How to sharpen a drawknife

[Bear Heart]

What is the best way to sharpen a drawknife?  How sharp do I want it?

[Tree man]

Sharpen the beveled side-a good fine cut file,  a stone or a lowspeed grinder are all fine. On the flat side of the blade you will only want to make a light pass or 2 to remove the burr. Some people like a "dull" drawknife to help find the earlywood between the growth rings. Persoanlly I  like sharp tools.

[Dave2old]

Like Tree Man, I generally prefer sharp tools. But an over-sharpened drawknife is a recipe for snags, "runners" along the grain line, and ruined staves or boards. My experience bears out Bowyer's Bible advice -- don't over-sharpen a draw knife. I'd say, just get out any nicks in the edge. For the most part you're using the draw for remove bark and softer outer wood, then switch to rasp and scraper or hunting knife for the finer work of tillering. I'm sure you'll get more opinions here. Good luck, dave

[Bear Heart]

Thanks for the tip.  This is my first effort at building a bow so maybe super sharp is not the way to go.

[Jeff Strubberg]

I like a sharp drawknife, but you have to understand you cannot use a sharp drawknife to "hack" at a bowstave.  if you do that, you WILL have gouges.

I work a drawknife by setting the blade, bevel up where I want to start the wood removal and leaning back.

Like any tool, it's a matter of finding a technique that accomplishes what you want done.  Me, I am more comfortable learnign to work with a tool rather than leaving it dull.

[The Gopher]

Bob Smalser has a good tutorial on sharpening drawknives. He is a general woodworker not a bowbuilder, but bows are wood after all.

http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/bSmalser/z_art/drKnife/drKnife1.asp