Drawsharp FAQ

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, we changed the way we package Drawsharps. It seems some folks are having a bit of difficulty using the double stick tape to adhere their diamond pads. So we've added some content to the FAQ to address this issue. We apologize if you've ruined your tape, but the fix is really quick and easy, and in fact is the same method you'll be instructed to use if you've purchased a Rehab Kit. We're posting the FAQ below.

∙ I ruined the double stick tape as I was attaching the diamond pads, what do I do?

 
Glue the diamond pads directly onto the sleeves using gel CA (Super) glue, or contact cement. A couple dots per pad is sufficient. The super glue can be a tad messy if you over apply it. Contact cement is a more relaxed approach. You don't need to specifically use double-stick tape, we simply package it with the Drawsharp for the customer's convenience. If you have a Rehab kit, we instruct customers to install the four diamond pads the same way.

To see a video on how to properly apply the diamond pads with double stick tape, see here. 

Drawsharps In Stock

After a short period of being a tad low on stock, we've got a new batch of Drawsharps finished, packaged, and nearly ready to ship.

We've made a couple small changes to the way customers receive their Drawsharp. First, instead of gluing the diamond abrasive pads directly to the sleeves, we're now including two pieces of 3m brand double faced adhesive strips for that purpose. This isn't hardware-store variety tape. It's industrial stuff that we chose from a long list of specific parameters that would suit the Drawsharp. And it wasn't cheap. But it offers the distinct advantage of allowing us to get Drawsharps packaged and shipped quicker than before. The other change is to the stud at the bottom of each post. Customers will now assemble this part. We shot this little video to show the process.

Drawsharps are $84 and available on our store page as well as through several of our dealers.

Galbert Drawsharp In Action

Earlier this month we paid a visit to Peter Galbert at his chair shop in Sterling, MA. Besides catching the chairmaking bug something fierce, we also took the time to shoot some video of Pete demonstrating the Drawsharp.

Although this video is edited a little (mostly to remove some shaky spots) it shows Pete taking a neglected drawknife from a pathetic state to making waxy, end-grain shavings in white pine in real time. The entire process took about 8 minutes. The latter portion of the video shows how to freshen the edge of a drawknife that has been previously sharpened with a Drawsharp. That process takes about 2-3 minutes. Pete did this numerous times to several different drawknives, all with widely varying bevel configurations. The results were all the same.

A note on The Rehab Kit. Its not required to sharpen a drawknife. The included abrasives will get you to your final edge just fine. Here's when you may want to pick up the Rehab Kit.

- You're hesitant to take a particularly ratty knife to the grinder.

- You're sharpening ratty drawknives out in the woods.


On the former, we suggest you educate yourself on the particulars of grinding drawknives. Because as awesome as the Drawsharp is, you may toast your edge beyond its capabilities. And by that we mean damage beyond normal use. Dropping the knife, shaving too close to something metal, a nail or some foreign object in a workpiece, your neighbor using the knife as a paint scraper. Point being, if you get a deep nick in your blade, obviously you will need to grind it out, or simply use that knife for less important work until normal sharpening sessions take you past the nick.

But grinding is not as scary as it may seem. It only takes a light touch (as with all grinding) and very little jigging on your grinder's tool rest. If you have a 1" belt grinder, those work quite well for drawknives, since there is no motor to interfere with the knife's handles. Take a look at Pete's blog for lots of info on grinding. As you 'll see, you can do it quick and dirty, or make a full blown micro-adjustable tool rest.

You can order a Drawsharp directly from us, via our Store Page.

The following domestic dealers also carry the Drawsharp.

Chairnotes Tools
Highland Woodworking
Lie-Nielsen Toolworks
Lee Valley Tools (and Canada)


and in Germany
Dieter Schmid Fine Tools

A pleasant surprise was the arrival of the young and talented toolmaker and woodworker Tim Manney. Tim makes the Chairnotes Reamer, (highly recommended) and is currently developing a chairmaker's adze with Peter Galbert. I got a chance to try out the adze on an actual chair seat, and although I'm relatively new to this tool, everything about it felt so right. Tim also makes exquisite chairs and spoons. It's quite difficult to photograph the crisp details and delicate forms of Tim's work. Each spoon displays a real deftness and skill not only with the tools, but also the design and form. I know these pictures don't do justice, but here goes nonetheless. Make sure you take a look at Tim's blog.
 

