Tony Zaffuto
03-03-2019, 9:14 AM
The thread a few weeks ago, where the StewMac scraper was mentioned, got me thinking about how a thick scraper compares to a thin scraper. I've had the StewMac/Al Carruthers scraper for years, used it a few times and pretty much forgot about it until the aforementioned thread, particularly where Derek Cohen mentioned his 1/4" thick plane irion, converted into a scraper. Derek said it worked wonderfully, and he attributed the results to grinding at 90 degrees on a CBN wheel. I tried that with the StewMac and results improved significantly: just a grind on a 180 grit CBN, and nothing else.
Next, I grabbed an extremely sharp, 1-1/2" wide chisel, held it vertically, and the results were at least identical (for both, the lumber was white oak and canary wood). Should I stop here, or try a bit more?
I had a piece of plate A2, 1/8" thick, so I made and had treated a piece to fit a Stanley 80 and a Stanley 82 scraper. The 80 showed less than satisfactory results on a variety of wood, but the "not very much loved" 82, had excellent results (one side of the blade was sharpened at 90degrees and the opposite was at 45 degrees, sharpened as a plane or chisel). Either side gave equal results-maybe from ability to apply pressure?
My take aways? I did not turn the burrs and this bears experimentation. I did not like A2 at all, for this purpose-sharpening the 45 degree angle on my Spyderco stones, felt " gummy": was it my heat treating, the angle or what?
Next experiment will be testing this blade, with a burr turned. Also, I will try a piece of HSS and a piece of O1. But my early conclusion is the StewMac, when sharpened at 90 degrees on a CBN wheel, beats all other scrapers hands down, with an excellent surface resulting. At the cost of the StewMac ($35.00 or so), is a bargain. Maybe our predecessors really knew sonething with their use of glass to use as a scraper?
Thought or comments?
Next, I grabbed an extremely sharp, 1-1/2" wide chisel, held it vertically, and the results were at least identical (for both, the lumber was white oak and canary wood). Should I stop here, or try a bit more?
I had a piece of plate A2, 1/8" thick, so I made and had treated a piece to fit a Stanley 80 and a Stanley 82 scraper. The 80 showed less than satisfactory results on a variety of wood, but the "not very much loved" 82, had excellent results (one side of the blade was sharpened at 90degrees and the opposite was at 45 degrees, sharpened as a plane or chisel). Either side gave equal results-maybe from ability to apply pressure?
My take aways? I did not turn the burrs and this bears experimentation. I did not like A2 at all, for this purpose-sharpening the 45 degree angle on my Spyderco stones, felt " gummy": was it my heat treating, the angle or what?
Next experiment will be testing this blade, with a burr turned. Also, I will try a piece of HSS and a piece of O1. But my early conclusion is the StewMac, when sharpened at 90 degrees on a CBN wheel, beats all other scrapers hands down, with an excellent surface resulting. At the cost of the StewMac ($35.00 or so), is a bargain. Maybe our predecessors really knew sonething with their use of glass to use as a scraper?
Thought or comments?