After a weekend forging adzes, Nic Westermann sharpens a Crown Gooseneck scraper

Wood carving with hook knife and facets

I have just returned home from an amazing weekend – the Bodgers Ball, put on by the association of pole lathe turners and green woodworkers, APTGW. A perfect setting at the Weald and Downland Museum in West Sussex, amazing weather and topped by a display of the Northern Lights, although I doubt they will be featured every year.

I was forging some adzes with a friend who will be striking (swinging a sledgehammer) on some upcoming courses. Over the course of the weekend it became apparent that he was not hitting squarely and however hard he tried to correct it seemed to be a problem. In the end I decided to have a go to see if the problem was with the sledge itself – it’s a lighter one and one I rarely, if ever, use. First strike and I bounced the hammer off at an odd angle. Admittedly I could then correct for this on later strikes but there was obviously something wrong. Looking carefully at the f lats on the oval cross section of the handle, they didn’t quite align with the head. This meant that when it felt like you were striking straight down the head was coming down slightly misaligned, at maybe 1 o’clock.

I resolved to shave the handle down to take this twist out when I got back to my workshop. When I finally returned and unpacked it was the first job I tackled, and it wasn’t that straightforward. If you look at old axe and hammer handles you will see they are gracefully shaped and way slimmer than the current clunky versions. Thinner handles are obviously more fragile, hence the bulky safety margins brought in.

However, it makes the tool feel tiring to use as the slimmer handle no longer f lexes to absorb vibrations. I had slimmed this handle down to make it more pleasant to use and it is possible that I had introduced, or at least not corrected, this spiral twist. I tried to resolve this with some gentle shavings taken off with a freshly sharpened draw knife and was immediately reminded of the troubles I had had 10 years previously when doing this – the hickory had a very unruly grain that kept splintering whichever direction I cut in. In retrospect, it’s possible that I had introduced this spiral twist chasing down splits I had induced.

Large sledgehammer on concrete floor
Shaved-down sledgehammer

Then I remembered a handled scraper that I use on smaller handles. This worked perfectly: the burr cuts a very thin shaving and then immediately forces this shaving into a tight curl that breaks it so it can’t cause a split. I could now shape in either direction with ease. Hopefully that has fixed the hammer, I’ll try it out soon. This long-winded introduction allows me to bring up the old chestnut of poor workmen blaming their tools, although I’ll leave it up to you to decide who I am talking about, and more importantly an often overlooked tool – the scraper, subject of this issue’s sharpening clinic.

I was sent this Crown Gooseneck scraper by a reader who was experiencing difficulties in sharpening it. I have covered sharpening a scraper in a previous article – this image should show how they cut, and the burr that is made. The difficulty with this one is the problems that the curves present. The same theory is needed to form the burr but a more careful approach is required. This is analogous to sharpening a spoon knife, compared to a straight blade. The reader had been using this tool to clean up the bowls of spoons they had carved so it made sense for me to try it out in this roll. I roughly carved a few bowls in some cherry from the firewood pile and thought that would be good to test. However, when I tried with the scraper as it came to me, it was apparent that it was going to be a struggle. There was massive tear-out, and it really wasn’t working well. It occurred to me that the cherry wasn’t as dry as I thought. My understanding is that if you are going to clean up a spoon with a scraper it is usual to wait for it to fully dry.

Person holding a metal French curve tool.
Gooseneck scraper
Diagram showing cutting with a burr and shaving.

I found some holly and put a bowl in it. This did have a split in it, but that suggested it had at least dried a lot more than the cherry wood. This was much better and I could clean up reasonably well, but it still wasn’t a very nice experience. In both instances the tool produced dust, not shavings. I thought I would try a few methods of sharpening the scraper, getting more involved each time, and see if there was a point when diminishing returns in the cost/benefit balance made it not worth pursuing. First, I went for a very simple method – just grinding the edge and using whatever burr was formed.

I did this on the ProEdge on the wraparound table set at 90°, I used a 120-grit belt and this formed a burr that was easily felt. However, the shape of the burr is bound to be rather ragged as it isn’t Holly – burr left from grinding consciously formed, just sections of steel dragged past the edge by the grit on the belt. The cherry didn’t really cut much better, but on the holly, there was a definite improvement.

