How do you sharpen a drawknife?

I asked an old timer, my wife's uncle, about this and he told me you use a file and then a stone in the same manner as the file, just to clean up the edge.

If you don't want to buy a stone, glue some sandpaper to a flat piece of wood

David

remove the key to email me.

Narrow your glass selection and use standard bevel down hone, wire edge removal order. The bevel will lie flat with light pressure, especially as it is pretty long.

Or get a stone. Old boys here used a scythe stone with bark knives. Of course, that's a bit rougher work than I put to my knives.

My first thought on readinh the subject line: Vewwy cawefuwwy.

I use a stone and a wooden paddle with PSA-backed wet-dry paper on it. I hold the drawknife resting on my right forearm (I'm a lefty), with one handle resting in the crook of my elbow and the other in my right hand. This steadies it nicely. I then take the stone to the blade's edge, drawing it at a slight angle across and away from the edge.

I don't worry so much about keeping a perfectly consistent edge; what I do is feel for when I've raised an even burr, and then flip the drawknife over and remove that burr. I also like to put a bit of a back-bevel on the thing, so I just go back and forth until I can just barely feel a burr (I use fine wet-dry paper for this step).

For safety's sake, I sometimes use a leather batting glove to hold the stone. But you should be OK if you are careful and always make your sharpening stroke away from the edge.