I've got some AEB-L that will have very high toughness at 58-ish hardness.
Not that it's a direct result of anything said here, but I'm inclined to see how it turns out as a scraper.
I don't think there's any real advantage to it over a typical 1095 scraper with a hardened steel rod (like hock's or any polished rod that won't damage a burr), but I'm curious.
I mention AEB-L because it's multiples tougher than 1095 and will roll a neat burr and hold it at a higher hardness, and despite being stainless, it's actually finer grained than 1095. the practical limiting factor is that for actual regular use, anything that's pushing the limits of files becomes impractical as the real impediment for almost everyone when setting up a scraper (at least that I've seen in person) is inability to quickly and repeatably get a neat fresh surface ready for rolling. After that, it's only a matter of doing a better and better job getting there faster and at the same time, with a nicer burr and understanding manipulating it so that the surface can pass for being planed if needed.
I recall Bill T mentioning at one point that he was dazzled by (name escapes me) a specialist who made plane inserts rolling a neat burr and showing that it would hold up for a long time. And puzzled at the insistence of the presenter to keep anything built up off of the face of the scraper when re-drawing or just re-rolling the burr.
It's certainly the case that at least for scraping to finish or perhaps only light sanding to follow that you can easily deform edges with trash left on them.
One of the easiest ways to find just how much wood can bend edges is to clog a plane with a poor fitting cap iron. The build up at the mouth of the plane if that's allowed and insistence on trying to push through it will obliterate the last bit of an edge - the important part that enters the cut.
But your comment earlier is right, of course. separating hardness between the burnisher and card or steel scrap is necessary. if one has polished carbide in hand, it's possible to roll a burr on fully hardened high speed steel. I scraped my floors this summer because they were shellacked before carpet was ever installed when the house was new, and the only practical thing to do was scrape them (the fastest thing). I was able to scrape about 700 SF of floor in a day. The iron is from a batch that Bill T and I had tested both for composition and hardness. they're by perception all the same. The one bill has and kept tested at 65.5 hardness, and they're *almost* m2 steel by composition. I could roll a polished burr on the iron with a carbide steel, though there's a limit to how big you could make the burr before it would get damaged (thus the thought about AEB-L - it'll be tough enough to roll, and I can keep it far enough off of file hardness that it can still be filed).
None of this is really necessary - I ended up sharpening the plane iron scraper with worn 80 grit sandpaper because it takes so much damage so fast on a floor that a burr is hopeless. the sandpaper will deflect the edge at the same time that it's wearing off the damaged tip - so good enough. the real key with scrapers has far more to do with getting the scraper in good shape as fast as possible (without compromising quality) so that one is inclined to do it, and then not getting married to the idea of getting every last little bit of shaving out of the scraper or continuing on when you feel the burr is ratty (scratchy feeling) as the burnisher goes over it.
I couldn't find any improvement with carbide on a 50-ish hardness 1095 scraper, but wouldn't have dreamed of touching the polished O1 rod on the higher-hardness HSS iron.
Getting really good at a scraper is a gateway drug of sorts to being able to use complex shape scrapers. All of woodworking and making things is sort of a gateway drug to the next harder thing.
Not that it's a direct result of anything said here, but I'm inclined to see how it turns out as a scraper.
I don't think there's any real advantage to it over a typical 1095 scraper with a hardened steel rod (like hock's or any polished rod that won't damage a burr), but I'm curious.
I mention AEB-L because it's multiples tougher than 1095 and will roll a neat burr and hold it at a higher hardness, and despite being stainless, it's actually finer grained than 1095. the practical limiting factor is that for actual regular use, anything that's pushing the limits of files becomes impractical as the real impediment for almost everyone when setting up a scraper (at least that I've seen in person) is inability to quickly and repeatably get a neat fresh surface ready for rolling. After that, it's only a matter of doing a better and better job getting there faster and at the same time, with a nicer burr and understanding manipulating it so that the surface can pass for being planed if needed.
I recall Bill T mentioning at one point that he was dazzled by (name escapes me) a specialist who made plane inserts rolling a neat burr and showing that it would hold up for a long time. And puzzled at the insistence of the presenter to keep anything built up off of the face of the scraper when re-drawing or just re-rolling the burr.
It's certainly the case that at least for scraping to finish or perhaps only light sanding to follow that you can easily deform edges with trash left on them.
One of the easiest ways to find just how much wood can bend edges is to clog a plane with a poor fitting cap iron. The build up at the mouth of the plane if that's allowed and insistence on trying to push through it will obliterate the last bit of an edge - the important part that enters the cut.
But your comment earlier is right, of course. separating hardness between the burnisher and card or steel scrap is necessary. if one has polished carbide in hand, it's possible to roll a burr on fully hardened high speed steel. I scraped my floors this summer because they were shellacked before carpet was ever installed when the house was new, and the only practical thing to do was scrape them (the fastest thing). I was able to scrape about 700 SF of floor in a day. The iron is from a batch that Bill T and I had tested both for composition and hardness. they're by perception all the same. The one bill has and kept tested at 65.5 hardness, and they're *almost* m2 steel by composition. I could roll a polished burr on the iron with a carbide steel, though there's a limit to how big you could make the burr before it would get damaged (thus the thought about AEB-L - it'll be tough enough to roll, and I can keep it far enough off of file hardness that it can still be filed).
None of this is really necessary - I ended up sharpening the plane iron scraper with worn 80 grit sandpaper because it takes so much damage so fast on a floor that a burr is hopeless. the sandpaper will deflect the edge at the same time that it's wearing off the damaged tip - so good enough. the real key with scrapers has far more to do with getting the scraper in good shape as fast as possible (without compromising quality) so that one is inclined to do it, and then not getting married to the idea of getting every last little bit of shaving out of the scraper or continuing on when you feel the burr is ratty (scratchy feeling) as the burnisher goes over it.
I couldn't find any improvement with carbide on a 50-ish hardness 1095 scraper, but wouldn't have dreamed of touching the polished O1 rod on the higher-hardness HSS iron.
Getting really good at a scraper is a gateway drug of sorts to being able to use complex shape scrapers. All of woodworking and making things is sort of a gateway drug to the next harder thing.
