On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 18:58:57 GMT, "RWS" wrote:

Hi, I am self tought, and I want to learn how to sharpen a cabinet scraper.
There is a Crown Burnisher at Highland for around 10.00...and Garrett has
them for over 20...Is it important to spend the extra money? Is burnisher
shape important? If so, which burnisher should I get? I have tried using a
screwdriver, and it doesn't do anything. Thanks. Robert



if a screwdriver doesn't do anything then neither will the one from
crown. it's probably your technique that needs to be worked on,
assuming that the screwdriver shank wasn't made of dead soft steel.
did the scraper cut off a shaving from the shank of the screwdriver
when you tried it?

a big factor is how well the scraper was prepared. I generally do it
like this:
if the edge is very bad, or it's a new scraper I'll shape it on the
grinder. from there I'll often work it a bit with a single cut mill
file. I lay the file down flat on the bench and using a scrap of wood
with a 90 degree edge as a guide I'll take a few strokes against the
file. what you're looking for is an edge that is cleanly squared off,
no rounding at all. if I'm sharpening for roughing work I'll go
straight from the file to the burnisher. If I need a finer edge than
that I'll stone the edge first. if you can, clamp the scraper up so
that the edge is well supported it's full length. any smooth metal rod
harder than the scraper will work fine- a screwdriver already has a
good handle on it. use a smooth stroke feeding the direction you want
the hook to go. I find that a drop of light oil on the burnisher
helps.
Bridger