: Traditionally it's done with a bent knife, takes a bit of practice
: to use one though:

: http://www.northbayforge.com/bn.htm

: Bill H.

Another name for a similar tool is "Crooked Knife", which is used like a one-handed drawknife. Over a hundred years ago these things were fairly common tools, but now you need to find the few places that sell them. Crooked knives were sold withot the handles, and sometimes you can still find them that way. It is an inconvenience as you need to fit a handle to it before you can use it. The bent knife shown has a straight handle. Most of the pictures of crooked knives I've seen show them with an open "L" shaped handle, and a bit more bend to the knife blade, which allows for gouging and concave carving with the tip of the blade.

In his book "the Survival of the Bark Canoe", author John McPhee writes about Henri Vaillancourt who uses a crooked knife to build birch-bark boats in the traditional manner. If you go to Amazon.com and search for this book you'll be able to read the first few pages.
I think this link may get you there directly: http://www.amazon.com/Survival-Bark-Canoe-John-McPhee/dp/0374516936/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299745614&sr=8-1#reader_0374516936

In the introductory paragraph of his book McPhee introduces Vaillancourt, and says, a few sentences in ". . .He makes his own paddles. They have slender blades, no more than 5 inches across. He roughs them out with his axe and carves them with his crooked knife, a tool well known in the north woods, almost unknown everywhere else."

The book is a good read.

There is a wikipedia entry on crooked knives: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crooked_knife

One source for crooked knives is www.poleandpaddle.com, which is the source of the illustration below, which shows a side view of the handle and blade, as well as a top view of the assembled tool.

Hope this helps.

PGJ