WoodRiver No. 80 Cabinet Scraper
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I purchased a WoodRiver No. 80 Cabinet Scraper from Woodcraft a while ago and have just now gotten around to tuning it up. There were some issues.
All three screws were missing right out of the box, but since I had a number of thumb screws on hand, I just used those instead of returning to the store.
The sole was a long way from being flat and had heavy machine marks. Took about three hours to get it flat and polished.
The blade is not a consistent thickness and is also nowhere near flat, but now for the pièce de résistance: The blade is hardened steel. Not only can you not use a mill file to refine the bevel, but the edge will fracture if you try to turn a burr.
I have a Hock blade that came with an antique Stanley No. 12-1/2 veneer scraper and that receives an edge just fine with the same bastard files; it also takes turning a burr quite nicely. However, I have yet to get it dialed in correctly due to not being able to find much instructional info on that model.
Why would WoodRiver include a scraper blade that cannot be worked with a file and that can’t handle turning a burr? Any thoughts?
In a word – because Wood River is a bag of %@^#%.
Here’s another thought. When I bought some moulding plane blade blanks form Lie-Nielsen, I learned they were laser cut, which resulted in edges that were extremely hard. That made it very tough to shape the blades. But once I filed (or sawed) the hardened edges off, the tool steel was workable. Maybe the same is true of your cabinet scraper blade, though I’d think that the cutting edges would have been shaped (and thereby removed the hardened laser-cut edge) before shipping.
Good luck with it.
Matt, Northern California - Started a blog in 2016: http://tinyshopww.blogspot.com/
Thank you for your response, Mr. McGrane.
Interesting bit of info on the moulding plane blanks. I won’t have the opportunity to experiment on the WoodRiver because I returned it last night.
Remember that I had worked hard to flatten and polish the sole of the scraper to a mirror finish. When I returned it, the guy at Woodcraft looked at the sole of the scraper plane and saw two slight scratches and said, “You’ve already scuffed this up.” I proceeded to get a new one off of the shelf and showed him the out-of-box condition and he replied, “Oh, never mind.”
lol that is funny thanks for sharing that about the clerk. ive only been to woodcraft once and it was sweet but i ended up with temporary chisels and a haggard gents saw that went loose when i was first wanting to learn to cut dovetails. thankfully i came across paul sellers on youtube. i spent hours and hours flattening and polishing the sole and sides of my first plane and well, never again. my scraper has machine marks on the bottom and produces a flawless finish on the swirly reverse grain and around knots in black walnut. its an old stanley from ebay that cost 80 with the box and sharpening instructions that was basically brand new. i usually saw them around 30 or 40 in used condition maybe you could try finding one on ebay
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