Card scrapers steel and what's best for you?

[tobytools]

Evening gent,
I recently decided it's time to get some card scrapers, I purchased the set of 4 by veritas. I've hear good reviews about the clifton ones and LN are just all round good quality, all being diffrent steels ect and all that..
If one had to choose what would they pick? Not just the 3 brands I've mentioned but any manufacture of scraper (this does not include old saws cut down).
And what are the differences if any....

Thanks
TT

 

[Corneel]

I've got a Swedish one from the hardware store (Sandvik?). Works fine, is cheap and available just around the corner

 

[Cheshirechappie]

As much as steel type, thickness can determine whether a scraper is good to work with or not. Thick ones just hurt your thumbs when you try to bend them into the shallow curve to make them work, thin ones bend easily but heat up very quickly. Most people seem to say about 0.030" (0.75mm) is about right, if you find a manufacturer or retailer that bothers to tell you what thickness their scrapers are, that is. (For the curved and shaped scrapers, thicker might be a bit better, since you tend to use those 'unbent' as it were.)

 

[G S Haydon]

The faithfull scraper is nice, it works easily with a gouge but they only do a rectangle. There is a pack of generic scrapers doing the rounds on ebay I bought but they are quite hard and need something a bit harder than a gouge.

 

[MIGNAL]

The Sandvik have a very good reputation amongst the Luthier lot. So I bought one. No different (hardly surprising) to my no brand scraper that I've had and used for the last 20 or so years. It has become considerably reduced in size, so buying the Sandvik made some sense. I have a few more made from old saw blades, thin gauge and they work fine too. I also have a couple of scrapers made from Plane blades. Both the plane blades are from HSS, one sharpened like a normal scraper the other like a Plane blade:

 

[marcros]

the dictum ones are very good value and come in a good range of thicknesses- even the goosenecks. you need to order a few things to make the 9.95EUR shipping worthwhile, but the rasps help this!

http://www.mehr-als-werkzeug.de/categor ... 1_3589.htm
http://www.mehr-als-werkzeug.de/categor ... 0_3791.htm

 

[bugbear]

his does does not include old saws cut down

Works for me, price is right, any shape you want. Why not?

BugBear

 

[tobytools]

his does does not include old saws cut down

Works for me, price is right, any shape you want. Why not?

BugBear

typing does twice
if you read what i said, i was asking for a comparison on the various "MAKERS" available. but its good to know that saw blades are sufficient and can be shaped into various profiles...

thanks for the heads up on the other makers, ill just make do with the veritas ones i ordered/ won off ebay. seemed like a winning deal,
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271612506726? ... EBIDX%3AIT

i hope i get on with these better than that blasted scraper plane that sounds like a dying cat...

thanks chaps,
so to sum up its docent make much difference who or what you go for in a scraper??
funny, if i asked the same question about a chisels or planes tool steel it would be WW3 (hammer)

all the best
TT

 

[Trafalgar]

I have a vintage Sandvik scraper, and a set from Clifton bought years ago, and had a couple from Lie-Nielsen. The L-N were so bad I threw them in the garbage. Just total-a$$ed unadulterated junk compared to the Sandvik and Cliftons. I wouldn't give them away. The L-N give scraping a bad name and it's unfortunate that more than a few people have probably formed an opinion of scraping, in general, based on the L-Ns. Had they started with Sandvik they would have had a completely different impression. You know the Sanvik is good hard steel the minute you put a burnisher on it. The L-N felt like putty under the burnisher if you could feel them at all.

The Sandvik is sublime and the Cliftons not too far behind. The surface left by the Sandvik is indistinguishable from that left by a hand plane. The Sandvik has a bite to it I've never experienced with any other scraper. Cob-web shavings pile up in front of the Sandvik like a fog rolling into San Francisco Bay. They're so fine the slightest movement of air blows them off the bench. Sandvik are as good as the rumors say they are. I have the heavy one from Sandvik, it's very difficult to flex but it doesn't matter. She takes practically a full-width shaving and the hook lasts comparatively forever. Once you get the Sandvik set up you'll practically want your smoother to leave a little tearout so you get to use it.

 

[bridger]

I have a vintage one branded atkins silver steel that performs very well. I doubt that it is different from atkins saws though.

Evening gent,
I recently decided it's time to get some card scrapers, I purchased the set of 4 by veritas. I've hear good reviews about the clifton ones and LN are just all round good quality, all being diffrent steels ect and all that..
If one had to choose what would they pick? Not just the 3 brands I've mentioned but any manufacture of scraper (this does not include old saws cut down).
And what are the differences if any....

