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[generalcustard]

Hey All,
Atm i've got a couple of part made clefts on the way from Mr Murphy and was wondering about the specifics of the tools i'll need.

The Plane: Now i've seen talk of a wooden No. 4 round bottom plane, but cant seem to find any on the net, would a bench plane, or a smooth plane do the job. also does the term  No.4 refer to blade width ie, 4inch??

Travishers: No4 and No5 i cant seem to find them at all.

Spokeshave: Still at a bit of a loss, i imagen No4 and No5 concave blades?? hopefully you guys cans shed some light on this subject.

Drawknife: i believe 225mm blade which is flat (neither convexed or concaved) but curved???

Cheers.

[Howzat]

Drawknife: i believe 225mm blade which is flat (neither convexed or concaved) but curved???

Curved blade in the drawknife won't be very good, you should be looking for a straight blade

[generalcustard]

OK cheers, any help one the other tools???

[Jamieh]

Norbair has a wonderful blog and a particular post on tools (with pics) that i found very helpful when starting out looking for tools, which is here... http://www.cricket-stuff.co.uk/?p=173

If you are buying a part made you could probably get away without a drawknife (as you probably won't have so much willow to remove, and draw knife's are quite tricky to use and sharpen for a beginner i found!). you should be able to find a spokeshave in most decent tool shops. I have a flat bottom and a concave one, and obviously it depends on if you want to concave or not! Same with a round bottom plane, useful if you want to concave but not absolutely necessary.

[BrianLara400*]

Hello Langley, Ill write you a ballad on drawknifes.
With the drawknives the english style are largely the way to go, and depending on how much work you plan to give it after this project there are some very nice ones on the market! I've drawknifes of both common styles (English & German-curved) both my main ones are beatifully forged from the best grade tool steels available (capable of the keenest edge, and keeping it too) Both have nice cherrywood? handles/totes and have served me with distinction. That said the main issues with the curved german one is that the flat side of the blade has an even so slight camber to it that prevents it being sharpened to its full potential at this stage, and its liable to stay that way until Ive a period of 40 days & 40 nights where I can buggerize around lapping it flat by hand, on some wet and dry. Plus to hollow grind the edge around a curve requires alot of time, patience & and some experience.

The biggest issue with the German I see, aside those afforementioned is that the handles (on mine at least) are off set, which endeared it realy well to bevel down work - where you are using the heel of the bevel to contact the job and control the depth of cut , ie shaping the toe, duckbills, shaping shoulders/marrying handle etc. (I suppose you could probably say most finer work on the bats - but not strictly true)

But on the flip side with the bevel pointing to the sky, the handle ergonomics seem all wrong and it feels very awkward (as though someone "hobbled" your wrists "misery" style).
When your drawing it through timber with the bevel up, it doesnt feel like a very natural angle of attack and makes it very hard to control on the chosen application (cricket bats).
Thats not to say that my german one is not a beautiful peice of gear for other woodworking projects, but on bats when a large portion of the roughing and drawing down is done bevel up why have a knife style that can only handle some of the tasks encountered on bats.
A batmaker I know has multiple draw knives (all english) ie
+a skinny bladed one for shoulders (maybe 5/8 or 3/4"?),
+an allround willow one (broader - probably 1 1/2" from edge to back),
+One specifically for use on cane when shaping the handle, (this one got sharpened more frequently, due to the higher silica content of cane thus more abbrasive)     

As for the other tools give me a call when you receive your bats and i walk you through it,
as I can talk on average about 3 1/2 words a minute faster than I can type, and 75% of it will be stuff I re-typed a couple of times on the forum previously.

[generalcustard]

thanks guys, I talked to a bloke from the tool place and i think he pointed me in the right direction. we will see.

[SAF Bats]

BL400* great post, you shoud post more often