Card scrapers on the lathe

[Prashun Patel]

Has anyone used a card scraper on the lathe?

[Dick Rowe]

I think it could get someone nominated for a Darwin Award ;)

[Scott Hackler]

They arent thick enough to accomplish anything but an injury. One exception might be to hold a card scraper in a pair of vise grips and use it as a chattering tool. Neither is highly recommended.

[Mike Cruz]

Man, I think about the heat build up when I hand scrape... Using on a lathe would probably get it red hot! Safetywise, I have NO clue, but will take the advice of the two other posters that advised against it...

[Reed Gray]

I have tried them, and there isn't anything that you can do with them that you can't do with a bowl scraper, and the bowl scraper has a handle on it. Well, you can hold a card scraper inside a hollow form, but again, there are tools with handles on them for that.

The card scraper if you do use it works better with the lathe at slow speeds, 50 to 100 rpm.

robo hippy

[Nathan Hawkes]

I have used one.....with the lathe STOPPED. As the other replies indicate, it would be pretty dangerous, or worse with the lathe in operation. Also, in my experience, it was pretty hit-or-miss due to the grain changing direction around the bowl. Straight grain cuts very well with a gouge, which is the only thing I can cut well with a card scraper.

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

For what it's worth, I have used card scrapers for years on my segmented work (no end grain). I primarily use them at relatively low speed to remove sanding sealer. I typically apply several coats of sealer, scraping between coats, in order to fill the wood pores before any sanding. This keeps dark wood dust from becoming trapped in light wood pores. Depending upon the quality of scarper burr, I usually produce about a 120 to 180-grit surface. For convex surfaces, I use a straight scraper and for concave surfaces, a French curve scraper. I could probably do about the same thing by using a conventional woodturning scraper in a shear scrap fashion, but the card scrapers are much quicker. Because the card scrapers are handheld, safety is a concern, but I've never had an incident. Also, handheld scraping should be kept to a minimum, especially if different wood densities are present. A lot of aggressive handheld scraping can destroy the roundness of the turning. It’s worked for me.

[Prashun Patel]

Well, I guess I get a Darwin award. I put the lathe on reverse at the slowest speed just held the burnished edge up to a bowl I was making. It worked pretty well. My thought was to use it as a sandpaper substitute. Even a straight scraper is pretty easy to control without causing a flat.

I didn't exert the same pressure that I do when scraping flatwork; you just let it ride the contour. Anyway, I need to get a real, proper lathe scraper.

[Michael James]

Sorry, you need at least an EMT nomination, preferably OME autopsy to qualify......:eek: Be careful, and use common sense so you can stick around and make those fine turnings you're dreaming about!




Well, I guess I get a Darwin award. . ......Anyway, I need to get a real, proper lathe scraper.

[Sean Hughto]

I've used card scrapers on bowls off the lathe or with the lathe stopped to touch up spots of tearout and that worked well. The benefit of hand scrapers is that they can work at any necessary direction of attack on the rough area and focus on very localized areas.

I find it impossible to generalize when it comes to smoothing lathe items as different woods react differently to various techniques.

[George Guadiane]

For what it's worth, I have used card scrapers for years on my segmented work (no end grain). I primarily use them at relatively low speed to remove sanding sealer. I typically apply several coats of sealer, scraping between coats, in order to fill the wood pores before any sanding. This keeps dark wood dust from becoming trapped in light wood pores. Depending upon the quality of scarper burr, I usually produce about a 120 to 180-grit surface. For convex surfaces, I use a straight scraper and for concave surfaces, a French curve scraper. I could probably do about the same thing by using a conventional woodturning scraper in a shear scrap fashion, but the card scrapers are much quicker. Because the card scrapers are handheld, safety is a concern, but I've never had an incident. Also, handheld scraping should be kept to a minimum, especially if different wood densities are present. A lot of aggressive handheld scraping can destroy the roundness of the turning. It’s worked for me.

Russ Fairfield suggested a card scraper to resolve a tearout problem I was having... Low rotations, great care - it worked for me.

[Steve Pippins]

Several years ago at the Texas Turn or Two, Clay Foster did a demo using a card scraper in shear scrape mode to smooth the outside of a bowl or hollow form. He was turning green wood and taking very light shear scraping cuts. The technique worked well and yielded a very smooth surface.

[Bill Bulloch]

I have used card scrappers a lot of time on the out side of a bowl with good results. You can clean up the little ripples, clean up tearout and remove Sanding Sealer fast and easy. I never, however, figured out how to hold one to use it on the inside. You need two hands to bend a little bow in them to make them work right, and there is not enough room inside (my size) bowls to use two hands. I have even tried the curved ones on the inside, only to have it pulled out of my hand.

[Harvey Crouch]

I tried, got a corner caught, and ended up with 8 stiches. I will stick to a bowl scraper in the future.

[Rex Guinn]

I think it could be use to scrape the sanding sealer off before sanding and finishing with poly, etc.

[Prashun Patel]

I'm still scared to use it on the inside. On the outside, with the lathe reversed at slow speed, it appears safe. You can really see where it's contacting and if it kicks off, it is pushed away from you.

You can also see the shavings come off which lets you know it's cutting properly - which would be harder on the inside. Last, unlike flatwork, since the exterior of the bowl is concave, the scraper does not need to be flexed to catch a shaving.

Anyway...glad I asked.

Can anyone recommend a good bowl scraper?

[Sean Hughto]

I like my Raffan ones. I think they are marketed as Kryo.

[John Beaver]

I have used them successfully. I usually turn them to an angle so they are sheer scraping and find they clean up little ridges nicely.

I find them most useful for feathering in the bottom where I have come back to remove the tenon and blend into the main body. Hand holding the scraper allows it to float so it picks up the contour of the top, that may have warped, and blends it with the bottom (also useful if you center the bowl slighty off when reversing it to remove the tenon). I just went to a demo with David Ellsworth and he has a trick where he holds a gouge very loosely in the sheer scraping position to accomplish the same thing.

[Larry Marley]

I have used them on the outside of segmented pieces with good results.
I like to run the lathe in reverse and slow. It feels like using them on flat work, but with less effort. Especially good where sanding creates cross contamination between light and dark woods.

[neil mackay]

Credit card type hand held scrapers are OK if what your doing, I tend to make my own.
The trick is to remove all corners so you end up with a scraper not unlike a egg shape or something similar. In usage remove the tool rest and scrape with the scraper at a slight negative angle and come at the bowl etc from the front not from the side as you would when you use a gouge.
Short bed lathes are ideal for this sort of action, to date have not had a problem.