More Drawknife Grinding

Sometimes I have a tough time filling my time when a student is in the shop. While they are completing a task, often the time is too short to get my head into my own work, so I turn to tuning up tools, which is an easy task to take up or put down, and it's always in need.

A while back Steve Kinnane, a student at North Bennet Street sent in his solution to grinding his drawknife. I thought it was great and posted it here.

Recently, I came up with my own spin on the idea that works for curved as well as straight blades.

I've reduced the "fence" to a small block of wood with a square notch cut out of the end. The surfaces of the notch are curved, as you can see below. The first step in grinding a drawknife is to smooth the surface on the back, opposite the edge because this is what rides in the notch. I do this with a file and then polish it on the Bear Tex wheel and buffer.

Then I attach the block to the tool rest and move it closer to the wheel until the wheel touches the center of the bevel. In keeping with my original post about my half assed jigging, I have been using the junky little pine block for a few months now. But at some point I plan to make an ebony version with brass inlays, maybe some Mother of pearl, we'll see...