$6/$18 Scraper Addendum - multi use

[John Keeton]

As a follow-up to the thread started by Bob Bouis and so I don't hijack his thread, I thought it might be helpful to show another possibility for cheap HSS from China. As I mentioned in Bob's thread, I ordered 4 pieces of 6mm x 10mm x 200mm (approx. 1/4" x 3/8" x 8") HSS with the intention of making a small multi-use tool with interchangeable "blades." It took about 16-18 days for the pieces to arrive at a total cost of about $17. I planed a piece of maple to just a smidge more than the 6mm thickness of the steel and wide enough for a handle. I then cut a slot in the maple wide enough to accept the 10mm width of the steel and 3" deep/long. Walnut is plentiful in my shop, so I took a scrap and cut a couple of pieces to laminate the handle. On one of those, I drilled a 1/4" hole and inset a 1/4" x 20 square nut over the hole and just under flush with the surface and very lightly epoxied it in. I tested the fit of a set screw in the hole/nut and then glued up the lamination WITH THE NUT ON THE INSIDE and turned the handle.

Now I have a small handle with a 1/4" x 20 set screw that I can interchange blades in. With four pieces and each end ground to a specific use, I can have 8 different profiles. Presently, I have a skew, a tip to undercut a bead similar to a captive ring tool, a negative rake round nose scraper and a dovetail recess tool. The piece in the handle has not been ground for use and neither has one of the other three pieces shown.

From grinding this metal, I am pleased with the apparent hardness, but the reality is that these are light and infrequent use tools, so the edge should last quite well. I imagine it will be years before I significantly wear down the HSS beyond use, if ever in my remaining lifetime - which seems to be getting shorter at an alarming rate!!;)

[Roger Chandler]

Pretty nifty work there, Counselor.......I really like the inset nut and set screw idea. That will work and is versatile. Thanks for sharing! :)

[David Delo]

Cool idea and very good looking handle John.

[jared parson]

Very clever John. Now you got me thinking what i might want to do with mine that were delivered last weekend.

[Bob Bouis]

Nice idea, nice implementation. I've always been kind of skeptical of the interchangeable tools, but as the individual ones pile up I'm definitely starting to see the appeal of it. So far I've been happy with my $6 scraper. The edge retention seems to be acceptable. Not exceptional, but not noticeably worse than the other HSS tools I use.

My latest acquisition was a 12mm round bar. Cost about $10 which I thought was high compared to the other ones. I plan to make it into a small "fluteless gouge" with a short flat that I'll grind back as necessary. The $6 scraper does finish cuts really well and I won't feel bad about resharpening the $10 fluteless gouge for every finish cut like I do the $90 Thompson I have.

ETA: I notice Thompson sells a 1/2" "blank" which I assume is a round bar. That might be a better option if you're considering something like a DIY fluteless gouge. The cpm supersteel he uses makes noticeably better scrapers than regular HSS. And the 1/2 "blank" is only $35.

[Michael Mills]

I like your fix for rectangular bar; I will have to have to give it a try.
For folks thinking of making interchangeable handles for square or round I would suggest a square hole coupler or drill chuck.
I find WTTools to be the affordable for "bits". The only problem is when they are out of stock it does not show on their list.
Example: the 1/2" square 8" long in 5% cobalt HSS is $15 but they do not show the non-cobalt HSS in the same size (normally $9).
The 1/2" round HSS is $6.95 but the 5% cobalt is not available right now.
With the coupler or chuck you can also have a different profile on each end.