Best way to sharpen a scraper

[lowell holmes]

IIRC, the sides are honed to remove any old burr left on the scraper. The wooden block not only assists in making the edge of the scraper absolutely square and straight, it sets the angle for the new burr. It produces an incredible amount of shavings.

[Jim Matthews]

Mike Pekovich explained this to me.
The idea is to take off the existing burr,
and make sure the edges are all at 90 degrees.

In practice - if I can no longer turn a burr,
I go straight to filing.

I think what's glossed over in this demo
is that the squared block acts as a reference
for your fingertips, holding the file.

[glenn bradley]

That said I am sure we will all have fun re arguing the whole thing all over again.

This is a great statement because like cutting dovetails or M&T, there are several totally valid ways to sharpen (and use) your scrapers. To stone or not to stone? A tiny bit of oil before burnishing or drown the edge like William Ng? Use an old Chevy valve stem or a commercial burnishing rod? I'll just add what I do to the other responses. If you try a few techniques I am sure you will find the one that suits you.

I have a file set into a block of hardwood that acts a a guide so I can mill file the edges perpendicular without having to be too talented.
I then stone the edges on DMT diamond plates because that is what I happen to have.
- I stone them flat and then on edge.
I use a Lee Valley triangular burnishing tool after getting galling with some others that were not quite as hard.
- It also excels on my goose-neck and convex/concave scrapers but, whatever works for you works fine.
I pull the edge parallel with the flat surface and then roll it back at 5-10-15 degrees depending on how aggressive I want the edge to be.
- I will put 5 degrees on one long side, 15 degrees on the other and 10 degrees on the ends of rectangle scrapers.
- I usually put about a 10 degree on curved scrapers as this works better for me and my technique (or lack thereof) on those type of surfaces.

[Doug Ladendorf]

I've seen the videos but there are some great tidbits in this thread. Thanks for sharing folks.

[Dave Cullen]

I have a block of wood with a bunch of saw kerfs in it for holding my scrapers. Depending on what I am doing, there are two ways I sharpen my scrapers. For fine work, like leveling a finish or scraping veneer & inlay I will use my Sandvik (now Bacho) scraper, which is prepared by filing, stoning and burnishing. I am generally content to produce dust with this scraper, because I am not hogging off a lot of wood.

There is a story about master craftsman Tage Frid using a scraper to level a lacquer finish on one of his coffee table designs that always brings a smile to my face. Nobody could figure out how he got the finish so perfectly flat. I love my scrapers, but I'll never have the skills to do that.