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Re: Tools: Is there a Best Scraper? *Pic*
By:Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks
Date: 4/4/2002, 2:53 pm
In Response To: Tools: Is there a Best Scraper? (Ray)

I use the 3 pictured below. I'll call them from left to right: Square, Paint, and Triangle.

The Paint scraper in the middle is the one I've had the longest and used on just about all my boats. It is good and available at most hardware stores. Like Rob says, ease the corners somewhat to avoid digging grooves. The downside of these is you are limited in the reconfiguring you can do. You can put a modest curve on the edge, but you can't get carried away. I find I need to resharpen this one fairly frequently. The blade is fairly light and flexible. The flex may cause some chatter, but not enough to worry about. This is the hardest one to switch edges. You need to unscrew the blade and rotate it around. I usually just resharpen one edge until it is too small.

The Triangle on the right is the next one I got. It started out a perfect equalateral triangle, but I wanted a curve and needed to get into some deep corners so I used a file to reshape it. I like it. It still has flat edges for flat surfaces but I can make it fit most shapes. Note that scraping with the small radius increases the chances of chatter. The blade on this tool is about 1/8 inch thick and quite stiff. It holds an edge fairly well. I found this at a hardware store.

I recently got the Square one on the left. It was square when I bought it but I gave each corner a different radius and some of the edges larger curves. I also needed to create a bead shape so I used a chainsaw file to create the shape I wanted. Most of the other shaping I did on a bench grinder with frequent dunking in water to keep from overheating the steel. I had a project that needed some small radiuses, most boats don't require this. I ended up using this one extensively, I could always find the right shape. The steel on this is about 3/16" thick and very solid. It holds a very good edge. It had a knob handle down near the blade that was supposed to give you control as you apply pressure on the tool, but I just found it got in the way when I wanted to switch edges so I removed it.

I use a file for all my sharpening and most of my shaping. A fine single-cut file gives the smoothest, sharpest edge, but a double cut works fine. You can buy replacement blades for each of these scrapers.

The "best" so far is the Square. It seems to have the best steel and it had the most material to work with for custom shaping, but I would be satisfied with any one of them.

At other times I have tried the replacible blade carbide type scrappers, but you can't sharpen them and you can't reshape them so I don't have much use for them. I also use a cabinet scraper (flexible piece of steel w/o a handle) but they are not that effective on softwood. I only use them on hardwood or on cured epoxy.

Messages In This Thread

Tools: Is there a Best Scraper?
Ray -- 4/4/2002, 10:21 am
Re: Tools: I AMAZED MYSELF
STEVE POLLACK -- 4/4/2002, 4:33 pm
Re: Tools: I AMAZED MYSELF
John Monfoe -- 4/5/2002, 5:49 am
Re: Tools: Is there a Best Scraper? *Pic*
Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks -- 4/4/2002, 2:53 pm
Re: Tools: Is there a Best Scraper?
Rob Macks -- 4/4/2002, 1:49 pm
Re: Tools: Is there a Best Scraper?
Canary -- 4/4/2002, 12:09 pm
Re: Tools: Is there a Best Scraper?
Mike in Atlanta -- 4/4/2002, 11:49 am
Re: Tools: Is there a Best Scraper?
Jay Babina -- 4/4/2002, 11:29 am