Me Sharpening a Card Scraper

[glenn bradley]

There seem to be as many variations on this as there are woodworkers. Someone invariably posts William Ng's video which is great as are many others. For those with no special tools I started with some shop made stuff that still works fine. I also show commercial products which I was gifted and am happy to have.


I cut a through slot in a milled block of wood with the bandsaw to act as a holding aid. I cut a groove in another block to fit a mill file.


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I was gifted the Veritas holder. There are others that are just as good. Benefits over the block of wood is the 45 degree reference surface for cabinet scrapers.


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I still use the bandsawn block as a holder though https://www.woodtalkonline.com/uploads/emoticons/default_wink.png


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I file until I feel a full cut being made; usually 2 or 3 light swipes. I do all four edges as I find this useful.

I also stone my faces and edges. Many skip this step and that is fine. It takes just a few minutes and I get consistent results so it has become my habit. I use a DMT 'fine' stone since that is what I have handy.


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I use a squared block of scrap to assure I am at a good 90 degree angle for the edges. This silly piece of ply has been around for longer than I can remember. I don't know why it hasn't delaminated long ago.


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I am not removing a large amount of material here.


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My shop made burnisher is a HSS Forstner bit that got lunched (cursed screw). I lopped the head off and set the shaft in a dowel-handle. The Veritas Tri-Burnisher was another gift (ya gotta love Lee Valley's Wish-List sharing feature) and is my favorite.


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I lube the burnisher with a bit of light machine oil, pull ALL the edges out with 2 or 3 runs of the burnisher, turn the hook with a run of the burnisher flat along the edge once and at 5 to 10 degrees twice.


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And I get light, wispy cuts that roll into little curl-worms.

[David Eisenhauer]

Thanks Glen. The process you show should result in a working scraper all right. When I read somewhere about being a little more aggressive on my filing to reveal a complete, new fresh-steel edge, I was then able to be more consistent in getting a working edge. Before that, I could not understand why my same technique every time did not result in a working edge every time. I believe my old, original Sandvik scraper may have become affected by heat or something and had gone from being my " number 1" to useless until I got serious about filing the edge. Your photos and description are much appreciated.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Glenn

What grit is the waterstone(s) and what steps lie between this and the curls?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Robert Engel]

You bring out a couple good points I struggled with early on:

1) making sure the edge is 90°.

2) do not over-burnish.

3) drawing out the steel prior to turning the burr is an important, often missed, step.

I would like to add that you can very easily reset a burr during use with just a couple light strokes. I do it free hand and can usually get one or two resets before rehoning.

I would also comment that filing is not necessary every time, but honing is.

FWIW I hone to 8000.

[glenn bradley]

Hi Glenn

What grit is the waterstone(s) and what steps lie between this and the curls?

Regards from Perth

Derek

The stone is a DMT "fine" which they equate to a 600 mesh / 25 micron. I use this to stone the faces (just flat on the stone around the outside edges, both sides) first, then the edges at 90 degrees. After wiping the scraper down with a rag I go right to the burnisher. I pull the steel and then stroke the edge flat, then tilt about 5 - 10 degrees depending how aggressive I want the hook. Then I make curls.


I would like to add that you can very easily reset a burr during use with just a couple light strokes. I do it free hand and can usually get one or two resets before rehoning. --- FWIW I hone to 8000

Good add-on Robert; very true and a great term, "reset the burr". I also get a couple of resets out of an edge. I will also re-stress oil your burnisher to avoid galling. Any of you that have seen William Ng do it know he floods the card with oil. I find a drop on my finger smeared on the burnisher works for me but, if I am doing a bath, I re-oil now and again. Too much lube that can be wiped off later is definitely better than galling.

I am going to try honing to a finer grit next time around. I try to keep my methods evolving.