Drawsharps are up!

Some of you have been waiting....Drawsharps are up on our website!

UPDATE:  Refill & Rehab kits are up now also.

Watch Pete Shave

Also watch him demonstrate the new Drawsharp...

Galbert Drawsharp--Pricing and Availability

The Galbert Drawsharp is nearly ready to order. Just a few minutes ago we finished packing a shipment destined for Pete Galbert's booth at Woodworking in America next week. Pete will have Drawsharps for sale at his booth in the Marketplace. If you want one, I suggest you hit Pete's booth first thing Friday, as he'll have a limited number of Drawsharps at the show.

If you can't make it to WIA, you'll be able to order the Drawsharp beginning at 9:00 am, Friday October 18th. See our store page to order. We expect our regular dealers both domestically and abroad will add the Drawsharp to their offerings. We'll post a list of dealers once stock is on the way to them.

The Drawsharp is an ingenious, yet simple jig for putting a consistent, repeatable razor-sharp edge on any drawknife. Traditionally the way to hone a drawknife is by hand. Although we're all in favor of developing hand skills, we're also in favor of making certain tasks easier, especially since nobody we know enjoys sharpening. The Drawsharp let's you focus on getting a keen, consistently polished edge without having to concentrate on how you're presenting your stone to the edge, and without slicing your hand open.  Sharpening drawknives makes many people a bit uneasy. With the Drawsharp the cutting edge is facing away from your body and hands, and the honing action is parallel to the blade, with your fingers safely behind the cutting edge at all times, making for a very safe situation. If you've shied away from using drawknives because of sharpening (and they have great potential for furniture makers too, not just chairmakers), the Drawsharp will open the door to this wonderful tool.

The drawknife spine rides on an acetal wear plate and two nylon bumpers which, along with the position of the two posts, determine the honing angle. One post for honing the knife's bevel, and the other for honing the back. A scale on each side, along with clear markings allow you to record the setting for a particular drawknife, then return to that setting quickly.

Each square sleeve is loaded with two abrasive pads: a fine diamond pad on one side, and a finer abrasive paper pad on the other. The diamond pad is used to bring up the initial burr, and the opposite side is used to polish the edge further. Each sleeve rides on the copper anodized posts via a VELCRO bearing, so the sleeve can rotate to follow curved knives. To expose fresh abrasive to the edge, simply slide the sleeve up a bit--it will hold its position and still rotate. Each sleeve can also be flipped end for end to expose even more abrasive. The Drawsharp comes packaged with enough abrasive for dozens of sharpenings. Everything you need is in the package. Price is $84.

Here's a short video on assembling the Drawsharp. We'll be posting detailed videos on how to use the Drawsharp next month. In the meantime, stay tuned to Pete's Chairnotes blog, where he'll be posting about the Drawsharp in the next day or so, including video of how to use the Drawsharp.

Galbert Drawsharp First Look

Developing the Galbert Drawsharp along with Pete has been a great learning experience. Pete is full of so many great ideas about the craft and toolmaking that it's like opening the flood gates when we talk (listen.) Pete's philosophy is a great mix of traditional and modern, much like how we do things here at Benchcrafted. Case in point, in the image above from a Skype session earlier this year, Pete is holding up a prototype part to his webcam while I take a closer look. Skype is so handy for things like this, but how do you save the image? Okay, Print Screen will work for one shot. But my mind doesn't always work that fast. So instead I pick up a camera and take a picture of my monitor. Just feels wrong. But it got the job done.

Speaking of which, the first batch of Drawsharp parts is finished. Well, mostly. Due to a stupid error we made one part the wrong size. But it's the good kind of wrong. The too-big kind. So back in the lathe they go, then back to anodizing. Long story short, we're now really scrambling to get them done for WIA.

But there is still hope. If everything works out they'll still make it to Cincinnati in time.

In The Works At Benchcrafted

This has been an enormously busy year here at Benchcrafted. The Carver's Vise, Handworks, and the French Oak Roubo Project ate up huge swaths of time. But during many late nights and early mornings over the past 10 months we've been plugging away on a couple new things that we're making.

In our research for the French Oak Roubo project we noticed that virtually all extant French benches (Plate 11 style) utilize metal bench screws for the leg vise hardware. Now, we haven't found benches that are much older than the mid 1800's, but a surprising number of these, around 90% of the one's we've seen, use all-metal hardware, much like the hardware used on the La Forge Royale carver's chops, and our reproduction, the Benchcrafted Carver's Vise.

