Making the most of forest thinning lumber

(edit) I suppose this should go into the Woodworking forum really. My mistake.

Here in Japan forests are (mis)managed. Many people own plots of land with cedar and cypress growing on them and they thin them to encourage large trees to grow for selling to the lumber mills. I often hear that people don't cut down enough trees here... Anyhow, I got a truckload of thinned lumber from an acquaintance for the equivalent of 60 USD. I figure the carbon will sit a little bit longer this way than if he had taken it and had it turned into biofuel as he planned.

I built six raised hugelkultur beds bordered with cedar/cypress logs stacked and still had quite a few logs left over.

One of the logs was this relatively thick yet short wonder that I knew I had to do something good with. After 8 months I finally finished the project. I made a shaving horse for turning the prunings from my garden trees into useful odds and ends. I only used two temporary screws and one piece of permanent hardware for it - the bolt that the dumbhead hinges on. It needs some adjustment, but it works a treat.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/99PKhi2jvsf4rqez7

Wow,  beautiful work!
Your tools are great too.

Thanks for your compliment. My tools are mostly hand-me-downs from my wife's great grandfather... but the majority of them need a lot of maintenance work. That's one reason I needed a shaving horse... to turn my fruit tree prunings into handles to replace the ones that are falling off. I hired the local blacksmith to make the drawknife for me, but I didn't know what I wanted and it was the first he made, so to be honest it's a little unwieldy. I might hire him to make me a new one with a smaller profile after I've used this one for a year or so and learned what I really need and don't.

Japanese hand-planes are finicky, they require a lot of setting and that takes a lot of practice. I kind of screwed up one of these by filing off part of the chip-breaker. I need to get myself set-up to do some minor metal work, but it's a little intimidating.

I recommend that you have a look at some of Curtis Buchanan's videos on YouTube. He gives some explanations about how drawknives work and how they should be set up.
Your drawknife has the handles coming straight out off the ends, which makes it very difficult to work with efficiently on a shaving horse, It's also much deeper front to back through the blade than it needs to be. You want to be able to make curved cuts, which that deep blade just won't allow.

I might also suggest that on your shaving horse, you shape the dumb head some more. Right now it's just a log shaped cylinder, and some of that material on the top at the front will eventually get in your way when you are working, and it isn't doing anything useful by being there.  If you give it an arched profile from the back down toward the gripping jaw, it will be more versatile. The curve should look almost like a parrot's upper beak.

Peter Ellis wrote:I recommend that you have a look at some of Curtis Buchanan's videos on YouTube. He gives some explanations about how drawknives work and how they should be set up.
Your drawknife has the handles coming straight out off the ends, which makes it very difficult to work with efficiently on a shaving horse, It's also much deeper front to back through the blade than it needs to be. You want to be able to make curved cuts, which that deep blade just won't allow.

I might also suggest that on your shaving horse, you shape the dumb head some more. Right now it's just a log shaped cylinder, and some of that material on the top at the front will eventually get in your way when you are working, and it isn't doing anything useful by being there.  If you give it an arched profile from the back down toward the gripping jaw, it will be more versatile. The curve should look almost like a parrot's upper beak.

Thank you so much for the feedback! I will look into Curtis's videos. I had that drawknife made by a blacksmith who doesn't know anything about drawknives! He specializes in hoes, and it was my first draw knife as well so I had no specs to give him.

I have felt the desire after using this to have a narrower blade profile. The handle position hasn't been as negative. I initially asked for the tool for debarking. I think for bark removal I wish I had a concave curve in the blade with about half the blade depth and the same length.

I wish I could find better resources on the REASONS for different tool shapes and such, there are lots of graphics showing different ones, but I have trouble finding the rationale. Your post helps!