Thread: Veritas Cornering Tool - is it a dud? or am I

You MUST use them with the grain or you get lots of tearout.

run your finger lightly along the edge, that will show you the grain direction.

Fifty eight dollars !

Man o man......I'm in the wrong business

As Echidna said - grain direction first and second. You have to check both surfaces, some bits of timber look like they run one way on the top and another on the side DAMHIK.

Also I found the sharpening can be a bit hit-or-miss - the tools are made in the UK for Lee Valley, not by Lee Valley. The black plasticey thing in the packet is the sharpener and is wrapped in a VERY FINE abrasive. I thought mine was just a bit of packing paper & nearly threw it out with the bag

And just how you hold it can affect the way it works, as well as the phase of the moon, how long since it rained etc.

I have a set of these and love them. They have to be sharpened well as they were a bit rough in the finish area when new.

I have found that they work best on the pull stroke and go through from the small radius to the largest using a gentle touch.

Apply too much pressure and they tend to dig in hard, particularly if you have lifted your hand too far, causing an increased angle between wood and cutting edge.

Hi Old Picker,

Why on earth would you buy a set of these when you have a shelf full of perfectly good hand planes that I can almost see from here.

Cheers Old Pete

Originally Posted by old pete

Hi Old Picker,

Why on earth would you buy a set of these when you have a shelf full of perfectly good hand planes that I can almost see from here.

Cheers Old Pete

true i do have 7 or 8 really nice old planes but unfortunately none of them will cut a rounded edge around the curves of a guitar body - these lilttle fellas might just do that job if i hone them properly and learn to use them-

i could also cut the edges with the table router but sometimes you get burns or tearout - this is a much gentler approach - btw to buy router cutters to cut four diffent diam edges is a lot more $$ - the bits i use are getting worn so for the price of one bit i thought i would try these - if it dont work well i wasted my dough

Originally Posted by Ray153

I have a set of these and love them.....

Ray, I admire your patience or inherent skill. You must be among the rare few who have persevered enough with these things to figure them out! I bought a pair half a lifetime ago (they cost about $8 the pair then, which is still considerably cheaper than current cost!). My experience was much like Old Picker's - after some very unsatisfactory sessions with them, they were chucked in a deep drawer & haven't seen the light of day since I took them along to a club night for a show'n'tell session called "Things I regret buying".

While the idea seemed good, they really don't do anything better or faster than several other tools that are a good deal safer, in my hands. These things have a nasty habit of tearing out large splinters, usually right at the most visible spot on a piece of expensive wood. Yeah, I know I should check grain direction carefully - I do, but Gremlins always come along & change things while my back is turned.

For many jobs, a few swipes with a block plane & a lick of paper gives just as good a result, & if you want rounded corners on a curved edge, the old scratch stock is just as quick & a heck of a lot more certain.

Must dig mine out & put 'em on ebay (if I can still find them) - I could do almost as well as real estate in terms of capital gain.......
Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

if you want rounded corners on a curved edge, the old scratch stock is just as quick & a heck of a lot more certain.

Cheers,

scuse my ignorance but what's "scratch stock"??

O_P Have a quick look here.
http://www.leevalley.com/newsletters...Article1-3.htm

All the best
Kevin

Originally Posted by old_picker

scuse my ignorance but what's "scratch stock"??

OP - in its simplest incarnation, it's just a scraper blade held in an L-shaped piece of wood. I have several, but no pics. They are a simple, rough tool made up in minutes to do a particular job, but work extremely well on hardwoods (not so sure about softwoods, but probably ok, with care).

Here's a pic of a more elaborate version (apologies for the obvious rip-off Mr. Lee!) I made out of Olive wood. This has a split cylinder that holds the scraper blade, which is locked by the wooden grub screw inside the stock. The only advantage of this over an L-shaped bit of scrap is that it's a little easier to adjust to get the blade in the right position WRT the stock.

The blade can be any old bit of saw steel or equivalent, around 20-30 thou (.5-.75mm) thick - as long as you can shape & file it. Some people like to hone a really fine edge like a card scraper. You don't turn a hook - no practical way to do that on a fine profile, & I can't see it would do much in most cases, anyway. I find they work perfectly well with a nice square edge straight off a chainsaw file (which are perfect for shaping fine beads since you can get such small sizes with relatively fine teeth).

It takes about 5 minutes to master these - you push or pull it depending on the job. They are relatively insensitive to grain direction, but you will find that they can catch if you are not careful when going round curves where the grain starts getting really 'uphill'. The trick is to hold it firmly at the start, until the profile is established, then it tends to guide itself - I'm talking about quirked beads here, where you want the quirk to be neat & fine - for simple roundovers, you could hardly go wrong. Work a short section at a time.

For such simple tools, they are amazingly efficient & quick! Work best on harder woods & it takes no time at all to make small-radius roundovers & beads. Fibrous woods aren't good, but most cabinet grade woods work a treat. They can do things Routers can't (see the quirked bead on my chair rail). There's a recent discussion of the various beading tools on a Pom BB, here:

http://www.woodworkuk.co.uk/forum/vi...php?f=5&t=2702

Cheers,

Originally Posted by kevjed

O_P Have a quick look here.
http://www.leevalley.com/newsletters...Article1-3.htm

All the best
Kevin

Good one Kevin - should have waited a few minutes & saved all that typing!

very illuminating indeed
i guess i should get a decent book on these type of fancy finishing techniques - i often wondered how this kind beading was acheived

i think i can make up one of these that will do my job pretty easily - say goodbye to the scream of the router and its burns and tearouts

Originally Posted by old_picker

very illuminating indeed
i guess i should get a decent book on these type of fancy finishing techniques - i often wondered how this kind beading was acheived

i think i can make up one of these that will do my job pretty easily - say goodbye to the scream of the router and its burns and tearouts

Nuthin' fancy about scratch stocks, OP, but they can be used on pretty fancy stuff.

Go for it - as I said, they are usually not as successful on soft woods as on harder ones, but it's always worth a try. Don't chuck the router away just yet, but you may certainly find that they are the way to go for short sections & the only way for some curved work. I reckon learning about scratch stocks & card scrapers were the two very best things I ever got out of reading ww mags - both featured in very early editions of FWW.

Cheers,