Official Luthiers Forum!

What do you guys think of this tool? Useful in your shop? It's $20 and I'm thinking of throwing it into my LMI order....

You can use almost anything that has been hardened as a burnisher - screwdriver, chisel, drill rod - but it is nice to have a purpose-built tool. The angled part takes the guess work out of it, but that's half the fun - learning how to do it. Ron Hock sells a hardened rod - 3/8"?? - for $16 and you can put your own handle on it. Nice way to get into tool making. (no affiliation, yada, yada, yada)

Ed

works great!

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I concur with Ed and think you would be better served with a plain hardened rod on a wooden handle. I use the Lee Valley Tri-burnisher. More expensive but I think more versatile then the LMI one.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

The LN scraper set is a tremendous deal.
Make your own burnisher fron an old carbide bit, smooth section of an old rat tail file or any other
Hardened round stock.

B

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.

If I weren't happy with my scraper setup, I'd use this combo:

Veritas Scraper Burnisher

Veritas Scraper Edge Jointer

You'd clean up the edge left by the jointer on your two stones, then use the burnisher. You'd have killer edge on it.

I used one specific screwdriver for years, and it was OK, but bought a Hock burnisher last year. (as suggested by Ruby - and yes it is 3/8")
I find it great, and a steal at $18.48 incl post on Amazon

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I use an old knife-sharpening steel I bought at a thrift store. Works great, couldn't beat the price (I think it was under a dollar).

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John Cavanaugh
Saint Paul, MN
"What could possibly go wrong?"

If that's the Timberline tool, I got it years ago when I was unsure about my ability as a novice to get a good burr on the scraper. Works great and I still use it as it really is quick to draw a burr and turn it.

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Kurt Thomas

"There's a first time for everything even if you do it by mistake."

I've used anything from a screwdriver shaft to drill bit shanks... they work but it can be a little hard to draw a proper burr unless you've done it a few times. For me I hate spending 20 bucks on a tool that does only one thing, so I never bought one.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I use the back of a gouge although I do have a proper burnisher. I don't notice an ounce of difference between their respective performance.
If the scrapers edge is perfectly square and 'sharp' you don't need a great deal of pressure to draw the burr. I use a Diamond 'stone' to dress or refresh the scrapers edge after draw filing it. It seems to avoid the grooving that can happen with an Oil or Waterstone.

Raul I get the sense that you are in "purchase mode" perhaps lacking time.

I have the LMI scraper burnisher and it works fine.