A woodworking tool with a blade set at right angles to the handle, used to shape and smooth wood by pulling it toward the user.
The word combines 'draw' (to pull) and 'knife,' describing the tool's action of drawing the blade toward the operator. This compound emerged in medieval woodworking, and the tool itself dates back centuries to European craftsmen who needed to shape barrel staves and wooden handles.
The drawknife is one of history's most cleverly named tools because it literally describes exactly what you do with it—you draw the knife toward you—and carpenters still use this 500-year-old design largely unchanged.
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