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Image Not Available for Draw knife used on KATHLEEN GILLETT
Draw knife used on KATHLEEN GILLETT
Image Not Available for Draw knife used on KATHLEEN GILLETT

Draw knife used on KATHLEEN GILLETT

Datebefore 1920
Object number00029685
NameDraw knife
MediumWood, steel, copper alloy
Dimensions15 x 41.5 mm, 0.55 kg
ClassificationsTools and equipment
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Carl Halvorsen
DescriptionThis draw knife comprised of a steel blade, with two wooden handles featuring copper alloy nails at the tip. It is used to shape wood by removing shavings. Traditional shipwright’s tools were expensive and difficult to replace. This meant that tools such as this draw knife were used by several generations of the Halvorsen family. HistoryThe gaff-rigged ketch, KATHLEEN GILLETT was a Bicentennial gift from Norway. Based on the seaworthy fishing, pilot and rescue boats of Norway's most famous designer, Colin Archer, it was built for marine artist Jack Earl in Sydney in the 1930s. Earl was one of the founders of the Sydney-Hobart yacht race, sailing KATHLEEN GILLETT in the first race in 1945. In 1947 the ketch, named after Earl's wife, became the second Australian yacht to circumnavigate the globe. After being sold by Jack Earl in the 1950s, KATHLEEN GILLETT’s adventurous career included island trade in Torres Strait and crocodile hunting expeditions around Bougainville and the Solomon Islands. In 1967 the ketch again became a cruising yacht, and sailed once more in the Sydney-Hobart yacht race. In 1987 the KATHLEEN GILLETT was located in Guam and purchased by the Norwegian Government as a Bicentennial gift to the people of Australia. It was shipped to Sydney for restoration by the Norwegian descended boat builder Carl Halvorsen. The restoration work was based on photographs and conversations with Jack Earl, and plans drawn up by Alan Payne.SignificanceThe draw knife was used by Lars Halvorsen on the mast of KATHLEEN GILLETT and later given as a gift to his sons. Lars Halvorsen was a Norwegian immigrant who established a family boat building business in Australia in the late 1920s.