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



http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings

On Fri, 10 Mar 2006 11:01:48 -0500, (Arch) wrote:

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

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

https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis
https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis/wood_stuff.htm

"Arch" wrote in message
...
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!


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
http://georgephoto.photosite.com/FlatGougeAngles/ 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.

(Arch) wrote:

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?

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

"mac davis" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 10 Mar 2006 11:01:48 -0500, (Arch) wrote:

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

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
====================

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

Ken Moon
Webberville, TX.

On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 00:05:19 GMT, Lobby Dosser
wrote:

(Arch) wrote:

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?

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

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

https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis
https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis/wood_stuff.htm

On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 04:56:13 GMT, "Ken Moon" wrote:


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
====================

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

Ken Moon
Webberville, TX.

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


Mac

https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis
https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis/wood_stuff.htm