frosts drawknife question

[mr dazzler]

Does any one else use the frosts draw knife? I got one some while ago, and to get to the point, havent got on with it very well. It digs in pushing or pulling, I find it extremely difficult to prevent it digging in it turns easily as the handles are in line with the blade not at 90 degreee's to it as with a normal drw knife. I have used a normal drawknife (hand forged by Brian russell) for nearly 20 year's now, and am entirely happy with it, I can happily take off long even shavings with it no bother, but this little frosts one is problematic. How can I improve on its performance. The steel is fantastic, no worries there. Is it down to my poor technique or should I consider altering the way its ground? Any tips or advice
cheers Jonathan

 

[sam_acw]

Is the flat edge truly flat? Maybe that could be a problem?

 

[fishy1]

I don't know about frosts drawknives in general, and this may be an obvious question, but are you using it upside down?

 

[robin wood]

How about selling it to me, I have been doing a particular job a lot over the last few weeks and thinking one of those would be just the tool for the job. I am carving the bit between the handles on porringers turned wooden bowls with handles and I am using a frosts 106 and end up pushing on the back of the blade a lot. For that job in line handles work well and my little drawknife does not. A wooden spokeshave is good but doesn't run right up to the handle.

I have never used one but my guess is that this is the sort of work they are designed for where you are clearly running down grain and less likely to dig in, I would be interested to try one and see.

 

[Dave Budd]

this may be a silly suggetsion, but of the top of my head I would ask which way up you are using the drawknife? I find that I get far better control and less digging with my drawknives if I use them bevel down

 

[robin wood]

I may be wrong but I thought the frosts drawknife was beveled both sides, I think of it as not so much a drawknife as a knife with a handle on both ends.

 

[Dave Budd]

ah, then it's a silly design. I confess that I've not looked at one in the flesh, but that would make sense as to why it's a sod to use.

In which case, one solution would be to change the angles. make one side lower and the other steeper, thus making it more sided than a true chisel grind but it would work better that a double beveled blade I should think.

 

[Tor helge]

ah, then it's a silly design. I confess that I've not looked at one in the flesh, but that would make sense as to why it's a sod to use.

In which case, one solution would be to change the angles. make one side lower and the other steeper, thus making it more sided than a true chisel grind but it would work better that a double beveled blade I should think.

Hi
It isn`t a really a silly design. It is about using the right tool for the job.
This knife is called "spantkniv" in Sweden and Norway and it is not designed to be a draw knife (that is why we also have the draw knives ). It was (is) used to cut firewood into smaller bits, making them easier to ignite. In other words making kindling.

Tor Helge

 

[mr dazzler]

Apologies for my slow response to your posts gents, I had an injection in my finger tendon's yeaterday, its th first time I felt like typing and theres no woodwork for at least a week
Robin is right, the spantkniv is bevelled equally both side's. If it is for doing kinderling why are they sold on as drawknife's The form reminds me of the blades they use to scrape skins and hide's?
Robin I think you'd be better off with a small slim drawknife with a narrow blade (1/2 inch or 3/4 inch) the frost one is too wide and its a twaat to get into tightish raduise's. I expect U have the porringer hanldes with the grain running across the bowl (ie no short grain that would make the handls snap of easy?) The one task it has been useful for is refining the junsction of the bowl and handle on the welsh ladles, having 2 handed operation its easier to deal with the awkward end grains on the convex fom (beter power and control). It can be done with a knife but is faster neater and crisper with that spanknife, saves that extra bit of production time, so Iwill persevere with it
With my proper draw knife I also prefer bevell down operation but I do more curves and arcs than I do laser straight components. I thinlk I will try modifying it (the mora spannkniv not my genuine russell one ), reduce the width of the blade, flat one side, bevell the other chisel or plane iron (is that what is known as a scanndi grind??)
Thanks for the input, cheers Jonathan

 

[robin wood]

ah, then it's a silly design. I confess that I've not looked at one in the flesh, but that would make sense as to why it's a sod to use.

So are knives that are beveled both sides silly designs too? I fairly often do jobs with a knife where I could do it faster and more powerfully if I had a handle on the tip...just like this tool.

Apologies for my slow response to your posts gents, I had an injection in my finger tendon's yeaterday, its th first time I felt like typing and theres no woodwork for at least a week
Robin is right, the spantkniv is bevelled equally both side's. If it is for doing kinderling why are they sold on as drawknife's The form reminds me of the blades they use to scrape skins and hide's?
Robin I think you'd be better off with a small slim drawknife with a narrow blade (1/2 inch or 3/4 inch) the frost one is too wide and its a twaat to get into tightish raduise's. I expect U have the porringer hanldes with the grain running across the bowl (ie no short grain that would make the handls snap of easy?) The one task it has been useful for is refining the junsction of the bowl and handle on the welsh ladles, having 2 handed operation its easier to deal with the awkward end grains on the convex fom (beter power and control). It can be done with a knife but is faster neater and crisper with that spanknife, saves that extra bit of production time, so Iwill persevere with it
With my proper draw knife I also prefer bevell down operation but I do more curves and arcs than I do laser straight components. I thinlk I will try modifying it (the mora spannkniv not my genuine russell one ), reduce the width of the blade, flat one side, bevell the other chisel or plane iron (is that what is known as a scanndi grind??)
Thanks for the input, cheers Jonathan

The job you describe it being good at, doing junction between bowl and handle on a ladle is exactly the job I was thinking of it for so I will pick one up. These are my porringers and carving the bit away between the handles quickly and leaving a nice tooled finish is what I am after. I can do it with a knife but it is harder work on the hands, the spokeshave works well but the wood stops it before it gets to the handle so you have to change back to the knife. I imagine using it primarily on convex shapes and pushing rather than pulling.

 

[mr dazzler]

The job you describe it being good at, doing junction between bowl and handle on a ladle is exactly the job I was thinking of it for so I will pick one up. These are my porringers and carving the bit away between the handles quickly and leaving a nice tooled finish is what I am after. I can do it with a knife but it is harder work on the hands, the spokeshave works well but the wood stops it before it gets to the handle so you have to change back to the knife. I imagine using it primarily on convex shapes and pushing rather than pulling.

Out of pulling or pushing I found it worked best pushing, sort of like a clogger's stock knife. It will definately be less stress ful and tiring than just using a knife. Looking at your porringer form there rob I can imagine U have to be real caqreful not to split off the handle's when you cut out the waste if the grain isnt perfectly straight (which it never is is it) -I have spolit more than one perfectly good ladle blank when I split off the handle waste over energeticall and split half the bowl off too
My hand is aching like f##k when she put the needle in yesterday you could hear it making a grisltle grinding sort of noise, apparently out of the 100's of case's of trigger finger she had seen mine was the worst most chronic case, I've had it for 12 years and was just told to just live with it

 

[mr dazzler]

Just as an afterthought there rob
Have you considered making a custom curved bullnose plane to get into those curved areas to get a fine finish? A bullnose will cut clean almost right up to a stopped area (ie where the handle start's), I know what you mean about spoke shaves. I also find they tend to round over on spindles so I use a modified beading plane to foine finish the diameter's on spindle end's so they are nicely cylinderical ate the ends where they enter the comb or seat..

 

[Dave Budd]

sorry guys I wasjust being flippant. I don't really think that a frosts drawknife is a silly design, as you say robin, a double beveled knife is a very usefual tool

It's interesting to hear how they are normally used though, I may have to try one sometime to see what it does. I like collecting weird and wonderful tools just for teh heck of learning new techniques. keeps life interesting