USA news on Youtube Nov 5 2017

in this video I want to teach you how to

use a scraper and sharpen scraper. this

is a very very effective tool, but it is

tricky to sharpen. the edge dosn't last a long

time and have to get it right.

this is brand new scraper it's pretty typical

spring temperate steel, it's got about

average thickness and more thicker

some are thinner more flexible, but the

first step in getting a good edge is to

file it flat and nice and square with

the edges. and you can make a little jig

like this for yourself a little slot on

the block of wood put a file in it and

you can join this very effective.

I tend to want to go with the file and

just hold it in my side vice. I like he has a

fairly fine file.

course a fine file with even nicer surface that will take

less effort to Stone. and I just relax

file across the surface

it's very nice with this big wooden surface of

the bench to help me to keep this going

flat to the rod. And I would file until i get a nice

sharp edge, which I do have. I don't get in

your idea that you have to have a flat

straight surface. this is a very effective

scraper with lots of different curved

surfaces. little trickier to sharpen

because of the curves, but this scraper

easily can have a small camber to it

or whatever for certain kinds of

scraping work. the next step is now is to

hone these edges to bring them up to a

sharper and sharper and sharper square

corner that's going to be the edge that

we're going to be using to do the work

we want to do. normally I would file two

of the long edge of the scraper and sharpen them at the

same time. But you can also sharpen the

edges in the end and sometimes actually

do use that

as a tool for getting into corners and

scraping glue in that kind of a Thing.

So i'll start at a 500 grit Stone. I just

hold it vertically and trying to work my

way a long, light pressure, if you find this

is hard to do you can imagine all kinds

of blocks you can make the guide your

work against the stone keep yourself

nice and squared.

and just like the back of the blade I'll

do the sides of this at a finer Stone.

So I move to a 1000 grit and repeat the process. I want to go until

I feel really really sharp edge here

that is capable doing some cutting

it takes awhile to prepare the edge.

Ok let's go to the last Stone, 4000 grit Stone.

and I do the sides and the longer you use

a scraper and sharpen it, the better this

polish gets on the two sides and the

edge and will last

or will create a better edge and last longer

just like on a plane blade.

That feels pretty good. now this curved scraper

the honing is exactly the same, only

you've got to go over the arc that

you're going to be using and usually

you're using a small part of this so

I'll sharpen the area that I need, not

the whole thing.

let's see how well we did here, in terms

of how it works. it should really soon

make a shaving at this point, or it's not

really an effective edge yet. And there is a bit of

sharpness right there. You can see a lot of dust

but it is making shavings.

ok let's go to the next step which is

rolling the burr and creating a more

effective cutting-edge. but this very

square edge with no burr, is what I would use

to scrape bad of varnish or shellac

finish, it is very effective, very clean

and something worth knowing about. so the

first step if there's a little Burr on here

already or replacing the the burr

renewing the Burr, is to go and use a

burnisher to lay down to Burr. so you can

use a round burnisher, you can use the

triangular burnisher, there are actually oval burnishers too.

to but these will do most of the work we

need to do. a round burnisher is useful

for a curved scraper, where you want to go

around curved edge it easier to maintain

the pressure to roll up the Burr. I tend

to like triangular burnisher and that's

what I use to sharpen my scraper. so the

first step is to take some oil, this is

Camilla oil works fine, put a little bit of

oil (on your Wood) on your steel, just to

lubricate the process. so it's a little

bit more gentle on the Burr. And you want to

work hard in the edge

or it its a burr here lay it down

so the idea is if you have a light Burr you

have made you can roll it down roll it

back up

roll it down roll it back up, a series of times but

it's never again be as sharp as the

first time. Laying the burr down and

preparing it now to roll the burr up. this is

the tricky part about the burr. As you want

to be gentle but you want to be firm. and

I like to roll it up along the edge roll

again along the edge and a third time

along the edge. I'm trying to keep the angle

fairly perpendicular but I am rolling as

I go and I've got another

edge to do here. along the edge, along the

edge, along the edge. and this is what the

Burr looks like. if you roll it up too much

then you go to work the scraper much

more low, much lower to the work, that is

much more difficult. so I have got a

fairly nice fine burr here, that's all I am

looking for. because I want to be able to

renew this several times without having

to go and file it and hold it and that

kind of Thing. Lets clean this of. you want get all the oil

off, it doesn't contaminate your work

And lat look what kind of edge we actually got here

Thats about as an edge as you can asked for.

Making nice shaving, not a lot of dust and as the

edge degrade it will start making more dust.

The beauty of scrapers you can scrape on

almost any direction, you can scrape out

this bird-eyes like in this piece of maple

little pieces of tear-out, or whatever.

And you work in whatever direction you want and

I like the idea that you can feel the

way the tools cutting keep quite direct

or bend over or less aggressively and

you can work your way in

let me show you some ways that i might

use a scraper. let's say you've got a

spot like right here where some tear-out

is happening, when you're trying to

plan it. Well rather than just raped that

little spot you want to scrape out a much

larger area

you don't just have a hole there. this is the

way I would work. Work around for the out side,

and eventually get in to the middle

There you go. Not a dish but just more a Level with that Little spot of tear-out taking out.

another thing about scrapers, as you

can scrape in any direction. Unlike a

plane that has his best direction, a

scraper works equally well

going against the grain as with the

grain, as you can see. Now already the

edge is degrading little bit but not to to

much

An other thing I like about a scraper is you

can control it to cut very accurately in a

very precise position if you want to or

you can use this broad cutting to level the surface

more on a larger area

sometimes I pull a scraper, more

likely I pushes scraper and the

flexing of it gives you the control to

give you the stability, its really a plain

gives you the stability to be able to work

but the problem is the edge dosn't last very long

So with this edge is no longer cutting

effectively, i can go and burnish it down again

roll it back up again and if the burr

small you can do this two or three times

and then eventually have to file the

edge and renew it completely, so I'm

rolling the burr down that i have on here

flaten it right up and as I said before there is

certain amount of friction

work hard in to the steel, I can roll it back up again

and it doesn't take a lot of pressure

I like a small burr that would be very

effective. Let me clean this off and we can see

how it works

here we are with a nice frech edge

notice how it is making much less dust

than it was before

mostly nice clean shavings. so try to the whole

blade don't just use the Center, trying to

use all parts of the blade and you have

two edges, you have a back edge too. or you might have a

top of the bottom edge as well, so you have

four cutting edges. A scraper is not necessarily an

easy tool to learn how to sharpen, but its really

worth learning how to do it, because of

the tool that will smooth any wood small

areas where your plane having tear-out, a

scraper is the tool to come to your rescue

and level it up. experiment with

different Burrs, different pressures

different angle, but you'll find it's

very very flexible and the way you

handle it and the way of work. That is one of

those tools as a furniture makers that i

very much appreciate because it's so

simple but yet so effective.