Thread: How to sharpen 3 mm bevelled Cabinet scraper

Derek Cohen also has a couple of relevant articles on cabinet scraper blades on the sharpening Techniques section of his website here:

Since there are frequent requests for advice on preparing card scrapers, I thought that I would offer this pictorial sequence

I've used these instructions for preparing a 45 degree scraper blade with success. I have a 12 1/2 and a 112 scraper plane with original blades that use a 45 degree bevel.

how to sharpen scraper blades

I can't imagine the procedure would change however thick the blade was.

EDIT : I just saw your post. I think you just answered your own question

You are too quick, Thumbthumper

The link I had was to the same instructions that you subsequently gave, but my link didn't work from this forum, so i deleted it

Yes, the instructions given for sharpening and burring the bevelled blade of the Stanley #80 answers all my questions

im not a big fan of overly hard, bevelled or overly thick scrapers. those features make them fussy in use and slow to sharpen. Derek's sharpening method looks like it would work well, but I'd dispense with the jigs. I generally file, stone with a 600 diamond stone or Arkansas stone, whichever is closer, then draw the burr up then out much like he shows. the whole thing takes a couple of minutes and back to work.

I only use the file every 4th or 5th time I use the stones, maybe less, and the stones every 4th or 5th time I burnish. a burnish only round takes less than a minute.

Many thanks for this practical advice, Bridger, much appreciated.

In the burnish only exercise that you mention above, don't you first have to remove the old burr / hook on the blade before you make a new burr? How do you do this?

Just seen this thread.

The link to my website does work. The article was written several years ago and could do with updating. Perhaps the one important addition would be to emphasise that the method is aimed at setting up an edge from scratch. It is to take a raw plate and turn it into a precision tool.

It needs to be said, as Bridger pointed out, that once set up, one only needs to re-burnish the edge when it becomes dull. I generally manage about 4 or 5 re-burnishings before having to re-joint the side.

The other point I would make is that the number of strokes to turn a burr varies - it depends on the hardness of the steel. Sometimes 3 or 4, sometimes 7 or 8.

Last point. When re-burnishing, you must draw the edge (Step 4) before turning the burr. This will determine the size of the burr.



Regards from Perth

Derek

Hi Derek, thanks for updating and providing us with additional information.

The link that did not work, and which I subsequently removed to save wasting peoples time, was a link to a document on sharpening the Stanley #80 blade, and was exactly the same document as given by the link Thumbthumper subsequently provided. There was never any suggestion the link to your web site didn't work.

Keep up the good work on your web site postings, I have often posted links to different parts of it.

Originally Posted by Dengue

Hello, looking at the blade of the Veritas Cabinet Scraper, it is fairly thick for a cabinet scraping blade at 3mm, and made of pretty hard steel....

Dengue, they aren't very informative in the LV cattledog, are they? They don't actually say how thick or hard the blades are for the cabinet scraper, anywhere I can see. However, I suspect they are much the same as the standard blade used on the bigger scraping plane, which is 55 thou or ~1.3mm thick. These are hardened to R48-51, which is pretty standard for scraper blades, easily filed and easy to hone. Turning a burr is not at all difficult on the blade for my scraper plane. The thicker 3.2mm blade for the big scraping plane is A2 steel - they don't recommend burring these, and I reckon you'd have a heck of a time doing it......

As to durability of the edge of the 'regular' bkades, it may be a lot better than you imagine. Turning a burr work-hardens the metal (in my view, this is one of the principle benefits of a burr), so that helps a lot. When you consider how long the edge of a card scraper lasts on bone-hard wood, it is far better than you would expect from steel that is nominally softer than any decent chisel should be. The other thing I've found is that I tend to use the blade a bit longer when it's held in a plane body, perhaps I shouldn't, but it does extend the time between sharpening, or flipping the blade in the case of the cabinet scraper. I don't own, & haven't used LV's version, but I have had its ancestor (i.e. the Stanley 80) for years. If that's anything to go by, setting the blade is very simple & takes a few seconds, so it's not much hassle to change edges or take it out for touching up the edge.

