Got my scorp to work for me!

[IanW]

I bought this scorp at either the first or second TWWW show in Melbourne, so I've had it for about 25 years or more. I tried using it many times over the years, but it just didn't want to work for me & I'd given up on it. I even tried giving it away, but no-one seemed interested, so it has languished in a drawer for years, unwanted & unloved.
Today I was making seat-bottoms for a couple of little chairs, and having a bad time with my usual gouge & double-radiused plane approach. My plane sole is badly worn, and the mouth profile no longer matches the curve of the blade, so it either hardly cuts at all, or digs in if I advance the blade too far (been meaning to make a new one for several years, just haven't got a round tuit ). In desperation, I dug out the scorp for one last try, & lo & behold, it just worked! Scorp.jpg

The wood is Jacaranda, & I'm quite sure I've tried using the scorp on this wood before, so I don't know what's happened, & why it suddenly seems so easy & natural. Where before it had scraped & chattered & failed to produce any decent shavings for me, today I was pulling out lovely dollops of wood with ease. Just held my mouth the right way, I suppose. Whatever the reason, the job became a pleasure, and I scooped out the two little seats in short order. The scorp was more easily controlled than a gouge, and left a surface I could quickly clean up with my plane and a scraper. All that's needed is a bit of final sanding after I shape the edges: Seat roughed out.jpg

I feel a bit like I did the day I first learned to ride a bike!

Cheers,

[thumbsucker]

I also had trouble with my scorp the same design as yours I had all kinds of trouble taking a shaving with the thing. I eventually figured out that the angle that I held the handle was the critical factor, if I hold the handle low I hack and dig at the wood. When I lift the handle up relative to the work surface, then I am able to pull nice shavings with the tool. Not an easy tool to master.

[Simplicity]

It's a lovely feeling when suddenly after all the pain it works .
I don't have Scorp ,and to be honest ,at never heard of one even
But I can relate

[IanW]

...... Not an easy tool to master.....

Apparently so, TS!

......I eventually figured out that the angle that I held the handle was the critical factor, if you hold the handle low I hack and dig at the wood. When I lift the handle up relative to the work surface, then I am able to pull nice shavings with the tool...

Yep, that seems to be the secret. But it's odd that I hadn't managed to hit the right angle previously - I tried hard, honest! Perhaps next time I go to use it I'll have trouble again, but at least I now know what it's capable of, so I'll persist until it pulls shavings like today's, again....

Cheers,

[IanW]

....I don't have Scorp ,and to be honest , had never heard of one even
But I can relate...

Until today, I would've said you were better off not knowing about them, but my attitude has suddenly softened.

And you're right, it's a very good feeling when something suddenly workss for you!

Cheers,

[Christos]

What a good story.

Even thou you had this for 25years or so and you wanted to sell it you could say with confidence that it only had a few uses. That is prior to today.

[IanW]

Well, I finished those two toy chairs a while ago: Child chairs.jpg

My scorping got better as I went along, but because it's been a long time since I last made a 'stick' chair, I spent quite a while & drilled a good many holes in scrap pieces before I got the leg angles right. So I decided to press on and make a couple more chairs, which are shown here. As mentioned in that post, I've mislaid the chocks I use for setting the leg angles, so had to muck about a bit to get the legs sorted, but at least the seat carving got easier as I went along.

The secret with this scorp thing seems to be, get it very sharp (of course) and use a fairly light touch. It takes surprisingly little pressure to peel out a nice, thick divot. After a bit I could take very consistent, even shavings between about .5 and .75mm thick at the centre. It is quite sensitive to grain orientation. Jacaranda from open-grown trees (as most are) has very uneven grain direction, so it was a matter of feeling for the best angles to cut at. Sometimes it was 90 degrees to the apparent grain direction, sometimes more like 45. The last of the 4 took half the time of the first one, and turned out the best of the lot: No 4.jpg

Cheers,