By Micah Summers

At The West Seattle Tool Library, we've been thankful and fortunate to receive a large number of unique donations.

Over the last year, we've received everything from 100 year-old, vintage tools to those that have barely been touched. Today, I'm writing about one of our many relatively unique tools, the draw knife, which is a tool for wood carving.

A long (typically 6-12") blade is secured between two handles. The user pulls, or draws, the knife towards himself along a rough log or long piece of wood. Common uses are to debark wood or to shape furniture, boat spars or virtually any larger, carved wood piece.

The pictured tool had one of its handles replaced seemingly decades ago but remains fully functional and a lot of fun to use.

Based on its construction, this particular draw knife likely dates between 1920 and 1940. It is just one of 1000+ tools available now at the West Seattle Tool Library, which is free to use and run mostly on member donations.

Visit us at sustainablewestseattle.org/tool-library for more information or to take a look at our inventory.