Kunz Cabinet Scraper
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24 April 2018 at 12:08 pm #532161
All,
I’ve been using card scrapers for a while and am comfortable in using and caring for them. I’ve recently embarked on a new project – a spin-off of Paul’s coffee table where I’ve modified it for a TV stand in a bedroom. Since this wasn’t a show piece, I opted for cheaper lumber for the top and shelf. I’m using a select grade for the aprons (top & bottom) and the legs. I knew I wanted to laminate the top and shelf from multiple boards – so I went with simple 2×4’s. This piece is stained – so all grain and knots are visible – what I wanted.As I was dimension-ing these 2x4s to the proper size – and true-ing and squaring them, I noticed that I was getting tear out all over. I mentioned a different type of wood (Hemlock) in another post for another piece I was working on. This is not the same type of wood – it is southern yellow pine. What I noticed was that the fibers seem very delicate and the weight is almost like balsa wood. The wood is extremely dry too. I keep my planes and chisels razor sharp – so I know it isn’t that causing the tear out. The knots are everywhere, so the grain is running in every direction – in comes the cabinet scraper.
I’ve never owned or used one before. I bought this while buying some other things from Highland Woodworking. It was only after I got it in that I saw Pauls blog review on it 8-(
Man, I went through the process of squaring the end of the blade – it had a hollow in the center – then flattened the back. Then I made one of Paul’s sharpening jigs (nice) and got my 45 on it. I have a diamond stone to smooth and then burnished it to obtain the proper burr.
I set it in the scraper as Paul stated and I am able to get shavings from it – not much bigger than what I get with my card scraper. It could be the wood too. I was able to smooth some areas but the tear out – not so much. So I took the blade out and put it on the diamond plate again, then I stropped it until it was completely buffed out – then I burnished it until I got a consistent burr along the entire edge – set it again – same results.
About the only thing I didn’t do was verify the sole plate was truly flat. That is my next step. I had to get this project going – so I set the scraper aside and spent the next hour with a hand sander.
Do card scrapers yield mixed results depending on the wood? Anyone else familiar with the nuances needed to tweak this Kunz to where I need it? I think the constructions seems good – and I’m convinced that most any hand tool can be tweaked to very acceptable standards, if you know what to do.
I’ve been a subscriber to WMC for a little more than a month now. I’ve been a fan of Paul’s YouTube channel for about a year. Money and time well spent. I’ve learned so much. My wife says she’s constantly amazed at how quickly the things I’m creating are improving. My accuracy always bothered me – Paul’s methods for measuring and marking have been a revelation to me. I’m glad to be part of this group.
@DFSIXSTRING1968 try the scraper on some hardwood like oak and see how it does. Scrapers sometimes don’t work well on softwoods. Construction 2×4 can be almost impossible to cut cleanly. I’ve had some in which the growth rings are hard and the intervening material is so soft and spongy that it just tears under the pressure of a blade.
One thing you can try is to go back to your plane, get it as sharp as you can, and push the chip breaker close to the edge. It could be as fine as 1/64th. As fine as you can yet still be able to set a fine shaving. Now try plaining again. I disagree with Paul about the chip breaker. It does help reduce tear out and you can find documentation of this if you search, e.g., some Japanese videos showing how it works. So, give it a try. Another thing you can do is to move the plane in circles near the knots. Look for videos of Paul plaining end grain when he registers the plane on the end grain and then moves the plane is circles so that the blade shears the wood rather than pushes through it. You can do something similar even on the face of a board. If you have a region that planed well you can work from there into the difficult region with these circular swipes. Sometimes it works. Don’t be surprised if you must switch planing direction many times along the board, maybe even flipping directions at each knot. Of course, when you hit the knots, you may fracture your plane iron and loose your sharpness, so keep testing. When you take the cap iron off to sharpen, feel for a crumpled edge.
Construction wood is not easy to work. It is spongy, twisted, and stressed. When it comes time to apply finish make sure you experiment with some scrap, and a substantial surface, too. This wood will want to blotch like crazy and look horrible. If you aren’t using color you don’t need to worry, but if you plan on stain or dye, you’ll need to find a magic potion that doesn’t blotch.
24 April 2018 at 2:54 pm #532243@ed I’ve got some figured hardwood pieces I’ll play around with this evening. As for plane blade/chip breaker settings, I have several planes – each set for specific tasks. My #5 has the chip breaker tweaked so that there is no gap between it and the blade and I have it easily with 1/64th from the edge. I can get onion skin thin shavings with it. I’ve also got a #4 that is my smoother – same thing there. My jointer plane (#8) has a hock blade in it and I can go from translucent shavings to pretty thick easily. I’m convinced the issue is the wood here because I can go through cherry, walnut, even curly maple without this much issue.
Thanks for the input.
24 April 2018 at 3:30 pm #532269Some wood defies any working. But a real good set and light pressure will at times help on soft woods. Also a good skew goes a long way
Doug–I have the same cabinet scraper (also purchased at HW–are you in Atlanta or was that mail order)? Anyway, when I first got mine I had less impressive results than what I can get now (and still improving). I can speak less to the tear-out though as I have not used it on soft-woods so I got more high-pitched squealing for lack of a better word. In any event, as far as getting better results, I have found that, after initially placing the blade in, flush to the surface and tightening the knurled knob, it helps to loosen the bar just a tad, giving you more room to tighten the adjustment knob even more which puts a bit more flex on the iron and seems to make it cut a bit more efficiently. This is an adjustment I’ll make several times if the blade seems to be losing its edge….until it needs to be re-shaped (on the flip side, is your iron possibly set too aggressively and thus causing tear out inadvertently? Can you back it off and set it even finer?). At least that has been my experience with mine so far. I believe scrapers are “supposed” to be grain agnostic but I definitely see it cutting better sometimes vs. others.
Actually got an answer from Paul about this when I had a similiar issues. Seem thst softwoods like pine can in fact be difficult to scrape do to the g8ve and relative easy of fiber separation. A york pitch close set planes is one of the better ways of getting clean cuts on soft pine.
25 April 2018 at 12:08 pm #532668@dbockel2 It was mail order from HW. I live in Nashville. I have experienced the high pitch squeal you mentioned too. I didn’t get a chance to mess with it last night – last night was glue up on my table. Tonight I’m going to do minor glue cleanup and then stain everything. Hopefully this project will be finished by Friday so I can play with tool adjustments on Saturday. I noticed the two retaining strap screws don’t hold the blade firmly in place – they are loose. I saw on one of Paul’s blog posts that you have to take a file to file the mount surface so that the strap engages the blade more. I may try that after I try your suggestion – which doesn’t require altering the tool. I’m also going to check for flatness and may just polish the whole bottom out anyway.
@dfsixstring1968, a york pitch is a total 50 degree plane iron pitch. Standard pitch bevel down is 45 and low angel bevel up between 35 and 40,I think. The fastest way to get a York pitch on Bailey is to sharpen the blade as normal, then when you are done add a very small back bevel os about 5 degrees to the back of the iron. This will then sharpen out over the next few sharpens return you to a standard pitch bailey.
You can search “poorman’s york pitch” in Paul’s Blogs.
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