Official Luthiers Forum!

just wondering why you all seem to prefer using a burnisher to deburr a scraper.
I've only ever used sharpening/honing stones to do this, has worked just fine.
never tried with a burnisher, is it easier/faster?

Frank

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Frank

Deburr?

i use a burnisher to put a nice sharp bur on my scrapers not take it off.
i personaly could not use a scraper without a sharp bur and will turn a fresh bur every 30 mins or so when using one.

The process i use is as follows.

file the edges of the card scraper with a metal file at 90% to the the face.
i then take the scraper over to the stone bench and and take off the bur and polish the edges of the scraper till it is nice and smooth.

Then i put the scraper in a vice and use an old triangle bur to turn the edge over into a sharp burr.
The amount of presure i use and the angle depends on the job at hand.

In this way i get really sharp scraper that will take nice thin curls off cocobolo.

Joel.

There are actually two procedures for the classical scraper. First, you get a sharp, square edge, such as with your stone. Then, you use a burnisher to squeeze the edge to form a sharp burr. This produces an extended knife edge more or less perpendicular to the scraper.

Following this procedure may give you the best scraper, but one renown luthier showed me that he just runs the scraper blunt across a rotaing grind stone, and uses that. It may not be as perfect, but it works well enough and takes almost no time.

You can get a burr with a stone or a file, but it's likely to be rough and not very consistent. When you do get one while squaring the edge, you want to remove it to get a clean, square edge, which is then turned to get a burr.

Here's a good reference

http://www.finefurnituremaker.com/news/?p=53

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I use the method that pulls an edge from the face of the scraper, using the burnisher, then using the same burnisher, turn that edge to the angle you want. When you use that method, you do, in essence, remove the burr when you pull the edge from the face. It works well for me.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Here's a video which explains the process well.

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesArticle.aspx?id=29750

Cheers

Kim

I've seen someone who goes to the glazier and takes their scraps and just uses the edge of a freshly broken piece of glass seemed to work ok and I've kept meaning to try it, but like all these things I bet it looks simpler than it is!

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

Thanks for your replies everyone.

What i've used a scraper for in the past is to get the fiber rising after the first thinned coat of laquer and prepping the surface between coats(furniture). so what i've learned is to file it then take the burr off with stones.
what i read in these articles seems to produce a whole different tool, this will be interesting to explore further.

A cabinet scraper is something that in my generation, you'd have to be more than moderately interested in traditional woodworking to have even heard about.(at least around here)

Thanks to the internet and forums like this, a lot of the 'arts'& techniques of old live on.


Frank

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Frank

Hi Frank, that's just because you're a southerner. Up here, we learn how to use scrapers on SKIS! I always used a scraper after prepping my jumping skis with wax, before polishing. Those were the days...

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

What a priceless site this is for all sorts of things - thanks so much for putting this up.

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No matter your preferred honing and squaring process, it all boils down to 3 basic steps honing a clean, square edge, drawing out the burrs and turning the hooks. StewMac's instructions are simple, concise and to the point.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Scrapers/1/Scraper_Burnisher/Instructions/I-3416.html#details