How to fix end grain tearout on bowls

[John K Jordan]

Relative to Kyle's "try it" comment, realize that the bevel on the top of the scraper only has to be tiny in order to try it. When you see pictures of people's NRS's, they usually have a substantial size bevel on the top, but that's only so you don't have to regrind the top very often. If you're just trying it, you can put a 1mm top bevel on, won't change the behavior. That way if you don't like it, you'll hardly lose a thing regrinding.

That's true, any bevel is fine as long as the angle is less than 90 deg. For some of my NRS with a curve ground down one edge the reason I like the bevel the same on both sides is I can decide after sharpening whether to apply a burr to make the scraper left or right handed. For those curved scrapers I've tried several angles and like about 60-deg included angle the best.

JKJ

[Dave Mount]

I like the bevel the same on both sides is I can decide after sharpening whether to apply a burr to make the scraper left or right handed.

I hadn't thought about reversibility -- that's a slick idea! I don't use a NRS a lot, but the one I have is not ground symmetrically, it's shallower on the top. I've been meaning to experiment to see how the cut is affected by the attack angle (by this I mean the angle of the top bevel relative to the surface of the wood), but I just haven't set aside time to do it. I guess on a scraper with a turned burr, the true attack angle is determined by the shape of the burr in addition to the angle of the top bevel, but the idea is the same.

Dave