Peter Galbert Drawsharp - Tool Review

I should start off by making it clear, if you don't read my blog, that I am friends with Pete and this could be easily categorized as a biased review. I realize this but I am a chairmaker so here is my opinion. In fact it is probably just as much about my thoughts on sharpening in general.

If you haven't already seen the videos Peter has posted on how this works in use then I recommend checking them out to get the concept. UPDATE: Pete put up a post talking about why he designed this tool. Check it out here.

So is the Drawsharp just another sharpening jig? At first that is how I was looking at it. I guess it is. But I was thinking about how a turner uses jigs to rest there tools on supports to grind the edge or hold the tool in some other way while sharpening. I use jigs in these instances because they make my sharpening retain or achieve the shape I want as well as get there quickly without worrying about achieving a cutting geometry that is crucial to good turning. On the other hand, unless I see a real advantage, I am just too focused on what I am making to fuss with a jig, whatever it is, unless I see that it actually makes my work faster, better, or lessens the interruption of my craft which I think is hugely important. I sharpen all my plane irons by hand for this reason though I can see someone arguing for using a jig to do this faster but they just seem to irritate me.

What do I think of the Drawsharp? Is it a faster, slower or just a more accurate way of sharpening? Before I answer that I should say that I think this tool has two distinct tasks it can accomplish. First it would help you rehab a drawknife that is in the typical shape when found at a flea market or the like. Essentially the edge is very beat up. If you don't want to attempt doing all the clean up on a grinder then this is a far less intimidating way to get it to functioning and I think it may in some ways be just as quick if not possibly quicker. This of course really has more to do with the current condition of the drawknife.

My drawknives are in fine shape so I can't really comment on this process or the speed other than messing around with a few beat up drawknives at Peter's booth at Woodworking In America, the show these debuted at. It was quick, I must admit. It was simple for the first time user which would be the main reason I see some one like that using it. I came to realize it is much cheaper to rehab 3 flee market drawknives even considering the purchase of the Drawsharp than it is to buy a decent new drawknife which then still leaves you with only one drawknife and the standard method of sharpening it. A few different drawknives in chair making is useful if not necessary.

That takes me to the second task this accomplishes and the one I think makes it really most useful to me. It maintains the edge of the knife consistently and without fuss. For instance it takes me about 8 minutes to set up and resharpen my knife and get back to work with my traditional method which is a jig that holds my sharpening stone in an elevated position above my bench. However, the Drawsharp allows me to never even leave my shave horse to get my edge back up to full throttle. It seems to take me about 45 seconds once it is in my hand to be satisfied with the edge especially since maintaining it is so easy I don't even think to not just do it once I get the notion it is approaching dull.

In the end I would say that two types of people would be suited to the Drawsharp the best. The first is if you want to rehab a knife or knives and don't feel comfortable with the grinder for this task. I don't blame you since it is tricky.

Second is the person that does a lot of drawknife work and the down time this saves out weighs the cost of the tool or you simply do this for a hobby and your free time in the shop is of more value than the cost of the tool.

So if you don't mind rehabbing your drawknife with a grinder or you have enough time in your craft to sharpen the old way or enjoy this method of sharpening then you can pass on this tool.

Hope that helped anyone who was trying to decide if this tool was right for them.

Final disclaimer- I do not profit from the sale of this tool.

Turning Kiln Dried Hard Maple - Solution

If you are like me, one of the biggest challenges to making some windsor styles is acquiring the right materials, such as hard maple. Heck even in lots of places that you can get all the other woods you need then hard maple is still not there. You have to be in a cold enough climate to get this stuff to grow. Then again just acquiring it green is another matter all together.

So, what to do? Well you can change your turnings to suit other woods but I just have that drive to make those baluster turnings with those really nice thicks and thins. Hard maple is really the only wood you can count to hold up to the stresses. Don't try a half inch cove on soft maple for an arm post turning. Some big guy is sure to break it in a short time.

So here is where I started thinking... I was working on a settee design that will be in the Texas furniture makers show and I just didn't want to do the double bobbin turnings. So, I set out to turn the baluster turnings in kiln dried hard maple. I hit the same old problems of heat build up and dulling my tools quickly. As you know a dull skew chisel will catch in a second. The additional problem is that a less that super sharp chisel will make a turning bounce off the cutting edge rather than slicing, leaving chatter marks, thus making a clean bead very difficult to turn. Sanding is not what we want to have to do if we want to keep those clean crisp features. Now add the final irritant is that supporting the turning with your off hand under those circumstances is just asking for blistered fingers.

Ok enough about the gripes of kiln dried hard maple. This is what I did that seems to just about fix all my complaints. I filled a spray bottle with some water. After roughing down a section to the point where I would move on to the finishing tool, such as the skew, I spayed the surface and let it soak in for a bit. Once absorbed then I could make that final pass and voila! it turns almost as good as the green stuff. Sure not entirely as good but I was able to get an acceptable turning the first go. After a little practice judging the right amount and how much time to wait then they really started to shine. I was so excited at the results that I snapped a pic on my phone.

Above is the first arm post I turned after trying out my idea. The rear turning is the dried stuff and the front turning is a green turing I had on hand. Of course, neither one is sanded but is straight off the tool. As you can see there are some little issues but once I knew that it was working and tweaked my approach a little those seemed to be very minimal. I hope that gets you to thinking about doing some more difficult turnings now. Try it out. Let me know if it works for you too.

Chair Making with Green Wood

Green wood is a term for wood that is still "wet" and has not yet been dried. It is not a term meant to refer to its ecological benefits. Though it does have several benefits for the environment when using it in stead of the alternatives.

You have probably given thought to the impact of a tree being cut down on our environment. If you have the option no doubt you choose to buy only wood products taken from sustainably manage forests, otherwise know as FSC Certified woods. But have you ever given much thought on the impact to carbon emissions by how wood is dried?

Consider how long it takes to dry a piece of two inch thick wood. This is the size that most round chair parts start from. It would take about 3- 4 months in a natural gas kiln to dry a piece of wood this thick. Yes that is right, months, not days. Otherwise this same piece of wood would take about 3 years to dry in the open air. It is not surprising that our modern society demands kiln dried wood.

However it is not necessary to use kiln dried woods to produce fine furniture, especially chairs. In fact some traditional chair makers still produce amazing chairs with green wood (see picture below). To do this it requires a very good understanding of wood, how it shrinks and expands with moisture content. When thinking of "traditional built" furniture in this way don't think "rustic" think sophisticated, because it actually was and is. The chair making process can actually take advantage of green wood characteristics to make them stronger. I will talk more about the use of "wet/ dry" joinery in upcoming blogs.

There is an additional benefit to the producer when working with green wood. Wood dust is a health risk to the worker that inhales it. However, wood that is cut while being high in moisture content prevents much of it becoming airborne and then being inhaled.

At Kapel Designs we produce our chairs with green wood that is air dried at every chance we get. Since many large saw mills don't want to bother with offering green wood we have spent much time in just acquiring this material by working with small local saw mills that appreciate what we are doing to contribute to better made furnishings and a commitment to our environment. Yes, this takes special effort to produce furniture this way. But we think it is worth all the effort. We hope you do to.