Wednesday, August 3, 2011

New Scraper Saves the Day

For years, I've used a convex scraper on the "bowl" of my seats. It simply makes sense that the curved edge makes more contact and forms an even concave surface more quickly.


But on the convex front edge of the seat, I would reach for my flat scraper and work diligently to get a clean shape. The small contact area tends to leave "stripes" and makes a tough job even harder.




So recently I ground a flat blade with a concave edge and have been thrilled with the results.


You can see that it makes contact more fully and by slicing across the grain, I get a clean, even shape.


I actually look forward to working this area. To make the blade, I simply set my toolrest on the grind 90 degrees to the tangent of the wheel and slowly cut the shape. I'll be showing a great tip for filing and honing the edge next.

3 comments:

Alfred Kraemer said...

Peter,

Very interesting article - beautifully illustrated too. I wonder:
1. how you determine the radius in relation to the convex surface to be worked, and
2. how you avoid 'riding' the soft and hard parts of the pine grain. I tend to get a wavy pattern when scraping wood with distinct soft and hard rings.

Alfred

collapsible chair-man said...

What Made you decide to grind the flat blade concave?

Peter Galbert said...

Alfred,
honestly, I just guessed. But the idea is that you want a curve that is more open then the shape you wish to scrape so that you can hold it at a skew while scraping, much the same way that various coves can be cut on a tablesaw by pushing wood across the blade at an angle. I will be making a video soon about scraping. The key is a sharp scraper and scraping from a variety of direction.

Chair-man,
I simply realized that I was using the wrong tool for the job!! It's obvious that you wouldn't use a flat scraper in a bowl shape, because it wouldn't fit, but because rounded shapes don't restrict the scraper type, I've always used a flat scraper, which makes too little surface contact to be much help shaping the piece. How's that for a run on sentence!