Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
#80 Care
Mike Kaiser
>A buddy bought a new Stanley #80 cabinet scraper. Never having used one I don't know how well it works but it does seem to take some fine shavings so I guess it's ok.
What I'm wondering is if the sole needs to be lapped as with other planes?
Is there anything else that should be done to a "stock" Stanley to improve it's performance?
Thanks!
Mike
Get a Hock blade.
Tony Sade (Charleston, WV)
>Best thing I did for the not-very-old #80 I picked up off ebay was to buy a Hock blade. Made a world of difference. HTH, Tony
Re: Get a Hock blade.
Patrick Gibbons, Houston, TX
>The scraper will perform better if you lap the sole. The 45 degree bevel is a bit harder to dress as compared to a hand scraper. I've never tried an after-market blade in my 80 so I don't know if it is a significant improvement but the stock blade works very well. I've not tried the Veritas version but it seems they "fixed" some of the problems one encounters with the Stanley. I'm still getting the hang (no pun intended) of preparing scraper blades but it seems that they are like plane blades in that the more one does, the better the performance. But it's really a simple tool and works well with just a minimum of effort. For the first two years I owned mine I had not lapped the sole and still got acceptable results. I've also lapped the sides of the blade on an Arkansas stone. All this has souped up the tool but not with nearly the improvement one would see if doing the same to a smooth plane.
Re: #80 Care *LINK*
Raymond in Trenton, NJ
>Hi Mike,
I dressed the sole on mine and am still using the original blade in one and a Hock blade in another. I agree with Patrick that I don't see a noticeable difference in performance, although I might be re-burring the stock blade more often. Still, it's a slight difference. I'd save the money and play with what you have for a bit. You can always get an aftermarket blade later.
I don't think you need to put the same effort into it as a plane though, so membership in the Flat Earth Society is not required. I used sandpaper on glass (180 & 240 IIRC) and I did the bottom until it looked clean and smooth. I was really just cleaning it up from 'flea market condition' and making sure there were no sharp bits.
The only thing that takes some practice is preparing the edge. (Another reason to save the Hock blade for later) There's plenty of info available on this, so read up and try it. I used Popular Woodworking's free article (thanks again Chris!) to demo sharpening these and card scrapers at a recent WW Club meeting. The article addresses card scrapers, but everything is the same except for the added step of putting on the 45deg bevel.
The one thing that (I've found) will help, is not intuitively obvious � the burr can be formed with very light pressure. Everyone thinks "I'm gonna deform a steel cutting edge, and steel's wicked hard" and then really bear down. I know I did. You'll get a better and more uniform edge with light pressure. Too much pressure will either flow too much metal or displace it too far, both resulting in small cracks along the edge. The effect of these will (usually) show up with the first coat of finish.
These are one of the most underused tools in the shop, IMHO. They're also fun to use.
Raymond
who's all for having fun
Popular Woodworking's excelent article on scrapers
Re: #80 Care
Tony Sade (Charleston, WV)
>I won't dispute Patrick and Raymond's experience, just relate my own. I prepared the stock Stanley and the Hock at the same time, in the same way, and found the performance difference to be quite significant. YMMV. Tony
Re: #80 Care
Ed Snow
>One thing to be sure to do is kill the corners on it. They have a nice way of leaving extra impossible to finish burnished areas. I used one previously to getting the 81. I think the added wood sole is a boon to performance. Maybe one could do something similar to an exisitng 80.
Re: #80 Care
William Duffield, on the Cohansey
>What may be happening here is the difference in the characteristics of the steel. The Hock is significantly harder than many other brands, so if you apply the same pressure to both, the Hock's edge may survive it and form an optimal hook, while the Stanley edge may crumble, crack, roll under and fail. As an experiment, you might try easing up on the pressure on the Stanley blade. Since it is not as hard, you will probably find you can get good shavings initially, but that you'll have to take it back to the file, stone and burnisher more quickly.
You will still probably want to use blades all of the same hardness, so your burnishing technique eventually becomes automatically consistent for all of them.
FWIW ...
Raymond in Trenton, NJ
>Tony brings up a good point, and rereading my post I think over generalized. My stock Stanley blade is of Sweetheart vintage. IMO, they are probably one the better performing of all the blades and irons that Stanley produced. That alone could be the reason for the 'similar' performance I have experienced.
Still, learning and using with what you have (ie 'stock') is still recommended whether or not an aftermarker blade is bought. Why use up the better blade on the learning curve? (it took me a while to get the 45deg bevel right :o)
Thanks Tony,
Raymond