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Musing right along about scraping. Do we know all we need to know?

I appreciated all your responses to my can opener on another thread about finish scraping, particularly since you all are experienced turners who think and don't just appeal to authority for information.

Your thoughts suggest that some further discussion about scraping the spinning wood might help to clarify why and what it is. Could it be that everybody knows what scraping is and can do it, but when push comes to shove can't agree on a definition for woodturners? Here's some questions you raised in my mind. Please add some of yours as well as your answers.

*********************************************** What is scraping? What determines when you should use it. What is cutting? Why is it different? Do we need new terms? Do you think of scraping as a distinct woodturning entity requiring separate tools and approaches or as a continuum of turning operations with variations: cutting -> shear cutting -> shear scraping -> scraping -> burnishing? What about negative rake scrapers and scraping? Is this more than just dealing with unequal double bevels? What about lagging the edge way below center, Japanese style? Can you enter a cutting edge below a surface and keep it cutting while the bevel is rubbing? When do thin wood shavings become wisps then granules then powder particles? Foolish questions? Perhaps.

Gone are the days when turners denied or felt a need to apologize for scraping, but does it seem to remain somehow a lesser method? Is scraping unimportant or a turning operation that we know all there is to know about, or all we need to know? If so, end of discussion!

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

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Reply to
Arch
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I hope not, Arch... IMHO, there is no end to what you can learn and no limit except possibly finances on what you can screw up in the shop[ with the knowledge you gain.. *g*

Mac

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Reply to
mac davis

Scraping is sometimes used by folks who are less skilful or more ham-handed who "ride" the bevel, to the point where they get the piece out of round. You see this when they start to push the end grain portions of a bowl out and the rim shows thinner edges along the grain, or when they start to dive into softer spalted spots. They use the scraper to level their mistakes. If they realize that what they're doing with the scraper - bracing it firmly and with the fulcrum as close to the piece as possible, waiting for the high spots to come around and remove themselves against a steady tool - can be done with the gouge, it wouldn't be necessary!

Part of it is related to the fashion of using the wings of the bowl gouge to do the final cutting as well. Keeping a constant angle with a cylinder without bracing against the turning is tough, especially when you're also having problems maneuvering the handle over the ways and around the banjo. Can't get that bit of skew that you can get with a flatter gouge used nearer to the horizontal because of this, or the broader reference to where you've been provided to get a fair curve. You get ridges that have to be scraped away.

Don't know if you saw the little photo essay at

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which I did in response to another question, but it shows the kind of cuts possible in comfort by just choosing another form of gouge. The double tilt firmly guides the bevel, and cuts down the amount of ridging. The form of the gouge also makes it virtually catch-proof, since the edges are facing out from the cut, and the nose curves away in the second dimension.

Reply to
George

Some seem to think it a lesser method. I prefer it to sanding.

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

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Mac, Is that knowledge a direct result of the "screw up"?? (:-)

Ken Moon Webberville, TX.

Reply to
Ken Moon

I haven't reached the no sanding point, but scraping is a lot less expensive than sanding.. Mac

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Reply to
mac davis

I think in my case, it's the attempt to apply the new knowledge that causes the screw up..*g*

Mac

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Reply to
mac davis

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