Scraper planes vs. scraper holders (#112 vs #80)

I'm familiar with hand held card scrapers and have used them on a couple projects. LOML was sanding a project for me and I suggested she try the scraper. Being quite a nancy, her hands are not strong enough to scrape well and she complained about the heat. So, I brought home a Stanley #80 and she fell in love with scraping - we are working on a large walnut cabinet with lots of complex grain patterns.

Now I'm wondering, should I get something like the Lie-Nielsen Large Scraping Plane? Will the finish be any better than with the #80? Is the LN going to be easier to use? Will the LN be any harder to setup correctly?

Thanks for any feedback, I'd like to know what to expect before putting down $200+ for a scraper.

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Originally Posted by Tom Jones III

I'm familiar with hand held card scrapers and have used them on a couple projects. LOML was sanding a project for me and I suggested she try the scraper. Being quite a nancy, her hands are not strong enough to scrape well and she complained about the heat. So, I brought home a Stanley #80 and she fell in love with scraping - we are working on a large walnut cabinet with lots of complex grain patterns.

Now I'm wondering, should I get something like the Lie-Nielsen Large Scraping Plane? Will the finish be any better than with the #80? Is the LN going to be easier to use? Will the LN be any harder to setup correctly?

Thanks for any feedback, I'd like to know what to expect before putting down $200+ for a scraper.

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Hi Tom,

Scrapers are addictive, ya know...

The LN scraper plane is nice. I have one. I wouldn't part with it. I fact, I've sold off over 3/4 of my hand planes and it stayed. Well, all the scrapers stayed.

If I were to purchase another--and I may--it would be the Lee Valley one as it can take a thin blade [which comes with it] or a thick one [optional purchase]. The fact it can take a thin blade is only a benefit because it also has, like the #80, the ability to bow that blade. So it works in a similar way. But the thick blade is nice as well.

Your finish isn't an better per se. Easier to use? I think so when a longer period of scraping is involved just because of the motion and the way one holds it. If I have little to scrape, I grab the #80. If I have a larger surface or just more scraping, I grabe the LN scraper.

As for set up, one doesn't need to put a hook on the thick blade, though there is some benefit to it. Adjusting a scraper such as the Lee Valley one is similar to the #80 owing to the bowing of the thin blade. The thicker bladed scrapers take more thought, but are also fairly easy. 10 mintutes after you open the package of either one and you will get the hang of it.

Take care, Mike

I have the LV version of the Stanley 80. I use it for scraping thin stock that i have resawn or for scraping home made veneers. For those purposes, I prefer the two handled configuration over the scraper plane configuration because of ease of manueverability.

For large projects/areas, the plane configuration may be easier to use.

HB

There are a couple of other options. One is that several of the HNT Gordon planes can be used as either 60° regular planes or, with a flip of the blade, they can be used as 90° scraper planes. The HNT smoother in particular has gotten high marks. I do recommend you get an extra blade if you go this route since the use as a scraper necessitates resharpening the blade before using it normally. And then there are the Japanese scrapers, often called plane adjusting planes ( http://www.hidatool.com/woodpage/plane/scraper.html ).

I prefer these wooden scraper solutions, they tend to be smaller and lighter than the typical western style, and yet they have thicker blades.

Another option is the very wide Japanese scraper that's used as a blade alone. I just bought one of these, so don't have much to say about them yet. The heat dispersion should be much better than the western scraper blades due to blade thickness.

Pam

I have the Lee Valley redesign of the 112. Love it!!! ...very well engineered scraper plane. Very good for highly figured peices.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tom Jones III

....Now I'm wondering, should I get something like the Lie-Nielsen Large Scraping Plane? Will the finish be any better than with the #80? Is the LN going to be easier to use? Will the LN be any harder to setup correctly?....Thanks for any feedback, I'd like to know what to expect before putting down $200+ for a scraper.

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Both the LN small and large scraper planes are in my plane arsenal. They are both superb tools.

However, they are, IMO, both rather specialized tools. My experience is that the large scraper plane works particularly well when you have a large surface to scrape/plane, such as a table top, that you want to keep flat.

Smoothing out the places where a smoothing plane doesn't quite do the trick, but keeping that large surface flat -- that's where the scraper plane really excels!

Set up? I don't have a Stanley 80 to compare it to, so I can't really say; but, there is no extraordinary challenge to setting up either of the LN scraper planes. A few minutes of honing, and you're set; putting a burr on it is mainly something you'll want to consider, depending on the "nastiness" of the grain on the piece of wood you're working.

So....if your expectations are not unrealistic, then a LN large scraper plane will probably do what you want it to; just remember that it's a specialized tool.

Hope this is of some use.

James

I use The Stanley 80 and my LN 112 often....along with card scrapers. Once you learn how to adjust and fine tune the blade on the 112 you really appreiate it. I start with a paint scrapper on glue joints....