A drawknife (drawing knife, draw shave, shaving knife) is a traditional woodworking hand tool used to shape wood by removing shavings. It consists of a blade with a handle at each end. The blade is much longer (along the cutting edge) than it is deep (from cutting edge to back edge). It is pulled or "drawn" (hence the name) toward the user. The drawknife in the illustration has a blade long, although much shorter drawknives are also made. The blade is sharpened to a chisel bevel. Traditionally, it is a rounded, smooth bevel. The handles can be below the level of the blade (as in the illustration) or at the same level. Purpose A drawknife is commonly used to remove large slices of wood for flat faceted work, to debark trees, or to create roughly rounded or cylindrical billets for further work on a lathe, or it can shave like a spokeshave plane, where finer finishing is less of concern than a rapid result. The thin blade lends itself to create complex concave or convex curves. Unlike a spokeshave, it does not have a closed mouth to control chip formation, and so lacks the spokeshave's superior cutting and shaving precision. They are also a vital piece of equipment in hand-made cricket bats, being used to shape the curve of the bat. Operation The drawknife ideally is used when the operator is in a seated position astride a traditional shaving horse, which safely grips the working stock, and they can also use their legs for additional pulling power. The ideal working stock has the grain of the wood running parallel to the shaving horse, and perpendicular to the blade of the drawknife, so that the drawknife shaves away the entire wood fibre and does not cut against it. It is best not pulled with blade perfectly perpendicular to the wood stock, but pulled slightly upward toward them in a skewed (blade at a slight diagonal) or slithering fashion, aiming not to take off as much wood as possible, but gradually "shave" the work. The operator gently levers the blade to "bite" into the wood and then controls the depth of the cut by raising or lowering the handles as they pull the drawknife towards them. Straight cuts One works from the centre of the piece to the end, not the entire length all at once. The operator then reverses the piece