Drawknife sharpening

 This shot shows how I currently sharpen my drawknife.  The block is two pieces of MDF face glued and sized for the sheet of automotive wet/dry sandpaper.  I use the half sheets for this block ( I get mine at W-Mart).   Then I affix a piece of 120 grit self adhesive sandpaper to one face and a piece of leather to the other.  The sandpaper serves only to hold the wet/dry paper on.  That means no messy adhesive and I can quickly change sheets when they get worn.  I charge the leather with green polish.  I like to use this bench vise because it gets the "stone" up, allowing the handles to clear and lets me put pretty good pressure on the blade.  So all I do is take a sheet of 800 grit, run the blade over a few times, flip the blade, repeat, and then I switch to 1000 grit.  Those are the only grits I use, 1000 is plenty sharp enough.  Then a few passes on the leather and the blade should be razor sharp.    The leather not only takes care of the burr, but it also puts a slight, and I do mean slight, roundness to the edge, which allows you to enter and, more importantly, exit the cut.  If the blade is sharpened like a chisel, without this rounding, it will only dive in, you can't back it out of a cut.

 I used to use a waterstone in much the same manner to sharpen a draw knife, and while I could get it as sharp as the sandpaper, actually sharper, for whatever reason, it would dish the stones wicked bad.  It seemed I was spending more time flattening the stone than using the stone, so I switched to the sandpaper and MDF block.  I have two other size blocks for spoke shaves ( I lifted this idea from Dave's Shaves).  The really narrow one is for a sweet little spokeshave that Dave's Shaves makes, I use it for the tight cove on the side  of a shield seat.  And the wider one is for a wooden spokeshave I made years ago, my favorite.  But the main point of this set up is to sharpen the drawknives, and it fits the bill--quick and effective.  Note of caution--drawknives are razor sharp and bloodthirsty, they will really open you up, so be careful!!   I used to keep them on a cart that was about  shoulder height when I was seated on my shave horse.  Problem was when I reached for the drawknife, I was reaching across the blade.  After two bad cuts, one really bad, I now keep them on a low bench so now  I have to reach down to get the tool.  Be careful!!