A Forgotten Tool

It took me a long time to remove the thick bark on the first edge of my walnut slab a couple of days ago. I thought there must be an easier way, and there was! I happened to notice this old drawknife hanging on the pegboard. I bought it at an estate sale a year ago and I'd forgotten I had it. I was surprised how easy it was to use, both for the aggressive initial cuts and for delicate finish cuts close to the sapwood. It won't take long to finish smoothing both edges with card scrapers.

I was thinking about making a couple of chairside tables from this piece, but it's telling me it wants to be a hall table.