Drawknife from sickle

[Philip Davies]

Drawknives are expensive, are they not? Even secondhand!
I have made these solely to display on Homemade Tools. All the others I ve given away and I have a decent drawknife anyway. But old sickles are easily obtained. This one is a Brades, good make.
This is easy to do, if you have the facilities. I cut down the tip, with an angle grinder for the other tang, tidying it up on the anvil, using oxyacetylene, maintaining the original temper by keeping the rest of it submerged. I think it would be too much bother to harden and temper if you used a forge. The handles are padsaw handles. People don’t use them much now, either.
I have found that the sickle curve cuts very nicely and needs very little honing.



Here’s the other one, with a pair of handles I turned for drawknives.