tool steel for scrapers

[gumboman]

I want to buy some tool steel to cut and shape scrapers of my own making that will be used for relief carving on wood. Looking for help from forum members to learn steel specs of what to buy such as thickness, grade of steel and a supplier where this can be purchased.

Thanks for the help.

[Bob Roller]

I want to buy some tool steel to cut and shape scrapers of my own making that will be used for relief carving on wood. Looking for help from forum members to learn steel specs of what to buy such as thickness, grade of steel and a supplier where this can be purchased.

Thanks for the help.

There are any number of industrial supply businesses that sell tool steel. I use it for lock parts,sears and fly and it's called 0-1 and comes in a wide variety of thicknesses. I am thinking 3/32 (.093) or 1/8 (.125)x 1/2 inch will work for small scrapers.It is available in 18 and 36 inch lengths and will oil harden and temper easily.
KBC Tools in Detroit and Travers in SC have it in stock.

Bob Roller

[Mark Elliott]

I stock 1085 and 1095 for such small tools as well as springs and frizzens.   I have also recycled old files for scrapers.   I am still using a couple of those file made scrapers after almost 40 years.   Of course, as Bob suggested, O-1 would also work just fine.   You can also buy scraper stock from Woodcraft and such that you can file as required.   It is already hardened and tempered.   Most wood scrapers are relatively soft so that you can file them to shape.   

[P.W.Berkuta]

Buy a square scraper from one of the wood working supplers and shape it the way you want or find an old worthless hand saw and cut your own out of it. And as suggested you can buy spring steel stock and also make your own but some steel suppliers do not sell in small lots. Thickness in the range of 0.020" to 0.040" works well for me.

[T*O*F]

If you want small scrapers, look in the bargain bins that most hardware stores have.  Buy a couple of sets of cheap needle files.  You can shape them into small chisels or scrapers on a belt sander.  The variety of shapes give you the option of a variety of different profiles.

[Chris Treichel]

Spatulas from the masonry section of your hardware store also work.  Even come with a handle attached.

[okieboy]

 I make lots of specialized scrapers and for larger ones I prefer OLD saw blade material. for small handled scrapers I like to take a flat screw driver, bend the flat driving part to a right angle with a torch, vise and hammer, then shape it on grinder and belt sander.
 One of the handiest flat scrapers is to just turn your chisel 90 degrees to the wood pull it along the surface. Since it has no hook burr it scrapes slow and gently. There are places for hook or turned burrs on scrapers, but it is not the only way of scraping, imagine trying to turn a burr on a piece of broken glass!

[Tim Crosby]

 Band Saw blades with the teeth ground off make explant scrapers, can be ground to the need shape and they flex easily. I use 1/4 to 3/4" blades and in some case cut them smaller.  Sharpened on all sides, including edges using Diamond plates. You can raise a burr but they work fine for me with out.

  Tim C.

[gumboman]

Thanks for all of the great replies. Very good feedback. And so simple. I like simple.

[Chris Treichel]

Almost forgot... for round barrels I have a tool called a curl scraper with interchangeable heads... just thinking about it you could make one by threading the end of a steel rod and fixing a sharpened washer on the end with a nut to keep it in place. http://www.trackofthewolf.com/pdfs/catalog/page_398.pdf

[bob in the woods]

I have different sized washers attached to the end of a rod . Use these for scrapping oct/round barrel inlets as well as for scraping ram rod channels.

[davec2]

For working on the surface of a stock, and especially around carving, I just use the double ended utility knife blades that come in a pack of 10 or so for cheap.  I don't use the sharpened edge and normally grind it flat to keep from cutting myself.  I just use the steel.... as is (no heat treating) and grind / file any shape I want.  The resulting 90 degree edge seems to stay sharp enough to do a nice job scraping for a long time.

