Card scraper success!

[Mark & Juanita]

I have finally been successful in not using sandpaper prior to finishing. On my entertainment center, I have managed to use just planes and a card scraper to prepare the door panels and one of the back panels for finish (that's as much finishing as I have done thus far).

What turned the corner for me? Bagging the Sandvik scraper I had been trying to use and getting a Lie Nielson card scraper (cost me all of $8.00, I think). I've struggled with trying to put a hook on the Sandvik for years and was only moderately successful sometimes. The Sanvik managed to gall my burnisher more than the burnisher managed to turn a hook on the Sandvik. I have now successfully turned a hook on the Lie Nielson scraper more than several times and it seems to be consistent without having to use extraordinary effort to get the hook. I was told that LN uses the same material as they use on their backsaws for their scraper stock. The material is much more flexible than the Sandvik (easier on the fingers during use), and as I said, turns *so* much easier. The hook seems to be pretty durable, I've been able to do quite a bit of scraping on a single sharpening of the 4 edges. It seems plywood scrapes mostly dust, regardless of hook age, but test runs on hardwoods return small shavings.

I'm a happy camper.

[patriarch]

Mark & Juanita wrote in news: [e-mail]:

It is a thing of beauty, is it not?

I bought TWO SETS of LN scapers, so I could keep enough of them prepared to get me through a largish project. The Sandviks now get sharpened up to loan to other folks...

Now I just need to get on of those special leather envelopes to keep them in... ;-)

BTW, making up a small jig to hold them in whilst burnishing made life easier. Several of the magazines had good articles recently.

Welcome to the quiet side.

Patriarch

[SawDust]

Okay that's enough convincing.. Been thinking about it for a while. I'm heading to LV today... But I have a question... And it might be a stupid question.

They say - sand to XXX grit depening on the finish being used for penetration etc. Is this an issue when scraping.?

Pat

[Nate Perkins]

For me, the problem that I always had was failing to burnish hard enough on the flat side prior to rolling the hook ... that and holding the burnisher too far from perpindicular while rolling the hook.

It took quite a while to figure it out, but now I cut thick piles of shavings that look kind of like fine gauze.

In the process of trying to figure out the process of making the hook I ran through Sandvik, Lie Nielsen, Two Cherries, and Lee Valley scrapers. Kind of silly, I guess, but that's learning by trial and error for you! I found that all of them can be made to work fine. I do prefer the softer ones like the Lee Valley and the Two Cherries, but I think that's personal preference.

Cheers, Nate

[max]

Nope! The scraper actually cuts like a knife, leaving the pores of the wood open. You should get a deeper more dimensional finish. max

[Australopithecus scobis]

Me too. ;)

Yesterday I grabbed a 8" piece of the bottom of a blue jeans leg. (I save the legs when they wear out.) Folded in half to give three compartments. Ran a seam across the bottom and along the side. Left a couple inches unsewn, then slit them. (Look at the pic of the holder in the LV catalog.) There are subtleties to sewing to which I am not privy. Fold up like I described, then try to pull it inside out to put the ?selvage?, the part of the fabric proud of the seam, on the inside. Whoops. Also bent the needle trying to get through the rolled hems; left them alone then.

Anyway, it works fine, cost nothing (jt?), and will do until the fancy leather works its way into my budget.

[patriarch]

SawDust wrote in news: [e-mail]:

It's not a stupid question. A scraped finish looks very different than a sanded one, and may or may not be what you want/need on any given piece. Not all woods take well to scraping, and others really 'shine'. (Sorry)

Cherry and maple are two that I think are well suited. Oak is another story. The nature of the grain plays a large part. Pine refuses to be scraped, or so I've been told.

You definitely will want to do a sample piece, paying attention to edge/face/end grain, and completing your finishing processes. A generalized answer just wouldn't do your question justice. And the look doesn't suit all projects by any means.

BTW, you may want to purchase the two scraper set. The different thicknesses suit different work patterns.

Patriarch

[Fred the Red Shirt]

A Vice with wooden jaws works fine for me as does a wood-jawed hand-screw clamp.

[bridger]

I have a handsaw sharpening vise. it's about perfect for sharpening scrapers.

[mp]

Wow. You'd make someone a nice wife!

[Australopithecus scobis]

No, my wife brags about me to her friends. My sewing efforts, however, all appear "Man made." Really, hie thee to the fabric store. Lots of good WW stuff there. Microfiber cloth, pounce wheels, and beeswax, to name a few.

Back to scrapers, does anyone here ever used the curved ones?

[bridger]

absolutely. I make most of them myself from whatever suitable steel I can get my hands on. non-carbide tipped circular saw blades are perfect for the thicker ones. handsaw blade stock is right for thinner flexible ones. I rough cut the shape I need on one of those small horizontal/vertical bandsaws and grind and file to fair the curves, then stone the edges square and burnish the hook with a HSS drill blank. typical time from concept to making shavings so thin they have only one side is about 15 minutes.

[rcook5]

My favorite scraper stock comes from old Japanese saw blades. I buy the ones with impulse hardened teeth which can't be resharpened. When the blade wears out I cut scrapers out of it to fit the curve of whatever I'm working on.

--RC That which does not kill us makes us stronger. --Friedrich Nietzsche Never get your philosophy from some guy who ended up in the looney bin. -- Wiz Zumwalt

[Juergen Hannappel]

[...]

You make moebius shavings? Try glueing two of them together egde to edge and make a klein bottle shaving!

[bridger]

do you roll a burr on them? sounds a little thin and hard for that. OTOH, they probably don't need one....

[Ba r r y]

Which Sandvik do you have? They come in different thicknesses.

Barry

[rcook5]

Yeah, I put a burr on them. It's called using a good burnisher and pressing really hard. A little oil helps.

--RC

That which does not kill us makes us stronger. --Friedrich Nietzsche Never get your philosophy from some guy who ended up in the looney bin. -- Wiz Zumwalt

[bridger]

seems like there will be a curve of diminishing returns with burnishing hard thin scrapers. at some point you have to press so hard to roll an edge on the hard steel that you'll put a kink in it.... not sure what steel it'd be though....

[Larry Jaques]

On Mon, 08 Nov 2004 12:31:42 -0600, Australopithecus scobis calmly ranted:

I need to make a scraper pouch, too. The Hunter Green acrylic canvas ought to work fine. It turned out too thick for my glare guard use. The $5 investment I made in an old Singer-clone Universal sewing machine has paid for itself 30-times-over in a couple years. Wally World has a set of sailcloth needles for under a buck. They're tough enough to go through leather or thick cloth, felt, etc.

I just bought a set with my last LVT order but I haven't used them yet. I made an ogee bit & scratch stock to do the mantle so I couldn't use them there, either. Maybe some day, eh?

[Prometheus]

The Lie Nielsons are a lot better, huh? I haven't had too much trouble with the Sandvik scraper I've got, but I bought one of those Veritas adjustible burnishers at the same time. Scrapers are excellent to use, though- I'm going to have to try out LN.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam