New old knife day, probably not what you expected.

[Rich Davis]

This is an I & L.J. White "9" drawknife. There's some minor chipping near the edges but otherwise it cuts hair. I plan on doing pretty much nothing right now as I I'm using it to debark logs. I may attempt to dress up the blade as there's a lot of meat, but I'm a bit reluctant until it's needed.

I haven't really good estimate of how old this is (maybe someone does) but it's clearly forged and laminated with a high degree of craftsmanship not seem often after the 1880's, or at least that's what I have gathered. I doubt it goes anywhere near the founding of White in 1837, but perhaps circa civil war? That's a wild guess based on little data so again expert opinion welcome.

Whatcha think?

 

[CableGirl]

It blows my mind!

The reason I have such reaction is I had one of these on my knee a week ago, still within eyeshot on the table near me. I was given mine years ago from a very old friend who collected and used old woodworking tools and I recently had the thought of putting a hair splitting edge on it just for the no other reason of the sheer pleasure of digging out all my waterstones and going through the motions.

Great old tool, Rich.