Scraper Tearout?

[Steve H Graham]

I'm using a scraper to finish the sides of my walnut solid-body guitar. I found that the belt sander and drum sander left ripples in the wood, and the scraper takes them out.

Problem: in places where the grain changes direction, the scraper leaves a fuzzy finish, which seems to be a form of tearout.

I freely admit I did a poor job of sharpening the scraper. Does this cause tearout, or is it just the way scrapers are?

[Chris Fournier]

Personally I'd reach for a sanding block in this situation.

[glenn bradley]

Are you hitting reversing grain on a flat surface? Generally in that situation I get a beautiful result from a scraper. If you are passing through a curve like the waist of the guitar side, I would use a gooseneck or other curved surface scraper.

If I didn't like the result and was diligent about stepping through the grits; I'd turn to a quality sandpaper like Chris says. I try not to be restrained by what someone else uses or says to use; particularly when it comes to hand tools (including sandpaper). There is too much individual approach and technique (or lack thereof) to take any given solution as the only one. I will add that (if you don't already) when you use a high quality sandpaper, you realize it is more of a "tool" than you thought ;-)

[Steve H Graham]

I'm hitting the grain in the guitar's waist. I think it's a sharpening problem. I got a helpful PM.

It's not a big deal. The scraper is doing great except for a tiny area which sandpaper can fix if absolutely necessary.

[Steve Jenkins]

rather than holding the scraper square to the direction you are moving it try angling it a bit and when you move it do it in a slicing motion. Most times that will slice of contrary grain rather than tearing it

[Mark A Johnson]

Since your going from long grain to end grain your naturally going to have an uneven surface. Your going to deal with that on any figured wood. Scraping gets your surface to about what you would end up with 200 grit paper. A cork block with some 220 should make that go away. Tear out will leave you looking at a hole in the surface.