Scraper problem

[Dave Cav]

First, a little background. I'm refinishing a teak veneer coffee table top (for the second time). It was badly scratched up by dog toe nails; one of our former Boxers decided to drag something off the top with his paw and made a number of fairly deep scratches across the grain. It didn't penetrate the veneer, but they were fairly deep. The finish was penetrating oil, and I stripped it with paint stripper, wet the top to raise the grain, then put a wet rag on top and ran a steam iron over it to try and raise the grain of the gouges. It worked fairly well, and once it was dry I hand sanded it to 400 grit and put a coat of Watco on it to see how it looked. It was a lot better, but the scratches were still pretty visible, although you couldn't feel them, just see them. So, I got my #80 scraper out and went to work. I went all over the top, mostly with the scraper skewed to the direction of the cut, and was able to work most of the scratches out. I eventually stopped because I didn't want to go through the veneer. Then I wiped it down and took a hard look at the top. In several areas there were long tracks similar to smooth plane tracks, apparently where I went diagonally across the grain. There were also a number of small slices or cuts in the surface. It looks like I might have set the scraper down, but didn't make a cut, or maybe they were at the start of a cut. Anyway, it was pretty unsightly, and hand sanding wasn't doing much to erase the marks. I had to get my random orbital sander out and go over with medium and then fine, then hand sanded again from 220 through 400. It finally looked ok, but the scraping caused a lot of extra work.

Has anyone else had a scraper leave tracks like that? Also, any ideas on what caused the little cuts?

Thanks
Dave C

[Robert Rozaieski]

Check the sole and edges of the scraper body to see if there are any burrs on it. The mouth of the #80 is notorious for having little dings or chips that will leave tracks. You may need to sand the sole of the scraper smooth or file the mouth or edges. Take the blade out of the scraper body and run it over a piece of scrap and see if you get the same thing. That will at least tell you if it's the blade or the body.

[Sam Yerardi]

Also, I adjust my #80 so that the corners of the scraper do not protrude. That may be what is causing your problem.

[Dave Cav]

Thanks, guys for the tips. I never thought that a #80 would need fettling, but apparently I need to check a few things. It very well could be the sole causing the problems. I'll check it this weekend.