Thread: How to setup my new toys - one Kunz scraper plane & one Kunz cabinet scraper

J-o-t, I can tell you what works for me. These things do take a bit of fiddling to get working, but when you get it right, it's instantly gratifying with shavings, not dust, coming out the throat.

I would advise you start with the 80 clone, since they have a fixed blade inclination & it's one less thing to worry about. I can't see why a blade wouldn't work at 90, but it's just easier to turn a burr if you sharpen to 45*. Hold the burring tool about 80 degrees to the face of the blade when turning the burr, and don't go hog-wild with it, it's easy to over-do. Four to six firm (not heavy) passes is what I use. Put the blade in (carefully, so you don't damage that nice burr), then sit the plane on a flat piece of wood. Press the blade down lightly and tighten it. Without tightening the 'bowing' screw, test the blade extrusion, it should give you the barest of scrapes. If it doesn't, you need to advance a bit, and if it really 'bites' you've got too much extrusion. When it's right, start tightening the screw and adding a bit of bow until you get a nice cut. Done!

On very hard woods like you've got, you'll be dropping the blade out and re-burring every few minutes, I suspect. Good practice!

Treat the 112 the same way. The only difference with this one is you can vary the blade inclination. I've thought a lot about why you need to do this and my conclusion is that each person tends to put a slightly different burr on the blade, which means the 'sweet' angle varies around the 'average' angle of the 80 - in my case I have settled on an angle just a bit more acute than an 80, which works for me, but your mileage will almost certainly vary. Anyway, get the 80 going, and get the feel of how it should be when things are set properly, and your learning curve on the 112 will be less steep and shorter....
Cheers,

Hi JOT, any chance of a review once you get them going?

I have both Stanley models and used them on my redgum benchtop with great success.

I sharpen both blades at 45° using a Veritas scraper filing jig and finish off with a thin 1000 grit diamond sharpening plate; it's thin enough to fit in the jig in lieu of a file. I also give the back edge a polish on the same stone. Then I roll the burr with a Kirschen burnisher.

The 80 is the easiest to set up; first flatten and polish the sole the same as you do a plane. Then to set the blade you simply sit the body on a flat wooden surface and just rest your finger on the top of the blade to hold it down onto the wood. No pressure at all, literally just the weight of your finger is enough while you tighten the bar clamping screws. Then gently tighten the central screw until it just touches the blade and give it just a tiny smidge more.

For the 112 the blade is sharpened the same way. Wind off the angle adjusting nuts so that the blade holder is free to move to any angle at all, then find the sweet spot on the blade by using it by hand on a piece of wood. When you have determined the best angle that the blade cuts at you then match that angle on the blade holder and tighten the locknuts. Fit the blade the same way as for the 80 but you can use a bit of downward pressure before tightening the lever cap. If you matched the angle well then the blade will start cutting immediately. Raising the blade angle will give a deeper cut.

This is shown much more eloquently than I can describe in the Lie Neilson video here.

Thanks for your responses. I spent the last couple of days using the cabinet scrapers and the scraper planes, sharpening them and using them again.
I'm able to produce curls with both but the cabinet scraper was more suited for getting rid of the machine marks on my table top probably because the sole of the cabinet scraper is smaller. But the scraper plane produce a flatter surface. Also I found that the scrapers continue to produce curls longer than a hand plane producing shavings on my forest red gum.
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The cabinet scraper came with a blade with a 90 deg bevel but I found, as IanW said a 45 deg bevel is easier to burnish. I sharpen my blades on my Tormek as per normal, followed by consolidation with a burnisher and then followed by hooking it, as per the instructions http://www2.woodcraft.com/pdf/77a04.
It's fun so far to use, and I finished scraping the table top in no time. It seems that the very hard surface of forest red is good for scraping and only a very small amount of hand sanding was required afterwards. They are certainly great tools to have in the shed.

You seem to have nailed it very quickly, Jot, you've got some nice shavings there..

Originally Posted by justonething

......The cabinet scraper came with a blade with a 90 deg bevel but I found, as IanW said a 45 deg bevel is easier to burnish.....

I was thinking about this, and wondering why Kunz would do that. The only reason I can think of is it saves them a few cents per plane by not having to grind blades!

While a square blade should work, I suspect it would dull quickly (extrapolating from using card scrapers without a burr, as I occasionally do). You might struggle to get the burr right at first, too. Early on, when I first started using card scrapers I found them very hit-&-miss; sometimes I got lovely shavings after sharpening & burnishing, sometimes just dust. Eventually, I discovered I was tending to over-roll the edges - the scrapers would cut if I leaned them forward enough, but my pinkies were dragging on the surface by then, and they were not comfortable to use. By contrast, I find the 45 deg. edges are easy to turn and it's easier to keep the burr angle constant on them.

As I said above, when burnishing any scraper blades, & particularly for the planes, restraint is the key. Keep the burnisher a good 10 degrees below horizontal (assuming you have the bade upright in a vise), and just enough strokes that you can feel the burr. Vic Tesolin burrs his card scrapers holding the blade in one hand and running the burnisher over the edge 'freehand'. I guess he is practised at it, but it didn't work at all well for me when I tried it. However, it does demonstrate that you don't need a huge amount of pressure to turn the burr.

Originally Posted by justonething

......It seems that the very hard surface of forest red is good for scraping and only a very small amount of hand sanding was required afterwards. They are certainly great tools to have in the shed.

Yes indeed, my oft-quoted rule of thumb is "the harder the wood, the better it scrapes". As with all 'rules' there are exceptions, but it holds up pretty well. Try your scraper planes on some furry Cedar sometime & you'll soon see what I mean. Scraping isn't the answer to every finishing situation, and they aren't speedy tools - takes you a long time and a lot of sweat to scrape out deep defects, but sometimes it's the only way I can get where I want to be, without filling the shed with sanding dust. .

You can scrape softer woods, but you need to take extra care & prepare a perfect edge. In most cases there's no point, since these woods usually plane easily anyway. One exception I can think of, though, is when flushing inlays or banding, or flushing up a tiny mismatch of rail & stile on a door frame. A card scraper is my choice in these sorts of situations, where the small amount of material to be removed & the fine control you have make it the safest choice.

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

I was thinking about this, and wondering why Kunz would do that. The only reason I can think of is it saves them a few cents per plane by not having to grind blades!

Well, I think Paul Seller agrees with you. https://paulsellers.com/2015/12/kunzcabinet-scraper-80/
I don't think they look as nice as the Veritas' and probably not as nice as the Stanley either. It's also true that there are no instructions, mind you - reading a half page instructions in a book that is about 100 pages thick is only mildly better. Why don't manufacturers just make instructions to be downloaded online. It doesn't cost a few cents per tool to do that.