Looking for a draw knife. Any suggestions?

[AndrewArcher]

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

[scrub-buster]

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.

[Roy from Pa]

Flea markets are another good place to find old draw knives.

[Art B]

Yeah, you want the older ones as was mentioned.

[DVSHUNTER]

I ise one i got from my father. Its pretty old bit still does the job.

[AndrewArcher]

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  

[LittleBen]

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.

[Eric Krewson]

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.

 

[wildcat hunter]

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!

[AndrewArcher]

Thanks guys. Lol wildcat, I didn't think a draw knife could be too sharp!

[SEMO_HUNTER]

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.