Drawknife Rehab - Part 3

This will be a much shorter post today.  I mentioned in the last post that I put the ferrells and caps into 5% acidity vinegar to finish removing the rust on the inside surfaces.  Within minutes there were bubbles forming on the pieces and the rust particles were floating in the vinegar within an hour.  These four pieces remained in the vinegar for 30 hours.  I then rinsed them in tap water, filled the jar with water and added baking soda to it.  As for how much, well I used a very old scientific method, Gravity!  When a clump fell out of the box that was the amount used.  This is just to neutralize any remaining acid from the vinegar.

First 15 minutes in vinegar

After 30 hours in vinegar

In solution of water and baking soda

 After drying the pieces off I wire brushed inside and out and coated with protective oil.  Hint: a 1/2" plumbers brush was just the ticket for doing the inside of the ferrells.

I also measured the flair of the tangs on the drawknife today and determined I will need to make some adjustments to them before replacing the handles.  The tangs for the most part are in line with the blade making it a drawknife best used as a bevel down knife.  Just what I want.

I will check the angles on one of my favorite drawknives and most likely adjust this knife to match as closely as possible.  My instinct tells me it should be fairly close to the 83.75 degrees pictured above.

The last post has had some great reader comments.  I greatly appreciate that you take the time to read my blog and even more so that you take the time and effort to contribute with your comments.  One concern brought to light by a reader was Hydrogen Embrittlement.  There have been some wonderful contributions concerning this and they can be found in the last posts comments.

~ Ray Schwanenberger