Thanks
TT

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Thomas Flimn also make card scrapers. No coincidence that they are often made by saw makers and come in the same thickness as their saw plates.

I'm with bugbear on this one though. Buying a scraper is like buying a bench hook. Yes you can, but why would you when you can make one just as good from the scrap you have to hand ?

 

[Racers]

Make your own from a pound shop saw.

Pete

 

[Harbo]

I have had a set of Cliftons for many years - never felt the need to buy/try any others.

Rod

 

[Trafalgar]

Thomas Flimn also make card scrapers. No coincidence that they are often made by saw makers and come in the same thickness as their saw plates.

I'm with bugbear on this one though. Buying a scraper is like buying a bench hook. Yes you can, but why would you when you can make one just as good from the scrap you have to hand ?

Makes sense but I've personally never had a scrap saw lying around. If it's not worth using as a saw one wonders how good it'll be as a scraper, which frankly is a more mission-critical operation than sawing as saw cuts are generally dressed with a plane and if not will be hidden inside a joint.

The L-Ns are/were supposedly made from the same plate that they use for their saws, a thick and thin version, if mine were any indication I'm doubtful about how good the saws really are. The scrapers were just putty-soft.

 

[tobytools]

Thanks everyone for your opinions, I wish I would of started this thread before I purchased the veritas scrapers (no one has mentioned them yet, strange?)

If everyone hate LN tools steel A2 or what ever it is them why do they continue to use it?!?

I see what some of you are saying about make your own but then with that pricable I'll be a tool maker and not a furniture maker (what I want to be)
after all man is capable of making all his tools. Maby as time goes on I'll adapt to both I guess.
"I've made a few tools to date"

Thanks again for the informative responses.

"Sandvik" I'll keep my eye out..

TT

 

[bugbear]

Makes sense but I've personally never had a scrap saw lying around. If it's not worth using as a saw one wonders how good it'll be as a scraper

One uses a once good, but now worn/damaged saw as the donor.

BugBear

 

[jimi43]

I work on the basis that Sheffield is renowned for steel as are the Swedes...

I bought loads of scrapers in the early days..most from bootfairs. I made a few irregular ones from an old Sandvik saw....

The Clifton ones are easy to flatten and re-burr but the "Sandvik" ones are a tad more difficult. Both perform brilliantly and I used them extensively on the irregular shapes of the bun on the infill project.

If you're going the cheap route...Sandvik saw...cut down. If you want a maker which is what you SPECIFICALLY said at the beginning then CLIFTON without question.

Veritas...mmmm

I like their grinder rest! :wink:

Jimi

 

[Trafalgar]

Makes sense but I've personally never had a scrap saw lying around. If it's not worth using as a saw one wonders how good it'll be as a scraper

One uses a once good, but now worn/damaged saw as the donor.

BugBear

Lordy, I haven't worn one out yet. I should probably resharpen more often than I do.

 

[Trafalgar]

I work on the basis that Sheffield is renowned for steel as are the Swedes...

I bought loads of scrapers in the early days..most from bootfairs. I made a few irregular ones from an old Sandvik saw....

The Clifton ones are easy to flatten and re-burr but the "Sandvik" ones are a tad more difficult. Both perform brilliantly and I used them extensively on the irregular shapes of the bun on the infill project.

If you're going the cheap route...Sandvik saw...cut down. If you want a maker which is what you SPECIFICALLY said at the beginning then CLIFTON without question.

Veritas...mmmm

I like their grinder rest! :wink:

Jimi

Glad to see somebody else has had a similar experience.

 

[Trafalgar]

Thanks everyone for your opinions, I wish I would of started this thread before I purchased the veritas scrapers (no one has mentioned them yet, strange?)

If everyone hate LN tools steel A2 or what ever it is them why do they continue to use it?!?

I see what some of you are saying about make your own but then with that pricable I'll be a tool maker and not a furniture maker (what I want to be)
after all man is capable of making all his tools. Maby as time goes on I'll adapt to both I guess.
"I've made a few tools to date"

Thanks again for the informative responses.

"Sandvik" I'll keep my eye out..

TT

The L-N scrapers are supposedly made from the same stock they use for saw plate - spring steel of some ilk I guess. Go with Clifton -- right in your own backyard.