Card Scraper: Am I doing this right?

[Greg Esres]

Burnished my first card scraper yesterday and tried it on a scrap piece of pine. The shavings I'm producing are powdery, though bigger than what I get via sanding, but there are very few identifiable "curls". It *does* work, though it took 100 passes or so to remove a small, shallow scratch in the piece of pine. The scraper certainly doesn't get hot, as some people describe.

I see that some have mentioned that soft woods aren't the best to scrape, but I don't know what the results should look like. Should I see something better?

Thanks

[Morris Dovey]

| Burnished my first card scraper yesterday and tried it on a scrap | piece of pine. The shavings I'm producing are powdery, though | bigger than what I get via sanding, but there are very few | identifiable "curls". It *does* work, though it took 100 passes or | so to remove a small, shallow scratch in the piece of pine. The | scraper certainly doesn't get hot, as some people describe. | | I see that some have mentioned that soft woods aren't the best to | scrape, but I don't know what the results should look like. Should | I see something better?

Greg...

If you jointed the edge and burnished a good hook, you should get at least some very fine curls. Lotsa work with only powder to show for it is usually my clue that I need to rework the edge.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[B a r r y]

Scrapers work best on hardwoods.

Barry

[Dave W]

I would suggest trying your edge on a piece of harder wood. My own results with pine have been very variable. Part of the problem is that the hardness, and therefore ease of scraping varies greatly with pine. When you get the hang of it, it will become the best tool in the shop. Dave

[David]

A scraper card is your BEST tool?

dave

[David]

ah, card scraper; not scraper card. guess I'm not fully awake.

Dave

[robo hippy]

Dave, I found out after a lot of trial and error that there are a few tricks to getting a servicable edge on the card scraper. I discovered that when I would redo the old egde (lay it down on the bench flat, use the burnishing tool to stand the edge back up, then with the card upright, reburnish the old edge again) I would get a better edge than I had to start. I then read one guy's method of burnishing a new edge was to lay it flat first and burnish, then stand it up and burnish the cutting edge. This seems to work a lot better. Also, the harder the wood, the slicker the surface will be when you are done. Also do be prepared to get your fingers blistered. These things get hot. robo hippy

[David]

I do the same thing; lay it flat, burnish, put it in the vise and roll the edge (using a Snap-On screwdriver shank).

Dave

[Greg Esres]

I was afraid of that. Three of my four burnished edges perform about the same. The first one is useless. Guess I'll have to file them down and try again.

Thanks!

[Greg Esres]

So I read, but it's very frustrating right now. I was hoping it'd be easy. ;-)

I'll follow your and Barry's advice to try harder wood before I accept that my burnishing is flawed.

Thank you.

[John B]

G'day Greg, Don't just file the edge. Once you have run a file over it, use an oil stone on the flats and edge, this will give a much sharper cutting edge when burnished. I only use a file every 5-6 sharpenings and a stone for every 2nd one. Just running your burnisher along the flat a couple of times and then rolling the edge brings back a good cut. It takes patience and practice to obtain a good cut. Also vary the angle you burnish at and the angle you use the scraper at until you get what you want. As other have said, Once you get there you'll never go back. regards John

[Doug Miller]

Solution: the Veritas Scraper Holder.

's also a whole lot easier on the joints, especially in that it enables you to *pull* the scraper instead of pushing it.

[Bugs]

You got a good start but need to practice making the hook. DIY Woodworking occasionally shows David Marks scraping a board with beautiful fine shavings rolling off the wood. A blunt scraper that only raises dust also has its uses. Broken glass also makes a good scraper of that type. Bugs

[fredfighter]

What you describe sounds typical for pine. Planing is reputed to produce a better surface on softwoods and that's how it seems to work for me too.

Try some maple, cherry, and poplar. In my experiencs poplar both planes and scrapes beautifully.

Scrapers are also supposed to be problematical on extremely hard woods but I've no experience scraping ebony or rosewood.

A scraper can be tuned so finely that it will remove one layer of paint, lexposing another layer underneath, or course enough to take the knife

marks out of a cutting board with a dozen strokes or so.