Maybe a better scraper burnisher?

[Tony Zaffuto]

Placed an order at Highland last week, and like most here, can never order a single item. While looking rough their catalog, saw and added to the order a Kunz brand triangular scraper burnisher. Tried it a bit ago, and the flat part was very easy to turn a burr with. I think the triangular edge will be the ticket for curved scrapers. Price was about $18, and maybe worth a peek the next time you got a tool jones.

[Frederick Skelly]

Thanks for the tip Tony. I'll put one on my list for the next order I place with Highland.
Fred

[george wilson]

lucky that anything made by KUNZ worked!

I think DEM DEUTSCH VOLK should rise up and burn the factory down for causing a national embarrassment!!

[Derek Cohen]

Placed an order at Highland last week, and like most here, can never order a single item. While looking rough their catalog, saw and added to the order a Kunz brand triangular scraper burnisher. Tried it a bit ago, and the flat part was very easy to turn a burr with. I think the triangular edge will be the ticket for curved scrapers. Price was about $18, and maybe worth a peek the next time you got a tool jones.

Tony, I still use the length of polished carbide you sent me years ago.

Chris Schwarz posted about a sharpener he has been using for a scraper. I have it on my wish list at Lee Valley. Has anyone used this ..



Link: http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/pag...,43072&p=66738

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mike Brady]

Not the one in the photo, but I tried using the carbide tip of a Benchcrafted scraper, which is the same thing in a different configuration. It does take fine shavings that look like wire edges, but that defeats the jointing benefit of using a flat file or diamond stone. I just felt it was not controllable, so that was the end of my inquiry. Other's results may vary. As with any sharpening technique, I believe it is more important to perfect one method as opposed to dabbling in many others. I'm amazed at how much sharpening equipment forum posters admit to owning and abandoning.

[Tony Zaffuto]

Tony, I still use the length of polished carbide you sent me years ago.

Chris Schwarz posted about a sharpener he has been using for a scraper. I have it on my wish list at Lee Valley. Has anyone used this ..



Link: http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/pag...,43072&p=66738

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek,

Carbide is still the best, but the flats on this product are an advantage, plus you would not be able to put the pointed edge on carbide. The commercial carbide scrapers I've seen also all lack the degree of surface polish needed.

When I sent out all that carbide, I sent one to Swartz, but I never heard any comments back. David Charlesworth pinged me, and I sent him a number of pieces for his class to use. David did comment how well it worked.

But, Derek, like you, I like experimenting to find something a bit better, namely the Stewie-Mac scraper, then the CBN wheel (thanks again for that suggestion!). Kunz products are pretty low on the quality list, but the shape of this burnisher is what attracted me. Tomorrow, I shall take it to my QC lab, and have the hardness tested.

T.

[Joachim Schmidt]

lucky that anything made by KUNZ worked!

I think DEM DEUTSCH VOLK should rise up and burn the factory down for causing a national embarrassment!!

Hello George,

he, he. A little radical proposal. DAS DEUTSCHE VOLK don't care for Kunz. We refuse their products, instead we send them abroad. We prefer the originals. Our own woodies or the originals from USA or Canada.

You will hardly find the bigger planes in professional or hobbyist workshops here in Germany. The litle ones, like the palm are common. But fettling these little planes to work properly is not so difficult.

We don't eat ourselfes each meal we prepare. ;-)

Joachim Schmidt

[Tony Zaffuto]

A blind pig finds an acorn every once in a while.

[Tony Zaffuto]

Besides the Kunz burnisher, I will also test a Bahco and a no-name card scraper for hardness. Results to be posted over the next few days. Tester is a new Rockwell, calibrated every six months by outside independent source.

[Mel Fulks]

Some of the burnishers sold as adjustable units use a 1/4" diameter carbide rod which seems to be same thing as laminate trim bit. I gave an old bit to D Weaver and he liked the idea but thought they might be improved by diamond polish. I use one glued into the center of length of wood with Goop.

[george wilson]

Joachim: Why does it say "Dem Deutsch Volk" on the bombed out Reichstag building,as seen in old films in 1945? I agree that DEM sounds strange,but that is what it says.

But,as they say in Pennsylvania,do you "Walk the street down" or "make out the light?"

[Tony Zaffuto]

Some of the burnishers sold as adjustable units use a 1/4" diameter carbide rod which seems to be same thing as laminate trim bit. I gave an old bit to D Weaver and he liked the idea but thought they might be improved by diamond polish. I use one glued into the center of length of wood with Goop.

The carbide I gave away (old tools list) were discarded pins from my manufacturing plant. Far higher grade and polish (mirror, with no evidence of scratch patterns). Problem is, this grade of carbide would be very, very expensive to have made for woodworking.

[Joachim Schmidt]

Joachim: Why does it say "Dem Deutsch Volk" on the bombed out Reichstag building,as seen in old films in 1945? I agree that DEM sounds strange,but that is what it says.

But,as they say in Pennsylvania,do you "Walk the street down" or "make out the light?"

George,

"Dem Deutschen Volk" means translated "for the german people" or more in the figurative sense "donated to the german people". The "Reichstag" was the parliament after WW1.

I cannot see that Kunz is donated to us.

Kunz is a copyist of planes, which were never in wide use in our country. Like other copyists they lack the experienced users in their country which can give feedback on their products. So it remains to make the cheaper product. Perhaps this is the reason, why they could not go the way, LN went. (Improving the product you are copying.)

Their new product line is way better, but cannot meet the standards LN and LV have set. Although you can find some interesting details in this planes. But there remain some annoying details which let me buying LN and LV.

[Dave Anderson NH]

For burnishers I use LV I bought many years ago and a homemade one. The one I made uses the solid carbide round nozzle from a waterjet cutting machine set into a turned walnut handle. I works fine and the price was right $.00.

[Patrick Chase]

A lot of this discussion strikes me as overkill (and yes, I'm aware of the irony of that statement). Burnishers need to have three properties:

1. They need to be a fair bit harder than the material being burnished. Scrapers range up to HRC 50 or so (for both LV and Bahco-Sandvik), so this is a pretty low bar.

2. They need to be smooth. I'm guessing that everybody here knows how to smooth and polish a piece of metal.

3. They need to be shaped so that they can access the edge of whatever you're trying to burnish.

That's it. Really!

My "triangular" burnisher is an old taper file with the corners ground smooth. It gets the job done as well as anything else.