Draw Knife, Khukuri Knife, Machete...Hatchet?? What is best to thin hafts with?

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I like the idea of a draw knife but hafts are so hard I'm not sure it would work out all that well. Wondering what the best tool (or maybe not best but preferred) would be to thin a few hafts. Thanks.
 
draw knife is the best out of the options, im biased to the surform rasp myself but spokeshaves are also excellent. control is what you want, not speed.a good split, like i said, is the surform.
also, watch your grain, tear-out's a b****
 
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I would go with a hatchet, , spokeshave, and a drawknife.
The hatchet will easily remove bulk material before you get to the drawknife then spokeshave work.
 
I like the spokeshave much better than the drawknife. Drawknives work well in green lumber but not as well in dry hardwoods. Also, when you hit a grain change with a spokeshave you can easily stop before much damage is done. The deeper cut of the drawknife can get in trouble there.

The spokeshave leaves nice clean corners on my octagons. And they leave a nice finish that really doesn't even need sanded. But they can't manage the tight curves in the swell. That's where the rasps come in.
 
Are you thinning an existing/finished, commercially made, or a handle from a raw piece of wood?

Raw wood I have been using a hatchet to rough the shape out, a draw knife to thin out the body of the handle/belly/back to a more or less smooth texture, then a rasp.

An existing handle that just needs thinning with no major wood removal - a finer rasp and maybe scrapers.

An oversized commercial handle, a scraper to remove all of the lacquer if it is there, then maybe a spokeshave if there is enough meat to warrant it or to start flats for octagonalization, but mostly a wood rasp then scrapers for final thinning or finish before hand-sanding.

Never used a sureform but I am sure a fresh one would be a pleasure to use.

You can buy scrapers that are pretty nice to use and if you work at it you can really take control of how much material you take off the handle.

My hatchet, drawknife, and spokeshave I kind of enjoy sharpening but getting a nice edge on a scraper and then burnishing properly is a pain for me. For lacquer removal I use the back of a hacksaw blade that I put an edge on with a Work Sharp. The edge is quick to touch up, flexes to the shape of the handle more or less, and depending on pressure you can really control what you are removing.

Besides the head fitting, this handle was done only with that hacksaw blade I am going on about. Not the fastest way to do it but possible. A good knife is handy as well.


Lots of ways to get to the same place for sure.
 
Twindog said:
You laugh, but that's what I use. The spokeshave is beyond my skill level.
Click to expand...

Oh, I'm not laughing!
2x72" @40grit with 60 for cleanup and then a little 180 sandpaper. I've got a draw knife (never used) and no spokeshaves, so...
 
agent, sureforms are nice... if you know how to use it, no tear out, or very little. i use mine on knots and it's great for that. i still end up using a half round rasp and a spokeshave for finer work though, the rasp is the only other "needed" tool when using a sureform. maybe a half round file i you dont want to sand
 
Even better than surforms are Microplane rasps. They even make Microplane blades for surform frames. Give 'em a look! I use a 2" Microplane rotary shaper in a drill to do rapid material, a sharp farrier's rasp (Stella Bianca) to hog off material when I need more control over surface flatness than the rotary shaper, Microplane hand rasps for the majority of the shaping work after roughing, conventional wood rasps/files for fitting (more controllable material removal rate) and then a scraper to smooth it out before finish sanding (if I bother.)
 
One other option is using the same 4-1/2" angle grinder that powers your cup brush. Just outfit it with a rubber backing pad and a 36 grit or 24 grit sanding disc. I've found the rubber-backed sanding discs to work best on wood and the flap discs to work best on metal. But you can blow a lot of wood off very quickly with this tool.

For even bigger jobs try using a 7-1/2" angle grinder with a 24 grit disc. It'll eat end grain off hardwoods like nothin'! Just be sure to wear a dust mask and work outside 'cause you're gonna make a cloud.
 
Square_peg said:
One other option is using the same 4-1/2" angle grinder that powers your cup brush. Just outfit it with a rubber backing pad and a 36 grit or 24 grit sanding disc. I've found the rubber-backed sanding discs to work best on wood and the flap discs to work best on metal. But you can blow a lot of wood off very quickly with this tool.

For even bigger jobs try using a 7-1/2" angle grinder with a 24 grit disc. It'll eat end grain off hardwoods like nothin'! Just be sure to wear a dust mask and work outside 'cause you're gonna make a cloud.
Click to expand...

This sounds like something to try out, thank you.

FortyTwoBlades said:
Even better than surforms are Microplane rasps...
Click to expand...

Never looked into microplane rasps before. Something like these?:
microplane_rasps_690.jpg


They look like the same idea as the lemon zester in my bar so I may not have my head around the concept yet lol.


Anyone have experience with rifflers?

62w3000group2.jpg


The larger ones caught my eye but I am not sure about the cost and which I would want for removing larger amounts of material smoothly. They are spendy enough that I wouldn’t want to buy one just to find out that I really needed a different coarseness or size…

Also, I don’t know how long they last with a lot of use. The hand punched ones are pretty for sure.
 
Yes, the Microplane rasps were originally developed for woodworking but they realized there was a market for them as graters and zesters as well. The woodworking rasps with the replaceable blades are great because you can reverse the direction of cut. I have both the large and small sizes.
 
[video=youtube;bkizsqzOewY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkizsqzOewY[/video]

I would like to try a hand stitched rasp, but not enough to buy one. I use my machine cut rasp for roughing out and follow with files.

YMMV:)


Bob
 
Square_peg said:
One other option is using the same 4-1/2" angle grinder that powers your cup brush. Just outfit it with a rubber backing pad and a 36 grit or 24 grit sanding disc. I've found the rubber-backed sanding discs to work best on wood and the flap discs to work best on metal. But you can blow a lot of wood off very quickly with this tool.

For even bigger jobs try using a 7-1/2" angle grinder with a 24 grit disc. It'll eat end grain off hardwoods like nothin'! Just be sure to wear a dust mask and work outside 'cause you're gonna make a cloud.
Click to expand...

I use this a lot, but I don't use the backing pad, what I do is back it up with worn out sanding disks to get more flexibility
 
I have these:

33224558082_3ab7d88cbf_c.jpg


I like them. I had read that there is a learning curve to using them and that was the case for me.


Bob
 
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