Ball joint scraper users?

[Bruce Darrow]

A while back, I made a gloat worthy acquisition of a bunch of old tools. Among them was a nice old ball joint scraper. The two sharpened edges were chisel profiled, but with a significant curve or arch to the edge. After reading the description in the LV catalog of their similar tool, I ground one of the edges square, and sharpened it as I would a chisel or plane iron. I left the other sharpened edge as is, and treated the two remaining edges like a card scraper: polished and burnished.

Let me tell you, the edges with a burnished hook make this a really great tool! One can do a lot of work without the aggravation of burned fingers and thumbs, and the edge seems to hold up really well on this particular steel.

My question, though is this: What use have any of you found for a chisel edge, either square or curved? I can't seem to get either of those edges to do much, either on wood or (horrors!) paint.

How do you treat yours?

[Kemil Pepin]

Bruce, I'm not quite sure what you mean by "chisel edge" or profile (beveled on both faces?). I sharpen mine with one bevel at about 45 or 30 degrees from the face, with or without a burr. I don't put any camber or curve on the edge.

[Tony Zaffuto]

In my accumulation, I have a number of these scrapers. I've always heard they are "rough" tools, or maybe used for scraping hardwood floors prior to refinishing.

However, like you, I prepared the blade on one of mine like you would a blade for a Stanley #80 (beveled on one side) and it works great. I find it has a great deal of control, pretty much managed by the amount of pressure you put on it. Also like you said, no burned fingers. I have also used mine with the scraper blade prepared like a card scraper and it works fine that way.

[Bruce Darrow]

Kemil -

Chisel edge - one face beveled. Knife edge - both faces beveled. This was shown to me recently by a Windsor chair maker when I was asking about his drawknives.

So with a chisel edge, what kind of angle to you present to the workpiece when pulling the tool towards you? Or do you push away from you? Does this change if you have rolled a burr?

FWIW, I never even considered putting a burr on a sharpened edge. I would think that doing so would only produce one working face per edge, as opposed to a squared edge, with a burr rolled on each face like a card scraper.

With four usable edges, and potentially eight usable faces, I'm interested in finding out what configurations perform what tasks best. I envision having several different configurations prepped and ready to go should the variations have different advantages.

My assumption is that the camber that was on the the original sharpened edges was the result of inexpert sharpening on the part of one or more previous owners, but it is pronounced enough that I wonder if it was intentional, and if so, what advantage(s) it might give. The obvious would be scraping a hollowed surface, like a chair seat, but maybe there are others?

Thanks for your reply. I'm hoping other experienced users will chime in as well. Perhaps this discussion will encourage more folks to try this wonderful tool.

[Kemil Pepin]

Bruce, sorry for the confusion; I do sharpen the edge with one bevel. I use a small file, draw-filing. As soon as the edge starts to seem a little dull, I take about 4 or 6 passes with the file and this leaves a small burr on the edge. I usually do this for rougher type work, cleaning glue, finish, etc. For finer work I usually use a card scraper by hand.

I always use a pull stroke for a handled scraper, I can't really guess what the angle to the work is, I will have to look next time I am using one :). The angle is lower with a burr, steeper without a burr. The bevel faces away from the handle.

[Bruce Darrow]

Tony -

Thanks for the reply. You spurred me to do some research on Patrick's B+G re: Stanley #80 and similar. Interestingly enough, it is/was common practice to burnish a hook on a beveled edge - who da thunk it?

That tidbit, which may not be news to true neanderthals, aside, I still maintain that a squared edge, with both edges burnished, will be twice as effective, at least in terms of longevity - just flip to the other side when the first dulls.

I will try a hook on the beveled edge I prepared, and on the old cambered edge just to see if there is any performance difference.

Disappointing that there seems to be only 2 other users out there. I was hoping for a wealth of info.....

BTW, I do find that I reach for a card scraper for a final pass or two.

[Tony Zaffuto]

Bruce and others,

There are several other similar Stanley (and other mfg's.) of scrapers. They are generally dirt cheap, with the swivel model giving a bit more controlled adjustment.

You may even want to try a card scraper in it! Maybe ease the corners a bit so it doesn't dig in. I would suggest to keep the height of the scraper about 1/2" to 3/4" below the clamp edge so as to not have it "skip" on the work surface. The net effect is these work for more jobs than what they were introduced for and without burnt fingers!

T.