[cunninmp]

Gumboman,
I buy most of my tool steel from Enco. They ship out of Fernley, Nevada
and Georgia.
If I don't get it there, I'd try Travers Tool.
Here is a link to the Enco catalog showing the page of O-1 (oil
hardening) tool steel. It'll give you an idea of cost. Thickness starts at 1/32"
and goes up to 1/8" in 1/64" increments.

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INPDFF?PMPAGE=823&PMITEM=619-2007

Besides cost, it'll give you an idea of whats available out there.
Mike C.
 

[Dphariss]

I want to buy some tool steel to cut and shape scrapers of my own making that will be used for relief carving on wood. Looking for help from forum members to learn steel specs of what to buy such as thickness, grade of steel and a supplier where this can be purchased.

Thanks for the help.

Buy some ground finish O-1 in the thickness and width you need. O-1 will hold an edge better than plain high carbon steel.
If drawn back to a "straw" color  at the ends and darker toward the middle so they are tougher there. These will scrape wood or steel. They come in real handy for fitting frizzens to pans and such. They cannot be "burred" and must be carefully stoned to square edges to form the cutting edge.
Dan

[smylee grouch]

You can sometimes find good old woodworking tools at yard sales and pawn shops that have been beaten up but you can heat them up and shape or forge then to any shape you like.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I use sections cut from old industrial band saw blades.  They are about 1 1/2" wide before grinding.  They are a little harder than spring temper and take a rolled edge well.

[Dphariss]

I have a large scraper that I made from a putty knife used for mudding sheetrock. It will really move wood and is big enough for both hands.  For wood scrapers almost anything will work. A soft spring temper is near perfect and this will take a burred edge. Most of teh scrapers I use burred edge scrapers. But the scrapers shown in my first post will do things a burred scraper will not as shown in one photos. But these are not good of removing a lot of wood.

Dan

[gumboman]

More useful information. Thanks to all.

[Gaeckle]

Here are some scrapers I make....they work great, good for cheeck pieces, areas around the lock mortis, cuts against the grain well and they are simple to make.






I make them from worn out sawzall blades....grind off the teeth and square off the tip





Insert the tang into a hardwood drawer pull.......use epoxy to keep them secure,




heat up the tip and form a bend with pliers (linesman's pliers work great), propane torch can be used,




Sharpen the outside edge with bench grinder or preferably a combo disc sander. The shape or angle is important, it should not look like this:



......I will reshape this by heating and adjusting the angle.

These work (for me at least) due to the flexibility of the blade:



If you place your finger in the center of the scraper, you can apply pressure and can cut and scrape heavily, but if you place your finger at the tip you can polish the wood surface very fine, extremely fine:



Here is a sample....about 4 to 5 strokes with pressure on a forstock that has heavy rasp marks:








They are easy to resharpen, even I can do it (I'm just a few french fries short of a happy meal) by stoning the beveled edge, then I test it against my thumbnail: if I can cut or scrape my nail, I can scrape wood.

You can even get fancy and color the handles,



I get my blades from a local muffler shop, they go thru blades faster than Congress can spend our money and they simply throw them on the floor....I get them for free. The drawer pulls cost about $2.50 for two at any old Big Box Store and epoxy is pretty cheap. The best part is if I screw up the edge, I can easily re-shape or just start over.

I provide one of these to each student who takes the gun building class at the Log Cabin Shop, free of charge. We show them ways to put them to use and there are hundreds of ways to use them. Works pretty good on horns, scrape brass with them.....

So far as I can tell, I've probably made about two dozen or so. The folks I've given them to have pretty much given me positive reviews. Tim Crosby's got one, gave one to Dennis, one to Brian Barker and that maple sort of guy....Acer.

You can also make some real good scrapers with an old hand saw: cut the blade and roll an edge on it. The flexibility allows it to cut, scrape and remove wood well.

Allen wrenches can also be used, I use the same technique to use allen wrenches (small size) to make very small scrapers that can get into very small areas, great for lock inletting. Allen wrenches make pretty good tiny chisells as well and they can hold an edge and can get very sharp (watch your finger tips!)