Drawknife

A drawknife (drawing knife, draw shave, shaving knife) is a traditional woodworking hand tool used to shape wood by removing shavings. It consists of a blade with a handle at each end. The blade is much longer (along the cutting edge) than it is deep (from cutting edge to back edge). It is pulled or "drawn" (hence the name) toward the user.

The drawknife in the illustration has a blade 23 centimetres (9.1 in) although much shorter drawknives are also made. The blade is sharpened to a chisel bevel. Traditionally, it is a rounded, smooth bezel. The handles can be below the level of the blade (as in the illustration) or at the same level.

Purpose

A drawknife is commonly used to remove large slices of wood for flat faceted work, to debark trees, or to create roughly rounded or cylindrical billets for further work on a lathe, or it can shave like a spokeshave plane, where finer finishing is less of concern than a rapid result. The thin blade lends itself to create complex concave or convex curves.