Sharpening my Shavehook

[fergie86]

Hi all,

I have recently started refurbishing the old doors in my house. I plan to strip all the paint and varnish down to the bare wood and then re-varnish them. So far I have been using my sharpened chisels to remove the bulk of it however for the mouldings I need to get my shavehooks sharp enough to remove the paint in the hard-to-reach areas. I have trawled the internet for a solution but so far to no avail!

any tips/ideas would be very much appreciated!

Also on another note I have hear that a quick rub down with a clean rag and vinegar on the bare wood helps bring out the grain, is this true or just a chip-shop style myth?

 

[bugbear]

Hi all,

I have recently started refurbishing the old doors in my house. I plan to strip all the paint and varnish down to the bare wood and then re-varnish them. So far I have been using my sharpened chisels to remove the bulk of it however for the mouldings I need to get my shavehooks sharp enough to remove the paint in the hard-to-reach areas. I have trawled the internet for a solution but so far to no avail!

I was under the impression that shavehooks are deliberately blunt, and are only intended for use on paint that has been softened, by heat or chemical.

BugBear

 

[xy mosian]

I have had reasonable results by filing the edges with a 'medium' cut file. Effectively run a new bevel with a cutting edge included angle of 70 - 80 degrees, or whatever suits your technique. I have not found a shavehook with decent steel so your not looking at chisel sharp. They work best with some form of stripper, be it chemical or heat.

HTH

xy

 

[fergie86]

ah maybe that's where i'm going wrong! Any ideas of an alternative method for getting into the detailing of the mouldings?

 

[xy mosian]

I assume you are meaning the narrow grooves etc.? Now that is something I've been asking myself for a long time. I usually end up scratching with almost anything. A lot depends on whether you are using a stripper or not. But buggered screwdriver, nail, as I said almost anything. I suppose a wire brush would work on softened paint but there is a risk of damaging the surrounding surface.

xy

 

[fergie86]

thanks for the reply!

i saw a video on youtube (trying desperately to find it again) which took the bulk of the paint off using a heat gun and UV lamp then used sharpened scrapers to shave off the top layer of wood to get a nice smooth finish.

 

[houtslager]

Standerd practise over here is to grind as close a profile to match and scrape away the paint with the assistence of a gas flame, or in certain cases where an open flame is prohibited, a chemical stripper.

Hth,

hs

 

[Froggy]

Another option might be to buy a router bit the same size as the groove/moulding and re-router it.

 

[heimlaga]

I am with houtslager.

The heat may come from a gas flame or a heat gun or a special (and expensive) ultarviolet heater. A scraper is made to fit the profile in a rather roundabout way. The scraper is filed sharp and resharpened when needed.

Don't destroy nice mouldings with a router.

 

[Shrubby]

Hello Fergie
Paint stripper & toothbrush - clean with white spirit - no grain raising
A heat gun is less fierce than a blowtorch, be carefull not to scorch Leopard spots all over the door (haha)
I'm experimenting with sanding blocks from Polymorph heat mouldable plastic (Ebay)
Good luck
Matt

 

[bugbear]

Imagine the nightmare of stripping 100 years of paint from a dentil moulding...

BugBear