Pianotech

I finally found some time to log in and read. I hope this is still timely. A few weeks ago I sent in a video of me using a scraper to remove the finish from a soundboard. Several of you purchased scrapers on eBay which was then followed by several submissions about sharpening methods and blade angles. I Imagine there are some frustrated new scraper owners in the PTG. In my post I mentioned that the trick was to learn how to turn a burr appropriate for removing a finish. The instructions and comments in subsequent posts show methods of sharpening scrapers that were designed to remove wood from wood. The fine burr created by these methods will not hold up while trying to scrape a finish. Scraper blades are made from steel that is slightly softer than the steel used for chisels and plane irons. This is so a burr can be created. Carbide is too hard and brittle for a burr.  I'm talking quality tools and not hardware store junk. Cheap steel cannot be sharpened. Also, blade sharpening angles for cabinet scrapers such as the Stanley 80 are determined by the bedding angle of the blade in the tool. The #82 is not a cabinet scraper, it's just a scraper. The tool angle is adjustable. Therefore, you can put any angle you want on the blade. For scraping a finish I use 90 degrees. This is much stronger and will last longer than a 45 or 60 degree angle. On finishes I don't use a scraper blade. I use an old plane iron. The plane iron is much harder so it is difficult to turn a burr. I have several nice Lie-Nielsen scraper planes that are not "sharpened" with a burr. Included are a couple of videos showing my methods for preparing a hard blade. (For some reason I have to click on them to get the play button to show up.) I use a belt grinder and a smooth place of my shop concrete floor. For you hand tool purists that are offended by these Neanderthal methods let me assure you that I do know the finer points of sharpening. I have full sets of oil stones, water stones, Shapton glass stones, and diamond stones and strops.

When scraping be careful to have the scraper moving before you apply downward pressure or you'll have lots of lines pressed into the wood. Spruce (and all conifers) give poor results with scaping because of alternating hard/soft grain lines. The earlywood mashes down and the blade rides on top of the latewood. Also, this is not a substitute for sanding.

Several months ago there were some entries on a thread about toothed planed blades that weren't quite correct. Toothed blades for planes have square teeth and are used for reducing tearout. These are the greatest "secret" in handplaning. Scraper blades have vee shaped teeth to prevent sliding of veneers while gluing. Attached is a photo of the bottom ply of a Steinway block showing the striations (machine made) that probably got glued on the wrong side.

I am including a few other scraper pics just for fun. The small bronze scraper plane, sharpened with conventional methods at 45 degrees and no burr, is great for cleaning and leveling ivories. A card scraper can remove imperfections from plastic keytops. You'll still need to have a buffer. I hope this helps. Stay safe and don't eat any bats, Glen

I finally found some time to log in and read. I hope this is still timely. A few weeks ago I sent in a video of me using a scraper to remove the finish from a soundboard. Several of you purchased scrapers on eBay which was then followed by several submissions about sharpening methods and blade angles. I Imagine there are some frustrated new scraper owners in the PTG. In my post I mentioned that the trick was to learn how to turn a burr appropriate for removing a finish. The instructions and comments in subsequent posts show methods of sharpening scrapers that were designed to remove wood from wood. The fine burr created by these methods will not hold up while trying to scrape a finish. Scraper blades are made from steel that is slightly softer than the steel used for chisels and plane irons. This is so a burr can be created. Carbide is too hard and brittle for a burr.  I'm talking quality tools and not hardware store junk. Cheap steel cannot be sharpened. Also, blade sharpening angles for cabinet scrapers such as the Stanley 80 are determined by the bedding angle of the blade in the tool. The #82 is not a cabinet scraper, it's just a scraper. The tool angle is adjustable. Therefore, you can put any angle you want on the blade. For scraping a finish I use 90 degrees. This is much stronger and will last longer than a 45 or 60 degree angle. On finishes I don't use a scraper blade. I use an old plane iron. The plane iron is much harder so it is difficult to turn a burr. I have several nice Lie-Nielsen scraper planes that are not "sharpened" with a burr. Included are a couple of videos showing my methods for preparing a hard blade. (For some reason I have to click on them to get the play button to show up.) I use a belt grinder and a smooth place of my shop concrete floor. For you hand tool purists that are offended by these Neanderthal methods let me assure you that I do know the finer points of sharpening. I have full sets of oil stones, water stones, Shapton glass stones, and diamond stones and strops.

When scraping be careful to have the scraper moving before you apply downward pressure or you'll have lots of lines pressed into the wood. Spruce (and all conifers) give poor results with scaping because of alternating hard/soft grain lines. The earlywood mashes down and the blade rides on top of the latewood. Also, this is not a substitute for sanding.

Several months ago there were some entries on a thread about toothed planed blades that weren't quite correct. Toothed blades for planes have square teeth and are used for reducing tearout. These are the greatest "secret" in handplaning. Scraper blades have vee shaped teeth to prevent sliding of veneers while gluing. Attached is a photo of the bottom ply of a Steinway block showing the striations (machine made) that probably got glued on the wrong side.

