So today was the day of sink or swim with the draw knife. I was very leary of the draw knife for ring chasing for some reason. I had convinced myself that I would never be able to master the simple tool. Today I decided to grab a stave and get busy with my broken handle dull rusty bent draw knife. 45 mins later and 3 gallons of sweat I had an unviolated ring on a knotty stave. The dull knife while requiring some elbow grease chased a ring like a beagle on a bunny. I'm glad I listened to you veterans of the selfbow. By the way how do I cure this addiction to bow building are there meetings?

Ole Betsy

I like'em dull also for ring chasing! A lot of times I'll use it beveled side down,,,,love hearing the difference between early and late wood ;)

It's therapy to me makes my day job dissappear and feels like I'm accomplishing something.

Dig draw knives.., older the better!

I like my razor sharp. Its an old Lakeside.

I think my terrible technique would be heck with a sharp knife. Once I got the ring started it was almost fool proof. I stopped at the knots and will work those with a scraper or my pocket knife.

Lots of guys like dull knives for rings and keep another sharp for other work.

I do need to make a new grip for one side that broken handle raised a blister or three

I too like them sharp for chasing rings and belly removal. Just preference.

I like mine fairly sharp. I sharpen them scary sharp, then when they start to dull a little, I don't rush to resharpen them. Kind of a compromise where you don't have to work any harder than you have to and it'll still want to stay in the early wood.

Either way, I won't allow rust on them like yours though. Surface rust turns to pitting and that makes it hard to get a good clean edge. I bought an old one that had some light rust on it and I cleaned it up to bare, shiny metal, trued the bottom and bevel, sharpened it, and oiled it... been my favorite since.

I ran it so long today my fingers were cramping shut. 45 degrees in the shop and I was still sweating my butt off. Lol

Same here Jeff. My hands are hurting today.

I'm gonna get a draw knife so I can shave down my hackberry stave and build a bow for next fall. I might get a Mora draw knife, in keeping with the tradition of my Swedish ancestry.

Joe

I like mine sharp to get down to the main ring I am chasing, then use a dull one as scraper to clean up the early wood left behind. Either way I am with Jeff, I would clean Ole Betsy up, oil her down to keep her from pitting, put some new handles on her, and she will last your lifetime.

I'll wire wheel it this weekend and see about making some handles. I think I'd like some round ball handles.

I like mine sharp and clean with no rust. To each his own. :) Jawge

After reading reviews, I'm going with a standard style draw knife. Should be interesting to see how it works.

Joe

Let us know joe

I prefer a pretty sharp edge on mine. The more you use the drawknife, the more you will like it. I chase osage rings with the bevel side down as well.

As I got better with the draw knife the sharper I got the knife. It still is not all that sharp.i mainly use my draw knife for just pulling a growth ring though. Arvin

Sharp and bevel down for me too.

I got a used draw knife on eBay. It's about 17" wide and is in good shape. I paid $21 shipped.

Joe

Mt draw knife is the ONE tool I am attached to and cant replace easily, I watch it like a hawk at events. The rest can be replaced in a day. But not my baby.

Here's my draw knife. Not my pic. It was made for Bridge Tool Co. It's fairly large and looks like it has a lot of life left in the blade.

Joe

Holy smokes is that a large pic, lol!

Frisky, good for you. Jawge

I'm hoping I can peel most of the bark off my drying hackberry without having to cut into a ring.

Joe

I have 2 drawknives: a dull Mora for chasing rings and one exactly like Dkincaid's for slicing the wood into shape.

I tried a dull draw knife on a piece of hickory and it tore out a pretty good chunk, I sharpened it up and it is cutting like it's supposed too. I was using it beveled side down.

I guess it depends on the wood.

I think I like a good scraper (finally got the burr right) than a dull draw knife

Not razor sharp and bevel up, I know they say that's not the way to use it, but with no one to show me I learned on my own and that is how I started so I am use to it and to old to change. Pappy

I use it bevel up as well, it's easier to use more power and hog more wood off that way. I flip it bevel down on rare occasion when I need to use it to gauge depth of cut. Basically, I let the work tell me what tool to use and how to use it.

I haven't tried my chainsaw yet....LOL!!!!

Pappy, I very often use the bevel up also. It takes a bit more practice to learn that way without doing a lot of damage but once you learn it is way faster. I flip it over when I need to and don't really give it much thought anymore. When I am teaching someone I usually teach them bevel down just so they don't get in trouble. I use bevel down when cleaning up the sides of a raw stave with lots of splinters.

Glad to know I ant the only one, I have been told several times over they years that I was using it wrong, but I always figured tool use is how you learned to use it, like a lot of things building a self bow, if it works for you in most cases it's not wrong just different. You are right you do have to be a little more careful bevel up and I sometimes flip it down also, but most of the time I use bevel up. Pappy

I am also self taught and for some reason like my draw knife fairly sharp and bevel up. Whenever I try bevel down I get frustrated very quickly and flip it back over. I think it is whatever you get used to.

Sorry about the ignorant question....but what is "chasing rings"?

Basically it means to cut down through the bark of a wooden bow stave, reveal a growth ring, either right there immediately under the inner bark, or dig down through some rings to get to the one that's preferred, and then follow it, or "chase it" to the far end of the stave... which is to expose it without damaging it. Revealing a single growth ring like this, which will become the back of a selfbow, makes for a durable, reliable bow.

I've always used it bevel up... but what do I know I'm still learning...ditto what Bentstick said. DBar

I WONDER how many hours you have used up to get to this "still learning" phase Bill? lol! You don't turn out bows as fine as yours without a bunch of time invested. I do my ring chasing on really seasoned, dry osage differently than I would on anything greener. I love dead standing, really old and seasoned, super dry osage and find it so much easier to work. I can pry my way through the early wood with the bevel side down very quickly. I thought about my earlier post on this subject. Greener wood usually finds me with the bevel side up. I used to hate chasing rings, but now, it just might be my favorite part of the whole process.

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