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Thread: Card Scraper Question
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11th July 2021, 07:57 PM #1
Card Scraper Question
As a relative newcomer to this invaluable tool, there is one thing that puzzles me. When watching YT videos of other users, many/most of them curve the scraper using thumb pressure in the centre of the blade or even make holders with thumbscrews that perform the same duty.
My question is why bother? The scraper seems to work just as well without this effort. Or am I missing something?
Pete
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11th July 2021, 10:58 PM #2SENIOR MEMBER
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I understand that the curve prevents the corners of the scraper from digging into the work.
Regards
Keith
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12th July 2021, 09:17 AM #3
Woodhutt, if you are getting wide rolls of shavings from a straight card scraper blade, you are managing something I've not been able to do in 40 or more years of using card scrapers. Putting a curve in the blade with thumbs stiffens the thin blade so it can make a decent cut without chattering. And apart from keeping the corners out of the way, as Keith said, it also produces a (very shallow) dished cut, which reduces overlap marks. Similar principle to putting a slight convexity on a smoothing plane blade.
As you'll quickly discover when scraping a large area of hard wood (rule of thumb: the harder the wood the better it scrapes), this puts a lot of strain on the thumbs. The scraper also gets very hot and adds even more to the discomfort. So the first time you need to scrape a large area, you'll start thinking "there has to be a better way!"
There are a few "better ways". One is to use one of those flexible fridge magnets between thumbs & scraper. This works pretty well & minimises the loss of flexibility/sensitivity because you can still vary the bend easily. But it's still hard on the thumbs.
The next "step-up" is to buy or make a holder which puts a curve in the blade, relieving your thumbs of that chore, & also keeps them away from hot metal.
Scraper holder.jpg success.jpg
It's not a perfect answer, my version is a bit awkward to hold & not as flexible & maneuverable as the bare card. It also gets tiring to hold at the best attack angle after a while, but it has saved my bacon on a couple of jobs where the "big gun" couldn't be brought out, for various reasons.
The big gun is a Stanley 112 scraper plane (or the Veritas clone, in my case): LV scraper Myall wood.jpg
If your work/hobby requires a lot of hand-scraping, something like this can be invaluable, & there've been times I've been very pleased to have it. I did use it a lot when I first got it but I've since got better at setting up smoothing planes to handle contrary woods and my need for the scraping plane has diminished considerably over the years (I've also learnt to avoid really hard, gnarly woods as much as possibel! ). It's one of those tools that spends 99.9% of its life in the tool cupboard, but occasionally it's the only one that can manage the job....
Cheers,
IanIW
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12th July 2021, 10:07 AM #4
Thanks to both Keith and Ian for the advice. The prospect of the corners digging-in had occurred to me but I thought - why not simply ease the corners of the blade? I see now that is a simplistic solution.
The reason I was trying to avoid having to apply thumb pressure is because I have carpal tunnel syndrome in one hand which makes it next to useless for anything except holding. I can see now that a holder is the way to go.
Pete
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12th July 2021, 11:53 AM #5
Ooh yeah, I hear you bro. I don't have CTS, but increasing arthritis in my fingers, particularly the thumbs & index fingers makes long sessions with a bare card scraper rather uncomfortable these days.
Nothing inherently wrong with easing corners on your scraper - they are such handy tools for all sorts of smoothing jobs, so modify/make them any way you see fit. I do like to keep some scrapers with sharp right-angle corners for getting into blind corners etc, but I have scrapers of all sorts of shapes & sizes. I have several very narrow ones for getting into the tight areas of saw handles, for example. When you use small scraps of scraper plate on rounded surfaces, you don't need to flex them, they are stiff enough to cut with little or no chatter over the short area of contact.
Cheers,
IanIW
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12th July 2021, 03:32 PM #6China
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Have CTS surgery you will never look back and wonder why you waited so long
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12th July 2021, 03:40 PM #7
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12th July 2021, 03:54 PM #8GOLD MEMBER
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I always knock off the corners of my home made card scrapers. A gouge from a corner is really hard to repair.
Think about the geometry of a bent scraper being pulled along the wood.
The edge is now skewed a little for a slicing cut instead of a butt-nosed push into the wood.
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12th July 2021, 05:06 PM #9Senior Member
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A question from someone who has never seen, let alone used, a card scraper. Does anyone use them for finishing the surface of bowls? Just wondering
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12th July 2021, 06:06 PM #10Senior Member
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12th July 2021, 06:16 PM #11
Here y'go then Gary.
I don't know much about bowl turning, but I've certainly used my "goose-neck" scraper (the one on the left in the pic I linked to), for concave surfaces of all kinds, like large mouldings, etc, so I see no reason they couldn't be used in a largish bowl. The 'goose-neck' is more of a clean-up tool, but you can actually make mouldings with scrapers, held in a simple L-shaped handle, but now it goes by the name of "scratch-stock". This one is making a simple quirked bead, but you can make quite elaborate mouldings with them. not needed.jpg
For short sections this method is surprisingly quick & efficient, and you can follow profiles that are impossible or extremely awkward for a 'lectric router to manage...
CheersIW
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