As Derek says, you can reburr several times before you need to do any serious re-forming of the edge. I don't get as many touch-ups from these blades as I do with a hand-held card scraper, which I suspect is because one tends to touch up the card scraper frequently, as soon as the sweet edge goes off it, whereas you don't feel that as sensitively with the scraping planes. By the time you realise it's not working as well as it ought, you've got more serious wear on the cutting edges.

Cheres,

Originally Posted by Dengue

Many thanks for this practical advice, Bridger, much appreciated.

In the burnish only exercise that you mention above, don't you first have to remove the old burr / hook on the blade before you make a new burr? How do you do this?

so you're scraping along, making fluffy shavings so thin that the pores of the wood go right through, big lacy shavings, when you realize that those shavings are accompanied by an increasing amount of dust, the surface of the wood is getting burnished and the shavings are falling apart. the scraper is getting dull.

so you walk over to whatever vise you use with jaws wide enough to hold your scraper securely. I mostly use the vise on my woodworking bench- it's the one in these pictures. I also have and sometimes use a saw filing vise, which is good for longer scrapers and for taking with you to scraping jobs away from the bench. grab the scraper in the vise, working edge up, with most of the scraper showing:
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Attachment 296580

look the edge over. if you have been scraping glue, partly cured finish or resinous woods there may be some sticky residue on the edge. remove that. wipe off any sawdust. give the edge a quick swipe of lubricant. this can be a bit of rag wetted with oil. light mineral oil works fine, camellia oil should do the trick, whatever is handy. I often use the bit of candle wax that I have for the soles of planes:
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Attachment 296581

grab your burnisher. it can be a fancy expensive thing made by a famous toolmaker, it can be like mine, a section of HSS drill rod, it can be the shank of a screwdriver if you can find one hard enough, it can be the shaft of a carbide router bit, whatever bit of hard smooth metal you have. lay it against the side of your scraper, with the low end held away just a bit:
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Attachment 296582

now draw it across the edge a few times. this stroke doesn't need much pressure, just make sure you cover the whole thing. do both sides. to the folks who say that you have to do the whole thing in a single stroke, I say piffle.

next, I usually shift the scraper down in the vise a bit. it feels to me like it is a more secure position, with less opportunity for the card to flex. probably just an illusion. the next stroke is the usual rolling of the burr:

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Attachment 296583
this time you can use a bit more pressure. you're forming your working edge.

now get back to making shavings. assuming that there isn't a bunch of gunk to clean off of the blade, the whole thing should take less than a minute.

after a few times of pushing the burr back and forth like that, you'll find that the scraper isn't getting as sharp as it was, anymore. it's time for the next level of card scraper sharpening: the stone. now, when your trusty card scraper starts making dust, you grab a whetstone. it can be pretty much any fine stone- I tend to use either an arkansas lily white or a 600 diamond plate, just because those are both fast cutting, reasonably fine stones that are often nearby on the bench. the first thing to hone is the flat side of the card. with the stone setting on the bench, the scraper setting on the stone, all the way flat on the stone, use your fingertips right at the edge to stone off whatever is left of the old burr. work your way across the edge, both sides. I should have taken a picture of this, but, not.

then set the scraper up in the vise just like you did to burnish it, but this time stone the edge straight across at 90 degrees:

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Attachment 296584
when you get back to a crisp square edge, wipe off any residue from the stone and burnish as usual. should take a minute or so.


after a few rounds like this, the stone won't be enough to get you back to a crisp square edge in a reasonable time. all of that burnishing will have made for a distinctly rounded edge. it's time for the file:

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Attachment 296585
don't file the face of the scraper, just the edge. keep the teeth of the file clean. bits of metal packed into the teeth will make for a ragged edge. use a single cut file, and it will need to be pretty sharp to do a good job on the moderately hard steel of card scrapers. it's definitely worth the few bucks to get a new one if your current stash of files are getting dull.

after getting the edge crisp and square with the file (one minute or less), proceed on to the stone, then to the burnisher.


