Caruth scraper

[rocket]

IMG_1979.JPG (155.17 KiB) Viewed 11132 times

This is the fourteenth arched back i'm working on at the moment, as you can see i've just about finished the initial arching, looks and feels pretty consistent , quite happy with how it's going. But what i'm really excited about is the new scraper i've been using on this one,[ Caruth ] from Stumc, i've had it for a little while, used it on this and that and thought it was pretty good but this is the first opportunity i've had to use it on a full arching job and i must say i'm very impressed, both with it's ease of use and also how easy it is to sharpen, i loike it a lot .
Cheers,,
Rod.

[Tod Gilding]

You Just Reminded Me Rod ,I bought one of those months ago hung it up in it's little bag that comes with it and then forgot about it.

I Might just get it out tomorrow and find something to scrape

[rocket]

Yeah Tod, the little bag got the arse pretty quickly, all jokes aside though, power to weight,-- value for money, this little chunk of tool steel is the ducks guts.
Happy scraping
Rod.

[Bob Connor]

I bought one a few weeks back and Dave had it out cleaning up some bindings today. He thought it was the dogs bollocks as well.

Regards

[martintaylor]

Great recommendations everyone, just placed my order. I have been using an old (late 1800's) steel butter knife that my great grandfather used to use as a utility knife. He had reduced the blade to about 1" and it has worked well, but always hurts when I use it. This looks like it will be a big improvement.

[Shane Woonton]

Have been thinking about one of these but am unsure about hand sharpening. Everyone talks about how easy they are to sharpen using a grinding wheel. How about for those of us without the space or budget for such a beast? Would you still recommend one and how would you recommend approaching the sharpening?

Thanks,

Shane

[rocket]

Shane they definitely need to be hollow ground so that really means using a grinding wheel with the rest set perpendicular to the contact point of the wheel, Stumc do have a vid of the sharpening process. If you don't have room for a fairdinkum bench grinder i'm sure you could find a drill attachment setup at Bunnys that you could improvise with. BTW what part of the country are you situated?one of the members might be able to help you out!
Rod.

[P Bill]

I like the one handed scraping these allow. I made one, when I first saw them, from an old 3.5mm plane iron.

[Shane Woonton]

Shane they definitely need to be hollow ground so that really means using a grinding wheel with the rest set perpendicular to the contact point of the wheel, Stumc do have a vid of the sharpening process. If you don't have room for a fairdinkum bench grinder i'm sure you could find a drill attachment setup at Bunnys that you could improvise with. BTW what part of the country are you situated?one of the members might be able to help you out!
Rod.

Good idea Rod. I'm in Wellington NZ. I do have a mate with a workshop where I could do the sharpening but I don't think it would be ideal having to drive to his place every time I wanted to sharpen my scraper.... How often are you sharpening yours?

Shane

[rocket]

I've sharpened this once only, after arching a maple back it still has a good edge to work with.
Rod.

[Shane Woonton]

I've sharpened this once only, after arching a maple back it still has a good edge to work with.
Rod.

That is good news. I think that little piece of news may have just pushed it onto the "must have" list. Thanks Rod.

Shane

[charangohabsburg]

Shane they definitely need to be hollow ground so that really means using a grinding wheel with [...]

On another forum (here) Alan Carruth wrote that he uses a bench grinder "because he has one", and you could create the cutting burrs also with a flat sharpening stone but that a hollow ground edge would help to maintain the angle when honing. (I have never tried sharpening that style of scraper without a bench grinder though - why should I if I have one ).

I have two shop made Stradivari-Sacconi-Hutchins-Carruth stile scrapers, an "original" one, and about half a dozen "normal" card scrapers of different thickness and shapes and I don't want to miss a single one of them. I don't find that sharpening card scrapers (by raising a burr and turning the hook) would be more difficult than sharpening the sturdy scrapers (for sharpening the card scrapers I use a burnisher made from a triangular file which, through its small edge radius gives heaps of pressure without any effort at all). But handling is different. My favourite scrapers are two very thin ones (0.15 mm) which are very quick to sharpen, easy to bend and with which I get the smoothest surfaces. Heat is not an issue with those super thin scrapers as I swap them after every 8-10 strokes, letting cool down one during the next 8 strokes with the other one.

I have to say that I am a bit disappointed of the "Ultimate Scraper" because the sides are not lapped perfectly flat but they are a bit rippled, and my shop made scrapers yield a much smoother surface. The up side of the "Ultimate Scraper" is that it holds the edge much better than my shop made thick scrapers, but it will take many months or even years of use until I'll have lapped this bugger really flat!