john lucas
AAW Forum Expert
I find these very useful and don't see mention of it often. I had been using them for years on flat work. I first saw them used on turnings during a Clay Foster demo way to many years ago. I don't want to embarass Clay or myself. Clay was using it on green turnings with the lathe at very slow speeds, to clean up the tool marks on the outside.
I use them for several other things. One is to repair areas of the wood that want to tear out no matter what you do. If it's on the outside of the piece I use a flat scraper. For the inside I use curved scrapers. Every once in a while you get a piece of wood that has one area that wants to tear out or fuzz up and no amount of hardening, sharpening tools, cutting with wax or water or what ever will work. Just stop the lathe and work on that area with a card scraper.
Sometimes on really punky wood you use some sort of hardener, be it thinned epoxy, CA glue, Thinned lacquer, whatever. If your lucky these areas will cut clean and your done. Sometimes you just need to sand but the repaired areas are harder and if you sand too much you get a lumpy area. With the card scraper you can take down this hard area without affecting the soft areas around it. I do this all the time when repairing holes with epoxy or Inlace. I will level the surface with a card scraper before sanding it smooth.
If you have a small tearout area you can use the card scraper to cut down below the tearout. Then blend this divot into the rest of the area so you can't see it. If done properly you can't feel the divot either.
Do you have trouble cleaning up inside the foot on a bowl. If you have a vacuum chuck or other good way to hold the bowl you can just turn it. When I do demos at public venues I don't carry all that stuff so I turn the bottom with my tailstock in place and then carve away the little stub tenon. To smooth the rest out I use a small piece of card scraper that I cut off a larger care. It is about 1" wide by 2 1/2" long. I sharpen the narrow side and use that to clean up the last little bit of the bottom.
When I was inexperience and doing segmented hollow vessels I would do 2 bowl shapes and then glue them together to form the hollow vessel. (no way was I skilled enough to hollow and I could also leave the hole in the top impossibly small). I didn't trust my skills to turn away the glue joint and sanding often left the wood lumpy. I would use the card scraper to level the surface and then I could start sanding with 220 and avoid the lumps.
There's probably more but that's all I can think of on the spur of the moment. Card Scrapers are cheap and you can even make them out of old hand saw blades if you want. In a pinch for small areas I've used the tip of a chisel. They cut clean but it does dull your chisel fairly quickly.
I use them for several other things. One is to repair areas of the wood that want to tear out no matter what you do. If it's on the outside of the piece I use a flat scraper. For the inside I use curved scrapers. Every once in a while you get a piece of wood that has one area that wants to tear out or fuzz up and no amount of hardening, sharpening tools, cutting with wax or water or what ever will work. Just stop the lathe and work on that area with a card scraper.
Sometimes on really punky wood you use some sort of hardener, be it thinned epoxy, CA glue, Thinned lacquer, whatever. If your lucky these areas will cut clean and your done. Sometimes you just need to sand but the repaired areas are harder and if you sand too much you get a lumpy area. With the card scraper you can take down this hard area without affecting the soft areas around it. I do this all the time when repairing holes with epoxy or Inlace. I will level the surface with a card scraper before sanding it smooth.
If you have a small tearout area you can use the card scraper to cut down below the tearout. Then blend this divot into the rest of the area so you can't see it. If done properly you can't feel the divot either.
Do you have trouble cleaning up inside the foot on a bowl. If you have a vacuum chuck or other good way to hold the bowl you can just turn it. When I do demos at public venues I don't carry all that stuff so I turn the bottom with my tailstock in place and then carve away the little stub tenon. To smooth the rest out I use a small piece of card scraper that I cut off a larger care. It is about 1" wide by 2 1/2" long. I sharpen the narrow side and use that to clean up the last little bit of the bottom.
When I was inexperience and doing segmented hollow vessels I would do 2 bowl shapes and then glue them together to form the hollow vessel. (no way was I skilled enough to hollow and I could also leave the hole in the top impossibly small). I didn't trust my skills to turn away the glue joint and sanding often left the wood lumpy. I would use the card scraper to level the surface and then I could start sanding with 220 and avoid the lumps.
There's probably more but that's all I can think of on the spur of the moment. Card Scrapers are cheap and you can even make them out of old hand saw blades if you want. In a pinch for small areas I've used the tip of a chisel. They cut clean but it does dull your chisel fairly quickly.
