sharpen a card scraper

[Daniel]

I'm having difficulties sharpening my card scraper. It's a recent purchase from Peachtree WW and I got a Crown burnisher as well. It actually came with a decent hook. I played with it a bit making some shavings and then wanted to move on to practice renewing the edge.

I've watched several different video techniques, mainly following this. I made the file guide, honed til shiney, and began burnishing. I'm scratching the heck out of the burnishing tool but cannot get a hook. I'm holding the tool at about 5-10 degree angle to the scrapers edge and using quite firm pressure.

Does anyone have any additional tips I could employ-- amount of pressure, hone longer, 'roll' or burnish the face edge harder? I'm curious if the scraper itself is too hard and possibly that is the main trouble.

Did it come easier to you? Thanks!

[only 3 injuries]

Daniel said:

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I'm having difficulties sharpening my card scraper. It's a recent purchase from Peachtree WW and I got a Crown burnisher as well. It actually came with a decent hook. I played with it a bit making some shavings and then wanted to move on to practice renewing the edge.

I've watched several different video techniques, mainly following this. I made the file guide, honed til shiney, and began burnishing. I'm scratching the heck out of the burnishing tool but cannot get a hook. I'm holding the tool at about 5-10 degree angle to the scrapers edge and using quite firm pressure.

Does anyone have any additional tips I could employ-- amount of pressure, hone longer, 'roll' or burnish the face edge harder? I'm curious if the scraper itself is too hard and possibly that is the main trouble.

Did it come easier to you? Thanks!

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Try a series of strokes gradually increasing in pressure until you feel the hook. If you use too much force the hook will get rolled back toward the scraper.

[henrypig]

I like Daniel's process and will try it out.

I actually freehand file the edge and then stone the edge and two faces of the scraper with the scraper held about 1.5" high in a metal vise (I use just a 4000 grit stone - why? it works). Close enough to 90 degrees works fine on the edge - your eye is actually pretty good. On the faces, you're done when your wet stone sticks to the metal.

Burnishing: I use this homemade burnisher built from the back end of a worn out carbide onsrud spiral router bit. As was said, if your burnisher scratches, it's too soft. I use 10 firm strokes parallel to the top, followed by 5 or 6 light ones on either face at about 10 degrees (like buttering toast - no more!) to draw out the hook (I feel for it with a fingernail). You can visibly see the three resulting facets on the edge - a thicker one in the middle, and two thinner ones outside where the hooks are.

The whole process takes only a minute or two.

[Steve Friedman]

The info in the post has been very helpful, but do you do anything different for smaller end of a gooseneck scraper? I have no problems on the straight ones and even OK on the large end of the gooseneck, but the small end has me stymied.

Steve

[RLMillard]

Daniel,

Here is a video of the process I use. It has proven quick and repeatable for me. Card Scraper

Rob Millard
www.americanfederalperiod.com

[bridger]

The crown burnisher has a reputation for being soft. I use a length of high speed steel drill rod

[Blacky's Boy]

bridger said:

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The crown burnisher has a reputation for being soft. I use a length of high speed steel drill rod

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Unless the HSS has a hardness of about Rc 60, it also might not work.

I highly recommend buying a Hock burnisher or making your own. You can buy a 1/4" dia tungsten carbide rod from ENCO for about $10 and have a super high quality burnisher with minimal effort.

Carbide Rounds; Diameter: 0.1875; Material: Solid Carbide; Diameter (Inch): 3/16; Overall Length (Inch): 4; Material Grade: C2; Type: Solid Round

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Daniel

Rob's video is very good. The part that needs emphasising is "drawing out" the steel edge. Unless this is done you will struggle to turn a hook. This is the most common omission made by those starting out.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Patsfan]

Daniel said:

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I've watched several different video techniques, mainly following this. I made the file guide, honed til shiney, and began burnishing. I'm scratching the heck out of the burnishing tool but cannot get a hook. I'm holding the tool at about 5-10 degree angle to the scrapers edge and using quite firm pressure.


Did it come easier to you? Thanks!

---

3-4 pounds of pressure (i.e. light pressure) is all you need.

After that "AH HAH!" moment, it gets easy.

[AHill]

It's kinda pricey, but this scraper from StewMac is one of the best I've used, and it holds and edge for a very long time compared to your standard card scraper. You sharpen it by turning a burr using your grinder.



StewMac Ultimate Scraper