In a batch of old tools I acquired I found a mere flat piece of metal,
steel I guess, very nearly rectangular, thick enough not to be able to
bend with my fingers, about 2 inches by 3 inches, not real shiny
anymore, and stamped into it is

Henry Disston & Sons
Philadelphia U.S.A.
No. 20

Googling Disston "No. 20" found me a lot of tool entries,
but no No. 20 for Disston. Usually some other number and maybe
another company like Miller Falls No. 20 Right Angle Triangle Level.

"mm" wrote in message
...
In a batch of old tools I acquired I found a mere flat piece of metal,
steel I guess, very nearly rectangular, thick enough not to be able to
bend with my fingers, about 2 inches by 3 inches, not real shiny
anymore, and stamped into it is

Henry Disston & Sons
Philadelphia U.S.A.
No. 20

Googling Disston "No. 20" found me a lot of tool entries,
but no No. 20 for Disston. Usually some other number and maybe
another company like Miller Falls No. 20 Right Angle Triangle Level.
Can you post pictures somewhere, and put the link up here? You have me very
curious. Disston was/is? a saw company, of course. Saw companies usually
make other sharp things. It sounds like a shim plate for a large carpenter's
plane- that thing that goes down alongside the blade.

aem sends....

mm wrote:
In a batch of old tools I acquired I found a mere flat piece of metal,
steel I guess, very nearly rectangular, thick enough not to be able to
bend with my fingers, about 2 inches by 3 inches, not real shiny
anymore, and stamped into it is

Henry Disston & Sons
Philadelphia U.S.A.
No. 20

Googling Disston "No. 20" found me a lot of tool entries,
but no No. 20 for Disston. Usually some other number and maybe
another company like Miller Falls No. 20 Right Angle Triangle Level.

It's almost assuredly a card scraper. If there's more than one edge
with a sharp burr (or once was sharp), that's what you've got on your
hands - unless it was never sharpened, and then that's still what you
have on your hands.
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pages/w00007.asp

R

RicodJour spake thus:

mm wrote:

In a batch of old tools I acquired I found a mere flat piece of metal,
steel I guess, very nearly rectangular, thick enough not to be able to
bend with my fingers, about 2 inches by 3 inches, not real shiny
anymore, and stamped into it is

Henry Disston & Sons
Philadelphia U.S.A.
No. 20

Googling Disston "No. 20" found me a lot of tool entries,
but no No. 20 for Disston. Usually some other number and maybe
another company like Miller Falls No. 20 Right Angle Triangle Level.

It's almost assuredly a card scraper. If there's more than one edge
with a sharp burr (or once was sharp), that's what you've got on your
hands - unless it was never sharpened, and then that's still what you
have on your hands.
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pages/w00007.asp

That is indeed a scraper, otherwise known as a "cabinet scraper". One of
the most unknown tools to most people, and certainly the best way to
achieve a silky-smooth finish on wood, especially hard wood. A thousand
times better than sandpaper. Undoubtedly, yours can be cleaned up and
resharpened. (Sharpening requires first grinding and honing one edge and
one face flat and smooth, then using a burnisher to "turn" a hook over
the edge; this hook becomes the cutting edge, and a good scraper will
give you shavings as wide as the blade that you can literally read a
newspaper through.)


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