Inexperienced workmen, especially children in schools, sometimes get in a hurry, and try to dodge the planing operation which is used to remove roughness including the marks of the machine planer in the case of dressed lumber. Sometimes attempts are made to scrape a surface with a hand scraper instead of using a plane or scraper-plane.

The hand scraper usually follows the irregularities or waves of the board and does not level the surface at all. Attempts to smooth a machine-planed surface with sandpaper alone are always very expensive of time and result in failure. Sandpaper follows the waves made by the machine-cutter and does not smooth properly or level the surface. Such unworkmanlike methods of procedure brand a person as a novice with little knowledge or experience.

Scrapers, when properly sharpened and used are a great source of satisfaction to workmen and forestry suppliers (http://www.ustape.com), performing work that is usually surprising to an amateur. In shops where a machine sander is not available to smooth and level surfaces of wood, scrapers are very important tools.

There are two different kinds of scrapers, one of which is the scraper plane. Scraper planes are tools which hold scraper-blades or cabinet scrapers in stocks, which in some of their forms, resemble plane-stocks. The Stanley Numbers 12, 112, and 80 are examples of scraper-planes or holders that are very satisfactory. Scraper blades for use in scraper planes or holders are usually sharpened with a beveled instead of a square edge.

The procedure for sharpening a scraper plane is as follows:

? Remove the old hook by honing the blade, which you should hold with its flat side on the stone. Never use a file for this purpose, as the side of the blade will become scratched, and these scratches will make nicks in the new hook.

? File a bevel on the blade at an angle of about 30°, using a 10" or 12" mill file. Bound the corners slightly, as you would in grinding a plane bit. The bevel may be ground on a grinder if one is convenient.

? Whet the edge with great care on an oilstone. Any feathered edge may be removed by cutting into a piece of wood, using the blade like a chisel, but drawing the edge across the fibers of the piece as with a knife. Repeat this operation until the blade is sharp and the feathered edge is removed. It is not usually possible to get as sharp and smooth an edge on a scraper blade as on a plane bit. Finish the sharpening process by the use of a strap as in sharpening a plane bit.

? Place the scraper blade in a vise, or preferably in a special clamp or kit made for the purpose. Take a large burnisher made of especially hardened steel, and turn a hook on the edge of the bevel, bending the metal over toward the flat or front side. Use about five strokes, turning the hook more each time, and holding the burnisher at an angle of about 95° or 100° with the face of the blade on the last stroke.

A scraper-blade sharpened as described above, if properly adjusted with appropriate measuring tools (http://www.ustape.com) in the scraper plane, will cut thin long shavings, and will plane against the grain to some extent without tearing out the fibers. A scraper plane will make a very much smoother surface on most woods than will a smooth
plane.

On some very hard, crooked, grained woods the smooth lane should not be used. You should use the scraper plane for the entire planing process in order to avoid tearing out fragments such as flakes in oak and the eyes in bird's-eye maple.

A dulled scraper blade hook can sometimes be flattened out part way back with a burnisher and then turned over again as in the first turning of the hook.