Mezzaluna/pizza cutter

[Philip Davies]

I wanted to make a drawknife.

One of these,

With an 8” blade will set you back £172 (from Axminster tools) I wanted a drawknife with a 12” blade, or longer.
I had a tyre lever long enough.
It was a bugger to bend. (Consider, that as you pene out the bevel, it will cause the material to bend, so you have to bend it first in the opposite direction.)
This took quite a long time, but eventually I had bevelled the blade, with a slight concave, and drawn out tangs at each end, oriented as I wanted. I took a final heat, just to check the line.

I had a mishap. A moment’s inattention and there was a burnt bit in the middle.
That was VERY annoying.



Not willing to waste all that work ...... it was no good for a Woodworking tool, there would always be a soft spot and even if I heat treated it successfully, it might well crack in use.
I turned the tangs around, peened out the blade again and ground it up.

I think it will cut pizza. Maybe it will stay sharp to chop herbs. But it would look all right perhaps on a farmhouse kitchen wall.
We haven’t got a farmhouse kitchen.
Or it might cut fodder for rabbits. It looks like a garden tool, Mrs Davies observed.

The handles are recycled walnut, laminated. The rivets are from old handsaws. I do not know whether you can buy new saw handle rivets any more, but about 20 years ago they were about £1 apiece, so it’s worth salvaging an old saw, even one that’s been left to rot outside. I found a Disston like that once, 5 rivets and almost nothing else.
The blade guard is plastic hose.