgot to mention that I use the jig to put a secondary bevel on my drawknife. If yours is really beat up, I recommend hollow grinding first. I grind to almost a feather edge before I hone. Peter Galbert (again) has a really good homemade dry grinder jig for doing this. He has several versions: Here is the quick and dirty version, which takes about 5 minutes to put together. Chris, I know you love your dry grinder, so this should be a natural. Here is a much fancier version that I've never tried, and here is a video of that version.

A number of people have mentioned that a drawknife is really easy to hone freehand, once you've hollow ground. It totally is. I made the jig because I think it's faster, easier, and safer, and if you are drawknifing for 5 hours and stopping every 30 minutes to hone, speed and repeatability is an issue, and not having to think about cutting your fingers is nice too. But to each his own, of course.

Thanks Steve. This is super helpful! I do love my dry grinder. I actually tried freehand grinding it once but couldn't figure out how to do it well. I like the quick and dirty version. I will definitely give this a try. If it works well I likely will just try freehand honing it. IIRC there is a video of Brian Boggs showing how he hones them on the LN site. Though given how prone to cutting myself I am I do like the safety aspect of the jig.

Thanks again Steve. Really, super helpful.

[John Powers]

it's funny. we obsess about plane irons and chisels but a drawknife, heck, swipe it over a stone and Bobs your uncle. planes and chisels you use everyday. how often do you use a drawknife? if you used a drawknife a lot maybe you'd be more inclined to obsess. maybe what most of us consider a sharp drawknife would be laughed off the stage by a daily drawknife user.

[Kees Heiden]

Thanks Chris, glad you like that jig!

I forgot to mention that I use the jig to put a secondary bevel on my drawknife. If yours is really beat up, I recommend hollow grinding first. I grind to almost a feather edge before I hone. Peter Galbert (again) has a really good homemade dry grinder jig for doing this. He has several versions: Here is the quick and dirty version, which takes about 5 minutes to put together. Chris, I know you love your dry grinder, so this should be a natural. Here is a much fancier version that I've never tried, and here is a video of that version.

Watch out with this method when you have a very friable grinding wheel, like the blue Norton 3X. I was very quickly removing material from the corner of the wheel, had to do and extensive job with the diamond dresser to make it flat enough for chisel and plane work again.

[Patrick Tipton]

I have taken classes with Peter and he is both a first class craftsman and a great teacher. He is also a super generous guy, as evidenced by the wealth of information he shares in his blog and the wonderful videos which he produces and gives away for free.

If you watch the video of the DrawSharp, you will see him cut pine end grain at the end of the video. Although the video doesn't give a super clear shot, the surface of the pine is waxy, without any tear out. For those confident in your drawknife sharpening skills, take a two inch thick piece of pine and try to cut the end grain. You should be able to take a pretty heavy cut, without undo force and end up with a nice, tear-out free and waxy feeling surface.

As John Powers said, anyone who regularly uses a drawknife for fine work quickly learns to demand a razor sharp blade. The handles make them very difficult to grind consistently on a grinder without building a jig. Freehanding is possible, but also risky given the geometry involved and unless you own a very large wheel, you can't get all the way to the end of each side of the blade.

A drawknife can be one of the most useful woodworking tools in a shop, but most woodworkers will never understand its speed, accuracy and capabilities because they will never use a sharp one.

Patrick

[Chris Griggs]

Watch out with this method when you have a very friable grinding wheel, like the blue Norton 3X. I was very quickly removing material from the corner of the wheel, had to do and extensive job with the diamond dresser to make it flat enough for chisel and plane work again.

Thanks for the warning Kees. Actually I prefer to keep my grinding wheel crowned anyway, so this shouldn't be an issue for me, unless its REALLY extreme.

[Chris Griggs]

A drawknife can be one of the most useful woodworking tools in a shop, but most woodworkers will never understand its speed, accuracy and capabilities because they will never use a sharp one.

Yeah, I'm personally not a fan of using any tool that isn't sharpened properly. You often see this implied with tools that tend to be used for removing large amounts of material. I've seen many folks say that a scrub plane, for instance, works well straight of the grinders...I disagree. Now, my coarse planes may not always have as refined an edge as say a finish smoother where I take a moment to be a little extra obsessive, but they are still honed up to 8k or 10k or whatever fine stone/medium I am using at the moment. A sharp tool regardless of whether it is being used for coarse work or fine work is always easier, safer, and more precise to use than one that hasn't been made sharp. Of course, it goes without saying that everyone is free to setup there tools as they please, but when I get around to setting up my drawknife, be it freehand or with a jig I certainly won't settle for anything less than what Peter's does in that video. Less than sharp enough tools only lead to frustration and a tendency not to want to use that tool again.

Anyway, all that is to say despite the fact that I've barely used a drawknife yet, I fully agree with John and Patrick

[Kees Heiden]

Thanks for the warning Kees. Actually I prefer to keep my grinding wheel crowned anyway, so this shouldn't be an issue for me, unless its REALLY extreme.

Well, yes, I thought it was pretty extreme. I now grind my drawknife (when neccessary!) on an upsidedown bandsander in the vise.

[Chris Griggs]

Well, yes, I thought it was pretty extreme. I now grind my drawknife (when neccessary!) on an upsidedown bandsander in the vise.

Ok, good to know. Thanks Kees!

[Steve Voigt]

I've not had any problem with the drawknife crowning my wheel. I don't see why this would happen, unless you are really rocking the knife as you move it back and forth. With a minimal effort to keep the knife square to the wheel, there should be no problem. I also have to say, I'd never use one of those friable wheels for something as straightforward as grinding a drawknife. The hard grey wheels cost 1/6 as much, and once you've trued them, they will stay true for a lot longer.

[Kees Heiden]

It didn't crown the wheel. It ate up the corner at alarming speed. Just warning...

And I used the blue wheel because that is what I have.

[Bob Jones]

I'm an intermediate drawknife user. I use it for natrual edge furniture. Anyway, I freehand grind and use a lanskey knife sharpener for honing. It's not a perfect solution but it does the job.