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Just wondering what techniques others are using to get a good surface on 1/4 sawn american sycamore , . The scrapers I am using flat ground and 45 deg just get dust and vy tiny scrapings. I just finished scraping the back and then sanding with 220 grit to get an acceptable surface. I have a lot of sycamore , so just trying to refine my technique. I also have quite a few scrapers . Thanks.

I find 45 deg too far much.
Dress off to 90 degrees, flatten sides again, very lightly oil edge (a finger down side of nose will do) turn a burr each side to around 5/10 degrees.
My method, (taken me some years to find my own) I lay the scraper flat on a piece of 18mm ply, and dress at 90 degrees with an upright 600g diamond stone (epoxied to a 18mm wooden block squared on the edge), dress off the sides again, the turn the burr.
Taken me a bit of pactice over the years, but get good shavings this way now.
When it dulls, I lay it flat on the edge of the bench, rattle a burnisher back and forth several times on the edges to lift the burr, then turn it again 5/10 degrees. I can do that several times before redressing. Hope you can follow that.
Works for me.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Tried your 5deg method, still crumbs and dust .American sycamore is not the same species as the UK one.Thanks for your help

I have been using scrapers for about 35 years, and quartered sycamore is one of those woods that does not scrape well...regardless of the technique. One thing I do in these situations is try my scraper plane. It is finicky and can hurt my back to use, but it may help in this situation.

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John

The types of wood that scrape poorly are those that are on the soft side. That's not to say that they can't be scraped, they certainly can and with real shavings.
If using a normal card scraper make sure you draw file it to get the sharp 90 degree edge. Many don't file it enough to get past the rounded edge that occurs through it's last use. The file will give you an edge that is OK on many hardwoods but if you want optimum performance you will need to go to a sharpening stone. I use a 400G diamond plate, the scraper held as vertically as I can. I don't use any form of guide but it is important to get the edge 'sharp'. The 400G removes the file marks and is good enough to give a fine edge. The burr that is produced is also removed with the 400G stone, placing the scraper on it's flat side. Then the hook is produced with the burnisher. The amount of cut is controlled by the amount of pressure one uses with the burnisher. A heavy hook will produce thicker shavings, a smaller hook will produce fine shavings.

tHANKS MICHAEL I did get small shavings, and I have abt 4 scraper planes.The best shavings came from just the blade off of a Kunz scraper plane. Sycamore is very attractive , but hard to get shavings .I decided to sand,