Drawknife

[2] 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 drawknife ideally is used when the operator is in a seated position astride a traditional shaving horse, which safely grips the working stock, and they can also use their legs for additional pulling power.

The operator gently levers the blade to "bite" into the wood and then controls the depth of the cut by raising or lowering the handles as they pull the drawknife towards them.

The work stock is reversed and same method repeated this time commencing a tiny distance away from centre so as to leave a coarse raised section.

The coarse raised section where the two concave curves meet can be finished with a rasp, file, spokeshave or other tool.

The operator immediately stops pulling, and uses the drawknife blade to lever upward so as to "flick" the splinter or splice out of the worked piece.

A common use of a drawknife is to create a roughly cylindrical billet of wood for turning on a pole lathe.

Traditional draw knife
Using a drawknife in making a flatbow
American drawknife circa 1800
Draw shaves are often used with shaving horses.
Use of a drawknife and shaving horse from De Re Metallica , a sixteenth-century work on mine technology