Any Way do sharpen a SurForm?

[Phil Pascoe]

Not really - it would be limited by the small size of its individual teeth.

 

[NazNomad]

I'm sure you can't have just one?

I have a flat one, a curved one and a round one. They're great for rough shaping, I wouldn't be without 'em.

 

[AndyT]

I'm glad I don't need to stand out in the street, shaping car body filler with one of them any more. Then filling in the fresh gaps exposed by the shaping, repeat, repeat. Then spraying, rubbing down, spraying!

But I did it when I was younger and couldn't afford a non-rusty car, and it made me what I am today. :wink:

 

[Rorschach]

Well now that's a tool I don't have. Not something I have come across at the boot sales either.

 

[Jacob]

Good for cleaning up a tenon if it's a bit tight

 

[NazNomad]

Also, how do you pronounce it, "surf-orm" or "sure form"?

Sir Form (from surface & form)

 

[lurker]

Well now that's a tool I don't have. Not something I have come across at the boot sales either.

You have missed nothing!
Unless you want to prat around with car body filler like Andy describes

 

[Racers]

The round ones can snap then the jagged end gets pushed into your wrist.

Pete

 

[Bod]

Looking on Google, this came up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surform
Quite a history for a oddball tool.

Bod

 

[Downwindtracker2]

Being American, I would think I would think surf as in waves. I tried using one to fair plywood mold stations for a cedar strip canoe build. I might have gotten 6 inches before it was dull.

 

[Pete W]

Well, we know they're not a fine tool, but I quite like mine for taking the surface off a piece of painted or otherwise nasty, gritty, wood, of which I use quite a lot. And mine is one of the few tools I have of my dad's, so there's that. Each to their own, eh?

And in case there's anyone who doesn't know, if you push it straight ahead it takes a coarse cut; but if you skew it, it takes a finer cut. A finesse tool!

 

[rxh]

This type is good for easing a sticking door:

 

[Phil Pascoe]

That one's the best parmesan grater, as well.

 

[AndyT]

Yep, I've got one of those. I think it's a remarkably good tool for a lot of people - very cheap to buy and needs no sharpening or setting up.

 

[NazNomad]

This type is good for easing a sticking door:

... and great for de-furring your tongue after a night on the sauce. ccasion5:

 

[Jelly]

Surforms are also dead handy for rough shaping soft foam for a plug (the composites/fibreglass moulding equivalent of a pattern in casting).

Nothing will hog a complex 3D shape out of styrofoam or expanded LDPE foam with the same balance of control (good), removal rate (excellent, almost unparalleled) and surface finish (adequate yet awful, but at least not actively torn to bits).

 

[Eric The Viking]

On the snapping of the tube-shaped type, I share Pete's pain!

I still have a "short" tube one that gets used single-handed for rare jobs, although TBH, I find a large rats-tail rasp or a small milling cutter in my Proxxon is quicker and mroe controllable. I never really got on with Surforms, although I've had a few down the years.

 

[bridger]

The best use I have come up for them is trimming the edge of sheets of drywall (sheetrock, plasterboard) to relieve proud corners or lumpy cuts when fitting sheets together. It's a pretty messy tool, but it gets the job done.