Wood board with circular indentation close-up.
Cherry – first try
Wood plank with oval indentation
Holly – first try
Metalwork grinding on a belt sander
Grinding the edge square
Circular indentation on wooden surface.
Cherry – burr left from grinding
Carved wood with shavings on surface.
Holly – burr left from grinding
Chainsaw cutting through wood log indoors.
Burnishing at 5°
Finger close-up on textured wooden surface with metal.
Burnished section visible

Wood carving with circular indentation and shavings
Cherry – burnished burr
Close-up of carved wood with round indentation.
Holly – burnished burr
Person measuring surface with metal template tool.
Water stone used to remove burr from grinding
Hand holding a metal French curve tool.
Grinding burr removed
Carved wood with chisel marks and shavings
Holly – grinding burr removed and reshaped
Close-up of drilled hole in wood with shavings.
Cherry – grinding burr removed and reshaped
Hand holding wire burnishing metal edge.
Burnishing the face

However, the more astute of you will realise that the burnished surface you can see is not the side of the burr that shaves the wood. So, I wanted to see if I could further refine the sharpening process one step further.

First, to make the burnishing easier, I set the table on the ProEdge to 4° from horizontal. (It was close enough to 5°, but it might pay to experiment with this angle. Looking back, I have previously ground to 10°.) This meant that I could then burnish dead square to the edge. This should mean I now only had to concentrate on the curves so I should get a more accurately formed burr. It will make no perceptible difference to the edge geometry as such.

But after grinding and before burnishing I removed the burr that had been formed as I felt this would be rather ragged. For once I didn’t have any diamond films with me so used an 800- grit water stone, which, after soaking, performed admirably. The edge was now a crisp angle and I was hoping this would allow me to form a more accurate burr. Burnishing this over was much easier to achieve as it is much easier to keep the rod at 90° rather than consistently over by 5°. I then tried this out. On the holly it cut better but not massively so. On the difficult cherry the improvement was much more marked.

There was still one tiny spot I had difficulty clearing up but, as you can see, I could cut proper shavings for the first time. Finally, I performed a further step. I ground the edge to 4°, removed the burr with the water stone and then refined this face and formed a tiny hook by burnishing at a slight angle. This was flipped over by burnishing back as before. This full sequence is the usual method for forming a burr on a scraper.

Close-up of a clean, sharp circular saw blade.
Burnished face
Diagram showing edge sharpening and burnishing process.

This cut better still – not a huge difference on the holly, but I could for the first time ignore grain direction and cut any way I wanted. The cherry was greatly improved. This was the first time I could clean up the trouble area where the grain direction reversed – shavings were better than ever. Looking back, all the methods I tried were quick, although just grinding was only a matter of seconds. I think that it is possible it is worth grinding at a slight angle as it makes the burnishing much easier – if you can set it up it takes no longer to do. However, burnishing in both directions to form the hook really makes a difference.

The other thing to remember is that I had never used a curved scraper until I made the first cuts in this article. Every cut after that, the tool felt less unfamiliar and you would perhaps expect an improvement in finish, even if I had used the same scraper each time without resharpening. That being said, the size of the shavings tells a story that can’t be put down just to experience. But really, which method you choose may depend on the characteristics of the wood you are going to be scraping. I would suggest that all these methods were so quick that it was probably worth doing the final one, or just grind a burr on and use as is. However, instinctively, I think that a better-formed burr will last longer. So even if the sharpening takes longer, then it should last much longer, meaning you spend more time working on your carving, not sharpening, which is always my goal.

Close-up of wood carving in progress.
Holly – full sharpening sequence
Wood with carved circular indentation and shavings.
Cherry – full sharpening sequence

The sharpening clinic’s open

As the name suggests, I would like to help carvers with sharpening problems – this will allow me to focus my articles on tools that are relevant to you, the readership. I am looking for readers to send a brief email with a description of the tool, the sharpening equipment they are using and problems they are having. Please do not send images at this stage as it clogs up my email system far too quickly.

I will try to answer all emails but will only be selecting one tool per article. You would then send the tool to me at your expense, I will sharpen it and make it the subject of the article and send it back to you at my expense. Turnaround will be up to a month as I will need to get the tool well before the deadline to be certain I can fulfil my obligation to WC of turning in a quality article each issue. If not selected, please do not send me your tools. I don’t have time to sharpen them in my day-to-day business, and I don’t have the budget to return them to you if you do. Also, due to the time scales involved with overseas post, currently this is only open to carvers in the UK.

If you are interested, and I hope you are, then please email me at nic.westermann@btconnect.co

Hewn & Hone

This article is brought to you by Hewn & Hone, a company which draws its expertise from respected carvers and tool makers to bring you blades and sharpening supplies. All our designs and innovations emerge out of hard-won, practical insight into what will bring out the best performance in your tools. To learn more visit: www.hewnandhone.co.uk

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