With some help from Brian Anderson, (thanks to Lost Art Press for the introduction) we've discovered some interesting features of this seemingly simple mechanism. Namely, how does one install the vise? Many of the extant examples feature a large washer that fits between the handle (the hub to be specific) and a square bearing plate that gets screwed to the chop. The problem is, the round washer covers the mounting screws.

Yet other benches, which show no evidence of a square plate at all, show the round washer without fasteners. The answer is this: none of these parts is a garter. The screw and hub are not tied to the washers and plate, they simply bear against it in use. When opening these vises, the chop must be pulled back manually.

As an American woodworker, I'm used to my vise opening when I loosen the screw. I like this feature, especially when I have a workpiece in my other hand.

Although it doesn't happen often, we do get requests for vises with a more traditional, classic look. Even though handwheels on vises are not modern, our particular design has a bit of a modern flair that not everyone is into. Plus, we're vise enthusiasts here, and if we get the bug to make something, we're going to try our best to make it happen so other vise nuts can share in the joy.

That's the case with our new leg vise hardware. It will be made entirely from steel, will feature a round flange with two attachment screws, and no square plate. We'll be machining the flange and hub with a precisely matched concave/convex radius to spread clamping pressure and ensure smooth action when holding work.

The vise's screw will feature a unique thread that's all but disappeared from modern vises: the double-lead acme screw. Common in the 19th century and early part of the 20th century (H.O. Studley's handwheel-equipped vises use double-lead screws), this screw geometry fell out of favor, possibly due to the demanding nature of tapping the nuts, which requires lots of steel removal in a relatively short distance. This vise will move at 1/2" per revolution, or 2 tpi, the same as traditional wood screws. The screws, like all our screws, will be roll-formed, which leaves a smooth, polished finish. You won't need to slather the screw with oil or grease for it to work smoothly.

We're also incorporating a unique feature into the handle and hub which will allow quick and effortless gross adjustments.

We'll likely be finishing the show parts (the hub, flange and handle) with a new treatment that will give a satiny gray-black look to the parts, reminiscent of a hand-forged finish, but without the film look of paint or powder coat.

Paired with our Crisscross, this vise will be a very functional and classy leg vise for traditional benches.

Below is a mock-up of the new leg vise. We expect this to be available in time for Christmas. Pricing is still a bit up in the air, but we can say with confidence it will be more accessible than a Glide Crisscross.

Pete Galbert honing away with a Drawsharp prototype. Photo by Greg Pennington

The other item we've been burning the midnight oil on is something that is a bit unusual for us. Several months ago we we're approached by chairmaker Peter Galbert about producing a tool for sharpening drawknives. We've been approached before about making tools which don't exactly fall into the workholding category, and we've been pretty strict about sticking to what we know here. But when a world-class chairmaker pitches an idea, you tend to sit up in your chair and listen.

The Galbert Drawsharp is a honing jig that makes sharpening most any drawknife a quick, easy and repeatable task. Peter maintains a rigorous teaching schedule, and inevitably a huge portion of those classes is eaten up by prepping students' drawknives, many of which come straight from the flea market or used tool dealers. Needless to say, many of the edges need serious attention. The Drawsharp was born out of a need to get knives up to a sweet polish in just a few minutes, leaving more time for students to get to work with their knives. In many cases, the Drawsharp can eliminate the need for tedious grinding, which takes an experienced hand, or at minimum a separate grinding setup.

When I first starting messing around with drawknives several years ago, sharpening was always a chore, especially since I was coming from a mostly flat-work background, where I could get dead sharp edges on plane irons, and produce a glassy surface with ease. My drawknife sharpening skills weren't up to snuff, and I didn't have a burning desire to improve them. That all changed when Pete sent me a Drawsharp prototype several months ago. After an evening in the shop with an old Witherby and the prototype, I knew this was something we were going to produce. After countless emails, Skype chats, and phone calls, we finalized the design earlier this spring (discovering a couple big improvements along the way) and expect the first run of Drawsharps to be available sometime next month. Pete is teaching at Woodworking In America this year, and if all goes as planned, he'll have Drawsharps for sale in his booth in the Marketplace.

Later this fall, we'll have a video tutorial with Pete on how to use the Drawsharp to get a ridiculous polish on any drawknife. Stay tuned to the blog for updates.