Sander or Scraper? – Question of the Week
This week’s question comes from Jeff who asks: “Marc, generally speaking, when would you advocate using a sander, and when a scraper to finish a surface?”
And this was my response: “Well to put it bluntly, I never use a scraper for final finish preparation. My scrapers are tuned so that they take a pretty aggressive cut, which makes them useful for leveling. But I don’t really like the surface they leave behind when compared to a nice 180 grit sanding. That’s not to say you can’t get a killer finish prep with a well-tuned scraper, its just not my preferred way of doing it. Call me lazy, but I would much rather sit there and let the sander do all the work while I daze off into space and think about whats for dinner.” :) But, I know people that swear by the scrapers and as a result, save money on sandpaper. So there is definitely some merit to it. To each his own I suppose.”
Does anyone out there use scrapers before finishing?
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I use scrapers to clean up glue joints and to rough out curved areas.
I find that on curved surfaces, scrapers cause tearout. One area in particular is the neck-to-body area, where the curved surface of the neck heel changes angles. Here, I rough-shape with the scraper and then use sandpaper to finish.
I also use industrial razor blades for fine scraping, for instance along the edge of the fingerboard.
I feel that scrapers give a better finish.
Sometimes you have to let wood be wood. Even if it is fuzzy pine that wont even take a smooth finish with a finely tuned scraper. It is tempting to turn sandpaper on a piece like that, but I like the look of a project that hasn’t seen sandpaper.
i finish everything with either a scraper or my L-N number 4 followed by a quick pass with 220 grit by hand
I’m with adienner.
I like to do the bulk of the finishing with scrapers (I only have card scrapers), and then a very quick pass with fine paper by hand.
Well, I use both. A finely tuned scraper can leave a surface much cleaner and more brilliant due to its shearing of the wood fibers. Since the burr is tuned by you, you can make it as aggressive as you like. I have several scrapers tuned differently. I follow with a light sanding of 400 grit IF needed.
I concur. I use my scrapers for more aggressive work, preferring to use sandpaper for the final finesse.
I use a scraper to get the last of the mashed potatoes…
well i use sandpaper mainly for woods that get a lot of tearout and woods that i am going to dye. i feel that sandpaper gets me a better surface to dye because the even scratch pattern accepts the dye more evenly. on most other woods i use my #3 to prep the surface and then run over the surface with a scraper to even it up from the handplane and knock down any other little fuzzies. i feel that that gets me the best finished surface for a clear finish.
I sharpen my scrapers on a 12 mil bastard file, so they cut pretty aggressively. I just leave the file in the vise while using the card scraper so that I can stroke the card on it quick to resharpen it.
From what I am reading, I use my scrapers most like Marc, I use them often but I finish with sandpaper.
I like Adam King’s (akstudio) approach to having differently tuned scrapers. It is the same as having a variety of hand planes for specific planing tasks.
I find the various viewpoints interesting on this one because there is a lot of talent and fine projects that would seem to validate each approach to using the card scraper.
Marc, I’m with you on this one. The burrs on my scrapers are fairly aggressive and I use them for things like finally levelling on inlays, and things like that. I’m no fan of sanding, but on big flat surfaces, the 6″ ROS with hook-’n-loop discs makes it fairly easy and quick to go up through the grits.
But I still don’t like the hand sanding on smaller and curved surfaces. ;)
I tend to try and let the wood & the project dictate how things will work out best. On some woods such as walnut and cherry that isn’t too crazy, and especially if I’m doing a reproduction piece, I finish with a finely tuned scraper and call it good, after my tuned up smoothing plane has done its job. Some items that have crazy grain where the scraper can’t tame tear-out I’ll finish up with 220 grit garnet sandpaper. I think it’s important to note that sometimes — depending on the individual boards, the scraper can be used in one area and not in another, just like your smoothing plane. Oh, and sometimes I just finish up with the smoothing plane and congratulate myself.