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So I was browsing my local Craigslist & came upon a draw knife. I know some people use them for neck carving.

It seems a draw knife would be a lot faster than a rasp but at the cost of greater disaster potential.

So any of you who use draw knives, what advise can you share? I assume you need super straight grain and no knots. How about handle styles: straight or bent?

Thanks,
Kevin Looker

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Drawknives can remove tons of wood in a hurry, or remove very small bits of wood with precision. Any wood that has a figure to to it is unreliable to use with a drawknife, and some wood ,even when straight brained, don't want to cooperate (Osage Orange for example).

If you want to try one, any one will do as it is the point of contact with the wood that is important, regardless of length of blade. If you have access to an 8" blade, it is about right for necks, however, you won't use it for long as your band saw already got it close enough for spokeshaves, rasps, and files.

Yep, use mine all the time. You have to be very aware of grain direction, cause you’re hogging off some pretty good hunks of wood.

The other option is a spokeshave where the blade can be canted, taking thick pieces on one side and lighter cuts on the other. Pretty amazing how much you can take off with a coarsely set shave. And much more controllable than a drawknife.

I’m still stunned that Jean Larrivee can carve a neck in what, 5 minutes? It still takes me the better part of a day.

Steve

My wife and I toured the Martin factory when Chris Martin was home from college and giving the tours (summer job). Back then they had a man using a draw knife carving necks. He would split out large hunks of the wood initially and bring the neck into rough form in about a minute, and within 5 it would be close to done.
I have a couple and use them for rough projects ( axe handles, etc) but guitar work, not so much. You can easily and quickly rough shape wood with them, and do fine work with them if you have the skills.

I have only completed 2 guitars but am experimenting with them. I made 2 small ones in a blacksmithing course 10 years ago. Small, about 4-and 6" blades. I have a lot of experience with them and used them to remove overhang of top and bottom as well as neck. I am very carful, but it is fast. My problems actually came when I used the spokeshave, next, to clean up.

Got used to them years ago working green wood on a shavehorse. Made a lot of chairs.

Initially used small ones for carving projects. Flextool makes one with about a 4" blade. Inspiration for mine.

I own 5, japanese sculptors d knife 4in, a frost 8in double edged pushknfe, a home made 3 in from a file an old furnituremakers d knife 8in and a 5 in chinese drawknife similiar to the small spoke shaves but 5in wide with a much thicker body and blade . crude but very effective .I try different ones, on different types of wood and they all respond differently depending on the species and your approach

It quite possibly is my favourite tool to use if indeed I have a favourite. Mine is a small Pfeil with the droopy handles. The pitfalls have already been covered. The only other piece of advice I can offer is to get hold of some scrap wood. Practice, you'll get the feel for it and eventually learn how to read grain etc. It can be very dangerous (to the guitar neck) but it's also an extremely efficient tool in skilled hands.