Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi Guys!

I'm looking for my first scraper(s).
Where did you guys get your scraper? what size do you use?

David-

I like the Lie-Nielsen and BAHCO scrapers and they are/were both available at WoodCraft.

I like the BAHCO ones too. Woodcraft sells another kind (I forget what) in a package of three that I like as well. One rectangular, one curved, and... the other one. Don't expect them to have a nice burr right out of the package though. Learn to sharpen, you must.

_________________
Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

I like the set of 4 super-hard milled scrapers from Lee Valley for $17.20. These work great and I also like that you get 4 different thickness, you'll figure out when to use the thin scraper versus the thick/stiff scraper.

Mike is right about learning to sharpen them, but these ones from Lee Valley come with a nice fine bur and will work well right out of the package for quite some time.

And Google's your friend when it comes to finding information about sharpening a cabinet scraper.

Dave, you must be wondering when all this tooling up will end? Well, it doesn't. There's always "one more thing" we all seem to "need"

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Wow Rod! You read my mind...but this is how I felt from day one.

My favorite is a piece of 2" x 1 1/2" 516-70 tempered and quiched steel that I machined, gound and polished in our machine shop here at work. It holds a nice hook for a long time and is a bit smaller than most bought small scaper cards. it is great for rosettes and purfling. But I also have a few L&N scrapers as well several Bahco.

Just starting with a scraper too, and my thumbs get sore pretty quick, and I've still got a lot of tearout to get rid of. Do you guys use a holder like the Stanley or Veritas?

_________________
Cheers,
Curtis Olson
Hamilton, VA

I like Sandvik scrapers (I believe Sandvik and Bacho are the same thing? They're both Swedish, anyways...) and some smaller, harder ones that are cut from a really wide band saw blade. I shaped these for scraping arch top mandolins.

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Could someone do a tutorial on sharpening scrapers?

I love the idea, but my scraping skills stink....

Todd Stock, "I don't care for the super hard Lee Valley scrapers - a little too hard to take a really fine edge...."

Hmmm, maybe my scrapers are not good. I've never had much luck with scrapers/sharpening. Love the idea though.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Bruce, I found a few good videos on YouTube. It turns out to be much easier than I thought it would be based on all the discussions I'd read about it on other forums. Really quick, too.

I have a Veritas burnisher and the Lie-Nielsen set of scrapers.

Bruce buddy Stew-Mac has an excellent toot that I get very good results with - you can find it here: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Scrapers/1/Scraper_Burnisher/Instructions/I-3416.html#details

Hesh, that was a great tutorial. Thanks.

Guess which step I was missing?

I didn't know you had to draw out the burr.

I was simply trying to roll the edge back toward the side of the scraper. I suppose since I never bought a proper burnisher, which I'm sure comes with instructions like this for doing it right.

I'm headed to the shop.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Yep This is the setp most offen missed if not understood. If you don't draw a burr you do stillget a very fine hook when burnishing by push over the 90 degrre edge but it will not cut well, last long and will chatter as it cuts leaving a not so smooth surface.

Okay, Here are a couple of pics after a quick session on one side of a German curved end scraper. It was new, but a bit rusty along some of the edge side. I used the stone to hone the surface a bit, skipping the file part since it was fairly new otherwise and square.

I tried a punch for hard steel burnisher first, it didn't do much. Grabbing the steel out of the knife drawer, yeah, this is the kind of steel to cut steel. It did put some moves on that flat edge, then rolled over a burr, you can feel it just a little along the edge, once turned. No doubt the stewmac pics are exaggerated.

These two pics are some scraping of flamed maple Mitch sent me, due to become bindings. I got mostly sawdust, but at one point pulled up some nice thin shavings, less than a quarter of an inch long and sort of segmented. So, I made headway on getting this down. The edges are imperfect so I couldn't expect much. Now I have hope to get this old timers tool tuned and functioning. Thanks Y'all. I'll see if I can find the YouTube clips and if so, I'll link to them.

Time to buy a nice stone and maybe one of these StewMac burnishers, it's pretty.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

I use pieces of broken glass as scrapers, works great.

The ah ha moment for me when learning to sharpen scrapers was/is that the edge has to be squared off nicely at 90 degrees first with a file, stone, or I suppose that you could use sand paper too but I have not tried this. Once I understood this I was able to get great shavings.

Todd that photo speaks for itself - very nice

It seems like every woodworker I've ever met has a slightly different way of sharpening a scraper. I don't think any of them are "wrong" if you get consistent results.

I do think the most important step is getting the edge nice and square and smooth before putting the burr on it. This means filing off any old burr by running the file along the sides, and then filing along the edge, keeping the file perfectly perpendicular to the sides and not rounding off the corners, and then hitting the sides again lightly. Some people even go on to smooth the edge on a waterstone. I don't find that necessary.

As for putting on the burr, I don't "draw it out" first. I don't find that it makes any difference for me. I don't use much pressure when I put the burr on either. Some people seem to put a ton of pressure on the burnisher. I like to do about 6 or so lighter strokes. I've seen some people bend the scraper while they put the burr on too. Seems to work well, but it's hard for me to get consistent results that way. Doesn't work with the curved scrapers very well either.

_________________
Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

Well said, Hesh. You beat me to it.

_________________
Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

MP,

Maybe I'm not too sure of what "burr" is so this question not make any sense, But How do you make sure there are equal amount of burrs on cross the whole edge? Does it equal out automatic with certain amount of pressure is applied?

thanks, David

Curtis, I use a Veritas scraper holder. It does a great job of holding the scraper in a nice curve and saves my thumbs from getting sore. I hardly ever use a flat scaper without the holder these days. IIRC, you get a good quality rectangular scraper with the holder for about $15.

Cheers,
Dave F.

_________________
Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

My favorite scraper is one I cut from an old Japanese pull saw blade. It is very flexible and I cut several shapes from it.

_________________
John Ressler

Glass microscope make great scrapers for certain tasks. They scrape finish really well. Won't replace steel ones of course but they are nice to have around. Biggest disadvantage is that they can't be sharpened. They are also great to have around when you are trying to match a finish as you can but a little sample of your mix on the glass and hold it over the area to be matched to check the color.

Oops. Sorrry. Thought I was logged in when I made the glass post.

Tommy, are you talking about slides or slide covers? Not sure what a glass microscope is.

_________________
Aoibeann

I'm pretty sure he's talking about slides. They are square edged, and thick enough to hold shape.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars