Official Luthiers Forum!

I had to do a lot of the thinning on some Honduran rosewoods sides by scraper, due to some knot shadows causing the grain to tear if I used a plane. I wear gloves for the heat, but still had to stop regularly for fear of creating embers in the pile of fluffy shavings

There's also the Veritas scraper holder, but I haven't had good luck with it. Get much better shavings holding the scraper directly.

As for sharpening, I currently use a file on the edge and then burnish from the faces, then the edge, and then angle the hook back maybe 10-15 degrees. But that does leave the faces to get a little rough after a while, which I hope to solve using the DMT extra-extra-fine diamond stone I bought recently.

Perhaps I can use diamond stones in place of the file for refreshing the edge too. As it is, my hook isn't quite as smooth as I'd like it to be. The scraper that came with the Veritas holder worked better when I first got it, and gradually degraded to the level of my other one with each resharpening.

Also, I always round over the corners, because the two on the cutting edge can scratch the wood, and the other two poke my hands. I've never run into a situation where I wished I had sharp corners on a card scraper. Whenever I need sharp corners, I also need a chisel style beveled blade that can get into tight spaces better than a 90 degree edge.

One of the advantages of the heavy scrapers is that they don't heat up as much. you can still feel them getting warm, but I've never gotten one hot enough to burn, as I have with a thin card scraper.

I'd like to mention that I'm not getting any 'cut' on those scrapers that Stew-Mac is selling. I was lucky enough to have a student who could make them, and I introduced them to Stew-Mac so that I wouldn't end up in the mail order business. I kind of wish they had not put my name on them, although I understand why they did. I'm just happy that I don't have to be pulling red hot steel out of a furnace and dunking it in oil any more during classes: that's not really good practice in a wood shop. Once the students tried my scrapers they had to have one, and that was the only way to get them, up 'til now.

My own view on scrapers is much like others view sandpaper. I have quite a few, and sharpen them differently depending on use. Some are lightly filed and gently burnished and perform like 80 grit. The next set are filed, then stone sharpened and then gently burnished and perform like 120 to 180 sandpaper. My final set is further refined on finer stones (1200 then 4000 waterstones) and not burnished at all, for very fine finishing of the surface prior to sealing and topcoats. No need to 'raise the grain' and remove hairs.

I file and burnish, seems to work well enough..
Also if you wanna save money on scrapers - take an ordinary hardware store saw... rip or crosscut made with good quality steel, and cut a few out of one with an angle grinder with a cutting wheel on it then square them up with files or sander - I did that for all my scrapers and they seem great ... really fine transparent curls ..
Good Luck
Cw