I am including a few other scraper pics just for fun. The small bronze scraper plane, sharpened with conventional methods at 45 degrees and no burr, is great for cleaning and leveling ivories. A card scraper can remove imperfections from plastic keytops. You'll still need to have a buffer. I hope this helps. Stay safe and don't eat any bats, Glen

I finally found some time to log in and read. I hope this is still timely. A few weeks ago I sent in a video of me using a scraper to remove the finish from a soundboard. Several of you purchased scrapers on eBay which was then followed by several submissions about sharpening methods and blade angles. I Imagine there are some frustrated new scraper owners in the PTG. In my post I mentioned that the trick was to learn how to turn a burr appropriate for removing a finish. The instructions and comments in subsequent posts show methods of sharpening scrapers that were designed to remove wood from wood. The fine burr created by these methods will not hold up while trying to scrape a finish. Scraper blades are made from steel that is slightly softer than the steel used for chisels and plane irons. This is so a burr can be created. Carbide is too hard and brittle for a burr.  I'm talking quality tools and not hardware store junk. Cheap steel cannot be sharpened. Also, blade sharpening angles for cabinet scrapers such as the Stanley 80 are determined by the bedding angle of the blade in the tool. The #82 is not a cabinet scraper, it's just a scraper. The tool angle is adjustable. Therefore, you can put any angle you want on the blade. For scraping a finish I use 90 degrees. This is much stronger and will last longer than a 45 or 60 degree angle. On finishes I don't use a scraper blade. I use an old plane iron. The plane iron is much harder so it is difficult to turn a burr. I have several nice Lie-Nielsen scraper planes that are not "sharpened" with a burr. Included are a couple of videos showing my methods for preparing a hard blade. (For some reason I have to click on them to get the play button to show up.) I use a belt grinder and a smooth place of my shop concrete floor. For you hand tool purists that are offended by these Neanderthal methods let me assure you that I do know the finer points of sharpening. I have full sets of oil stones, water stones, Shapton glass stones, and diamond stones and strops.

When scraping be careful to have the scraper moving before you apply downward pressure or you'll have lots of lines pressed into the wood. Spruce (and all conifers) give poor results with scaping because of alternating hard/soft grain lines. The earlywood mashes down and the blade rides on top of the latewood. Also, this is not a substitute for sanding.

Several months ago there were some entries on a thread about toothed planed blades that weren't quite correct. Toothed blades for planes have square teeth and are used for reducing tearout. These are the greatest "secret" in handplaning. Scraper blades have vee shaped teeth to prevent sliding of veneers while gluing. Attached is a photo of the bottom ply of a Steinway block showing the striations (machine made) that probably got glued on the wrong side.

I am including a few other scraper pics just for fun. The small bronze scraper plane, sharpened with conventional methods at 45 degrees and no burr, is great for cleaning and leveling ivories. A card scraper can remove imperfections from plastic keytops. You'll still need to have a buffer. I hope this helps. Stay safe and don't eat any bats, Glen

I finally found some time to log in and read. I hope this is still timely. A few weeks ago I sent in a video of me using a scraper to remove the finish from a soundboard. Several of you purchased scrapers on eBay which was then followed by several submissions about sharpening methods and blade angles. I Imagine there are some frustrated new scraper owners in the PTG. In my post I mentioned that the trick was to learn how to turn a burr appropriate for removing a finish. The instructions and comments in subsequent posts show methods of sharpening scrapers that were designed to remove wood from wood. The fine burr created by these methods will not hold up while trying to scrape a finish. Scraper blades are made from steel that is slightly softer than the steel used for chisels and plane irons. This is so a burr can be created. Carbide is too hard and brittle for a burr.  I'm talking quality tools and not hardware store junk. Cheap steel cannot be sharpened. Also, blade sharpening angles for cabinet scrapers such as the Stanley 80 are determined by the bedding angle of the blade in the tool. The #82 is not a cabinet scraper, it's just a scraper. The tool angle is adjustable. Therefore, you can put any angle you want on the blade. For scraping a finish I use 90 degrees. This is much stronger and will last longer than a 45 or 60 degree angle. On finishes I don't use a scraper blade. I use an old plane iron. The plane iron is much harder so it is difficult to turn a burr. I have several nice Lie-Nielsen scraper planes that are not "sharpened" with a burr. Included are a couple of videos showing my methods for preparing a hard blade. (For some reason I have to click on them to get the play button to show up.) I use a belt grinder and a smooth place of my shop concrete floor. For you hand tool purists that are offended by these Neanderthal methods let me assure you that I do know the finer points of sharpening. I have full sets of oil stones, water stones, Shapton glass stones, and diamond stones and strops.

When scraping be careful to have the scraper moving before you apply downward pressure or you'll have lots of lines pressed into the wood. Spruce (and all conifers) give poor results with scaping because of alternating hard/soft grain lines. The earlywood mashes down and the blade rides on top of the latewood. Also, this is not a substitute for sanding.

Several months ago there were some entries on a thread about toothed planed blades that weren't quite correct. Toothed blades for planes have square teeth and are used for reducing tearout. These are the greatest "secret" in handplaning. Scraper blades have vee shaped teeth to prevent sliding of veneers while gluing. Attached is a photo of the bottom ply of a Steinway block showing the striations (machine made) that probably got glued on the wrong side.

I am including a few other scraper pics just for fun. The small bronze scraper plane, sharpened with conventional methods at 45 degrees and no burr, is great for cleaning and leveling ivories. A card scraper can remove imperfections from plastic keytops. You'll still need to have a buffer. I hope this helps. Stay safe and don't eat any bats, Glen