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Thread: Getting ready for the winter: Sharpening your ice scraper.

  1. #1
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    Getting ready for the winter: Sharpening your ice scraper.

    This post is for anyone living in cold climate and, whoever do not have to deal with snow and ice, see next post and please do not give your opinion on something you don't know. It's pretty technical so we'll keep this discussion for those concerned.

    For this difficult sharpening, I propose the following procedure using a block plane.

    - Close the mouth as much as you can to prevent tear-outs.
    - Use your finest stone to sharpen your blade. You can use the ruler trick and a secondary bevel is a must.
    - Those using a regular 45° bedded plane can also use the chip breaker effect.
    - Clamp your ice scraper in your vice.
    IMG_7408.jpg

    - A scraper should be sharpened at ~45°. Any deviation from that angle on the low side will get you an edge that won't last. If you end up on the high side, the scraper will be very difficult to push. So, 45 is an important angle in the geometry of a scraper.
    - Using your plane, start slowly and be careful not to plane a rounded edge. The use of a straight edge to verify your progress is a must.
    IMG_7409.jpg

    - Have a look at your shavings. They should be almost translucent.
    IMG_7410.jpg

    Your scraper surface finish has to be very smooth otherwise you will scratch your windshield.
    IMG_7412.jpg

    Normand
    PS: George and Patrick, there is no snow in your areas. Please don't interfere with my post. Same comment for those guys in Oz.

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Normand Leblanc View Post
    PS: George and Patrick, there is no snow in your areas. Please don't interfere with my post. Same comment for those guys in Oz.
    Have you ever considered that people might have lived in other places than their current location (Bloomington Indiana in my case, which does get snow). Or that we travel (I used to spend about 50 days/year skiing in Tahoe and Mammoth). Also, it snows in Oz - there are actually a fair number of skiers from down there. It's a pretty sizable country with a decent range of climates.

    PS/EDIT: It snows in Virginia too!
    Last edited by Patrick Chase; 11-24-2016 at 9:53 PM. Reason: Toned it down

  3. #3
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    Are we talking bevel up or bevel down scrapers? I prefer bevel up myself. I can agree that 45 is a good general purpose scraper bevel angle. I would be tempted to try 30 but don't have the desire to invest the effort. I do want to offer a tip though, and that is to start the car, let it warm up, run the defroster before ice scraping.

  4. #4
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    Do you use a ruler trick to add a back bevel to the scraper?

  5. #5
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    Perhaps someone needs to lighten up? Patrick, maybe? Enter into the spirit of the post, and have a wee bit of F U N with this post? You do remember what having fun is, right?

    Ok, does the scraper need stropped? How thick are the ice shavings? Maybe a picture of a digital caliper showing how thin a shaving the sharpened scraper can do?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by steven c newman View Post
    Do you use a ruler trick to add a back bevel to the scraper?
    I was talking about the plane blade but you just got a fantastic idea. We need to make a study about it.

    Pat,
    Yep. The defroster is a must.
    Bevel down scrapers for sure...what are you smoking!

    Patrick,
    Your a lost case

  7. #7
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    Does the scraper use a chipbreaker to prevent tear-out? Or, do you have to hold the scraper at a higher angler. How do you read the grain of the ice?

  8. #8
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    And across the windshield/windows, or up and down?

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Houghton View Post
    And across the windshield/windows, or up and down?
    What are you thinking? Has to be across otherwise, going up and down, you will get convex shavings and the surface finish won't be nice.

    Steven, make sure you don't reduce the scraper angle too much you may run into a clearance problem.

  10. #10
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    Does the back need to be perfectly flat? Or can it have a hollow like a Japanese scraper would have.....( Tokyo got snow yesterday...)

  11. #11
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    I prefer to draw file mine like you would a card scraper. Even a crappy old dull file cuts that plastic like buuttteeerrr...


    Also 45 is way to steep 50 or bust. Back beveling.... I dunno... seems like coping the back with a curved scraper would be the best way to handle that

    Seriously though this is actually something I've done for years and it does make the ice peal off a lot better than the old dull beat up edge.

  12. #12
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    All this is just fine and dandy for the windshield. What about the side windows where you'll run into end grain ice? Must break out the low angle block scraper! Plus now I'll have to come up with a honing guide for all this.

    Normand, my ice scraper shavings are more translucent than yours. Of course if you too had started with a clear plastic scraper...

    -Tom

  13. #13
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    Maybe Woodpeckers can come up with a "One Time Tool" for this?

    I have to use my jointer scraper, as the smaller "smoother scrapers" are too short.

    I wonder, do scrapers also come in a corrugated model? How do you lap the sole on a scraper?

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by steven c newman View Post
    I have to use my jointer scraper
    You mean like this?

    There are also scraper jointers, including a very expensive motorized one. I never used any of those (there are much simpler approaches, that don't even require dulling your perfectly good block plane) but I never cease to be amazed at the lengths to which people will go.

    PS - Files and drywall screens both work really really well on scrapers.
    Last edited by Patrick Chase; 11-25-2016 at 12:42 AM.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Normand Leblanc View Post
    Bevel down scrapers for sure...what are you smoking!
    If you are a committed bevel down scraper I encourage you to try the bevel up approach this morning. I think you will immediately sense the improved control, not to mention the ergonomic benefits. With the bevel up approach you get a significant improvement in *reach* as compared to the bevel down method. As an added bonus the clearance angle has far more *adjustability*.

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