the whole idea with scrapers is that they are simple tools. just a bit of steel sheet with a prepared edge. a quick-and-dirty tool capable of wonderful things. old handsaws are the right kind of steel. when a saw gets a crack or a kink in it, or the induction hardened teeth of a modern saw get dull, don't throw them away- cut them up and make scrapers. if you want thicker, stiffer scrapers, for a scraper plane or just because, use a circular saw blade. if you need to scrape a curved surface, to clean up tearout left by some other tool, or to make short runs of some light profile in a scratch stock, or to smooth out the ridges left from rounding a corner with a block plane, use tin snips, hacksaw blades and chainsaw files to get the shape you need. it's all about experimentation. if you want, you can go buy a set of curved scrapers. I did, but I don't think I have used more than one of them, and that one not much. here is the contents of my card scraper drawer:
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Attachment 296586

if you are going to be scraping for a long time, you will find that your fingers get tired. mine do. I have gotten blisters from prolonged use. the steel heats up, enough to surprise you, but not really enough to give you burns. for long scraping sessions, some kind of holder or scraper plane is going to be called for. the plane makers have invented a bunch of scraper holding devices, of varying degrees of complexity. what I can say is that you should use the least complex one that will work in your situation, the least complex of all being just a bit of steel held in the fingers. for longer scraping sessions, I prefer the no. 80. it's simple to set up and use and has good handles. I haven't found an advantage to the no. 12 in use, but it is harder to set up.
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Attachment 296590



thanks
Bridger

Hi Bridger, many thanks for posting this valuable info, but none of the attahments will open on my iPad

Hi Bridger

The attachments do not open on my computer either (MacBook Pro).

Your post (and the fact that a patient has not yet turned up for their appointment!) offers me the opportunity to say a bit more.

Firstly, the article on my website was for a cabinet scraper (which the US likes to call a card scraper). These are quite thin, quick and easy to shapen, and ditto to re-burr when in use. As I mentioned before, I get several re-burrings before returning to the stones to remove nicks and damage.

Secondly, preparing a thick scraper blade for a scraper plane, be it #80 or #112, is different. The thick steel requires thinning first. That means grinding a 30 (my preference) of 45 (the factory recommendation) primary bevel at the leading edge. It is the bevelled edge on which one will turn the burr.

With middle thickness blades, these are still capable of being bent in the scraper plane. The bend adds a camber to the blade, and this prevents the edges of the blade leaving tracks. On the thicker blades, such as the 1/8" one referred to here, I would hone in a camber (the same as a smoother plane) as the blade is not going to bend.

My own preference is a cabinet scraper. I cannot recall when I last used a scraper plane. I much prefer the ability to curve the blade in my hands, work small areas of tearout if left by a plane, and I can continuous adjust the angle of the blade as I work since these type offer so much more feedback. This means that the angle at which you turn the burr is less critical than even for the adjustable #112. The #80 is non-adjustable, and much more sensitive to the angle the burr is turned. Further, cabinet scrapers are cheap - whether store bought or made from old saw blades (as most of mine are), and I keep a few ready for use, switching them around as they dull and/or get warm.

The comments Bridger made about maintenance are echoed here. Keeping a cabinet scraper going should be the work of a few seconds only.

Regards from Perth

Derek

hope that fixed it.

Derek, it's obvious that you have your scraper scene in good running shape. the biggest thing I do differently from what you show is not using jigs to keep things square- I used to, but either my skills improved or I got impatient with the fiddling around. I even built a jig to hollow grind the edge with a small diameter chainsaw file (it didn't make any difference). these days, sharpening is all about speed. your scraper process may have gone through a similar progression. you do it, it works.

Bridger, these days I just freehand it all. The jigs remain important for those new to scrapers.

Regards from Perth

Derek

in response to the question about bevelled blades in scraper planes- sharpening them is pretty much like sharpening a square edged blade, except that you only get one edge. no turning it over to use the fresh burr on the other side. roll the burr as usual.

I prefer a square edged blade, even in a scraper plane. the exception seems to be very narrow scrapers for the bottoms of grooves. those I do bevel, and usually don't turn a burr on. not sure why....

another thing I prefer is to have a few scrapers prepared and at hand. I ease the edges and corners of all sides except the one side I sharpen. I have one scraper that is extra wide, which is often handy.