Veritas Cabinet Scraper (Part 2)

Re: Veritas Cabinet Scraper (Part 2)

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI

>I can't exactly picture the tool you are talking about right now, but in my opinion you can get fine curly shavings with any good scraper. A good scrpaer depends on the steel it is made from, and the only difference from one scraper to the next is how that piece of steel is held. The shavings you get depend on the size of the burr you put on it, and the angle of attack and amount of pressure on the wood.

My experience

Michael Stadulis in New Jersey

>s a "charter" purchaser of that tool and have had great success with it to the point that I sold my scraper plane about 6 months ago, since I hadn't used it for such a long time. Maybe if I used very unusual woods, I may have kept it but I use domestic woods and it works fine on tiger maple and walnut which are my favorites. There is no question that I'd rather final smooth a surface by planing, and I only scrape as a last resort when I absolutely have to. If you think that even good sanding technique leaves a less that optimum surface, then wait til you compare that to a scraped surface. You may want to try to entirely back off the thumbscrew that bends the blade.........set the blade to barely kiss the wood surface and then adjust the cutting depth with the thumbscrew ever so slowly to get thin shavings. It always has worked for me so good luck.

In any event, do expect the surface that you'd get w/ a smoother.

Good Luck,

Mike Stadulis

Re: My experience

Michael Stadulis in New Jersey

>What's going on? I'm typing, but nothing is getting written down.

My closing comment was to say...."Do NOT expect a surface that you'd get with a plane"

-Mike

Re: Veritas Cabinet Scraper (Part 2)

William R. Duffield on the Cohansey

>�turned a heavy burr�

That's why he got heavy shavings. A properly honed scraper needs only a very light touch with a hard burnisher in order to turn the small, continuous burr needed for final surfacing. If you put too much force into the burnisher, you overwork the steel, and the burr starts to crumble, taking off a lot more wood than you need, and leaving a rough surface. And, you have to rehone it sooner to get back to a square edge.

When you've worn out your burr, and need to return it, you will have to apply more force, and probably at a higher angle, with the burnisher to get a hook that will work at all. After a few iterations, you will be forced to go back to the file and stones.

If one doesn't understand what is going on, one will be tempted to apply a lot of force every time one turns a hook, because "this is the way I had to do it last time to make it work at all."

You can feel when you have applied enough force at a high enough angle, because the burnisher starts to drag as it turns the hook. That's when you stop. If you continue, the dragging force gets stronger, and more importantly it gets rougher as the hook begins to crumble, undoing everything you have already done.

The harder the carbide you use for a burnisher, the easier it is to feel the subtle difference in drag resistance. Sometimes, with a card scraper, after a few reworkings of the hook, the burnisher will only drag on part of the edge. That's the part that will cut, the rest of the edge won't, but maybe its enough that you can finish what you are working on before rehoning the scraper.

Re: Veritas Cabinet Scraper (Part 2)

Ted Shuck

>Thanks for the explanation of the dragging feeling when turning a burr. I have felt this before, and knew it wasn't good, but could not relate it to the root cause of the burr crumbling.

Makes a lot of sense and should help me turn better burrs in the future.

Thanks,

Ted

Brian Boggs talks card scrapers in current FWW.

Edward Damewood, Northern Alabama

>Brian Boggs has an article of several pages on the mechanics and preparation of card scrapers in FWW #172 (Oct. 2004). I'm guessing (perhaps incorrectly) that the same principles apply for the business end of the cabinet scraper. At any rate, you may want to check it out. William's discussion of the heavy burr jogged my memory of this.

Re: Veritas Cabinet Scraper (Part 2)

William R. Duffield on the Cohansey

>My observation is that the burnisher has to drag just a little bit, or it's not contacting the edge, and its not turning the burr. Going back over the burr again, except to extend it to the ends of the edge seems to make things worse, by weakening it.

By way of explanation, I'm more of a "touchy-feely" kind of woodworker, than a "jigs and fixtures" type. I often wondered why so many people told me I was such a good engineer, since I always felt like a fish out of water when I was doing that.

Re: Veritas Cabinet Scraper (Part 2)

John Truxell-Svenson (jvs)

>Just "jointing an edge and turning a heavy burr" is a good way to get a heavy shaving out of a #80 or equivalent, but to get fluffy shavings and a better surface, the blade needs first to be *sharp* as well as lightly burred. Ralph Brendler's Use and Preparation of Scrapers is a great summary. As William talks about above, a heavy burr is likely to fail much faster than a properly turned light one (as well as leaving a rougher surface); even a stock modern #80 blade will last for a decent amount of work before dulling if prepared correctly, and is a good bet that the Veritas blade is better steel than Stanley Works is putting out nowadays.




/jvs

Re: Veritas Cabinet Scraper (Part 2)

Alan Hamilton

>Dan,

You've gotten excellent advice: a big burr makes big shavings. Unless you're removing old paint or sraping glue lines, you're better off with a fine burr--which makes fine shavings. Another bonus is that a fine burr lasts much longer.

I recently (in the last two years or so) got talked into buying a new Stanley blade for my #80. It is thicker and seems to be made from better steel than the blade that was in it when I bought my #80 (at a flea market). One nice thing about blades for a #80 is you can turn different sized edges on their opposite sides. At five dollars per, or thereabouts, you can get two or three blades and turn different edges. You can then compare and see what works best in various circumstances.

BTW, I've made great blades for my #80 out of heavy-duty card scrapers. More options.

Alan

Re: Veritas Cabinet Scraper (Part 2)

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>Dan What can I say you should easily be able to take paper thin shavings leaving the surface as smooth as glass. Pratice and getting a feel is all it takes after all mastering a hand plane takes quite a while. To bad you don't live closer we could straighten it out in a hour.

The Free FWW video is better *LINK*

Greg B�tit, Vergennes, VT

>I read the article, then went to the FWW site to see the video. I thought that the video clarified the process much better, especially WRT the 'light touch' required to achieve clean shavings.


Brian Bogg's Card Scraper Video