Doug,

Good suggestions so far. Here's my take.

Replacement wood - You list three you have on hand. Beech was the wood of choice
for plane makers for a few hundred years. But I'd pick the one you have that
is quarter sawn. You can replace it in a decade or two with a fancier wood if
you need to. I'd drill a hole and cut the slot with a coping saw, bringing it
to final width with either rasp and files or sandpaper glued to a stick.

My $0.02, and I hope you are better at turning burrs on scrapers than I am.

Regards,
Roy

On Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:24:52 +0000 (UTC), Doug Miller
wrote:

I just inherited a Stanley #81 cabinet scraper. The rosewood sole is badly worn. Any
suggestions for making (or purchasing) a replacement?

The tool is not a collector's item (one handle has been broken off and rewelded). I intend to
*use* it, not put it on a shelf, so the objective here is repair, not restoration.

It looks to me like any tight-grained hard wood, cut to the proper dimensions, should do the
job, and I have a plentiful supply of rock maple, beech, and yellow birch, so I think I'm good
there. I'm just not sure of the best way to go about cutting the slot. First thing that occurred to me
was to clamp the piece securely to the table saw, and raise the blade through it (after setting
the correct angle, of course), then finishing the slot with a fine hand saw. If anyone can suggest
a better way, I'd appreciate it.