Scraper

[Clancy]

Didn't know they added the mini.
Damn!
More money to spend.

[Lillian]

Craig, I'd say sorry, but I'm not. It's about a third of the size of the large and just as sweet.

[charangohabsburg]

Until now I was reluctant to get the Hutchins-Carruth-Stewmac scraper, mainly for a few reasons: 1) I never had a problem sharpening my "normal" scrapers, 2) they cut really nice shavings, 3) I never managed to get them chattering, 4) my hands did not jet complain about the effort of bending the scapers, 5) heating up is not a problem because I like to use two scrapers: when one gets hot after a few strokes I let it cool down while continuing with the other one, 6) I was a bit afraid my crappy bench grinder would not do a nice job on the beautiful StewMac thingie.

But two week ago when visiting Norberto, a Spanish friend of mine who for a great part is responsible for my luthierie-madness, he complained about not getting his conventional scraper working properly. While showing him my sharpening technique I remembered Alan Carruth saying that his thick scraper had solved all his pupil's scraper problems. So I asked Norberto if he had some solid tool steel junk floating around in his shed, and he had - an industrial metal saw blade, about 3 mm thick. After cutting off a piece and grinding back the saw teeth (taking care of not overheating), lapping the rectangular piece and establishing the burr on Norberto's brand new Tormek ...the new born scraper was instantly usable, without all the hardening circus (how would I heat up that whole junk to an even cherry red with only one or two Camping Gaz torchs?). Sure, the shavings were a tad les nice than those of a "normal", well working scraper, and I guess this scraper will lose its burr much quicker than the shiny commercial item or a properly hardened one. But hey, 20 minutes for making a halfway decent scraper doesn't seem to be too bad! (How much does a luthier earn per hour? - Maybe you'll be better off by just buying tools than make them!)

(BTW, Norberto's scraper problem was, not having lapped his conventional scraper and not having established an even edge before burnishing, and when turning the hook he had to apply way too much force to get a hook that did not only work at the foremost spots of the uneven edge).

But this is only the first half of the story. Back home I wanted to knock off such a scraper also for me because I still am anxious about the possibility of ruining a nice shiny toy with my crappy bench grinder, or getting a new not-so-cheap bench grinder to be able to efficiently sharpen my 25 $ scraper!

Well, without a brand new Tormek (and not even an old one), manually lapping my new scraper was (as usual when lapping any blade) a major pita, in spite of having previously relieved the centre of the surface with the grinder and having "pre-lapped" the thing on my crappy belt sander (which is the right-hand part of my crappy grinder). But well, here we are (this time after more than 20 minutes):

Some woodscraps, shavings, a lot of dust, the new born scraper, and behind the remains of the saw blade, enough for yet another scraper or whatever.

Hutchins-Carruth-scraper-2012_D70_5532.jpg (49.95 KiB) Viewed 6091 times

To finish my scraper story: when trying the new scraper on cherry scraps everything seemed to work fine. The same when scraping spruce - but wait! there seem to be some chatter marks! I had not felt any chattering, but without any doubt, there were the marks:



Chatter marks?
These were medullary rays!
The dwindling daylight had fooled me (photos taken later, at "bulb light").

Oh, I was digressing a bit I guess. Sorry for hijacking the thread!

[Taffy Evans]

Hi All, I too was inspired by this thread to get one of these scrapers but during a recent workshop tidy up I came across these 12" planer blades which I had replaced earlier this year. And then . I had, for some time, wanted to buy a smaller grinder for the building workshop and thought that if I made my own scrapers the money saved would easily pay for the grinder. So the rather large industrial grinder I had put up with for years was relegated to the bike workshop/shed and a small grinder purchased from a local hardware store.

The process was:
1- cut a length off of one of the long blades
2- grind off the beveled cutting edge
3- flatten the faces of the smaller blade [now referred to as "scraper"
4- true up the edge to be used [hollow ground]
5- set up the new grinder and grind the 'hollow grind' into this edge

The tests on slab timber worked great. The photos were taken when I was actually taking down the binding flush to the sides.

To make this scraper a little more adaptable [and as a value added future] I made a handle with guide fence to assist with the scraping of front and back purfing and bindings.

This scraper will possible stay in this handle as I have started to make more scrapers out of the remaining stock, both straight edged and contoured.

1-DSCF6043.JPG (81.76 KiB) Viewed 6051 times

2-DSCF6044.JPG (79.32 KiB) Viewed 6051 times

3-DSCF6081.JPG (83.85 KiB) Viewed 6051 times

5-DSCF6082.JPG (73.32 KiB) Viewed 6051 times

6-DSCF6083.JPG (81.47 KiB) Viewed 6051 times

7-DSCF6086.JPG (81.85 KiB) Viewed 6051 times

8-DSCF6085.JPG (78.42 KiB) Viewed 6051 times

Thanks for looking

[Patrick Hanna]

Nice idea, and I especially like the way you fashioned the handle to make a purfling/binding scraper. Is there enough "wiggle" room in the slots and holes of the blade to permit some in and out adjustment for wider or narrower bindings?

Patrick

[Taffy Evans]

There is a slot in the handle for this adjustment, as seen in one of the photo's.
Cheers