removing gouge marks from carved top

[MinkBrookRambler]

What do people use to fair out gouge and plane marks from carved top plates? I'm working with a piece of western red cedar and another of Sitka spruce. The gouge/plane marks aren't huge, but naturally they're everywhere. Unless my scraper is wickedly sharp--which doesn't last that long--it tends to tear the wood. Do you folks generally just use sandpaper, or is there another tool/method that works well?

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Bill Snyder]

Something is wrong if your scraper is gouging the wood. You need to read up on sharpening and turning a bur on a scraper.

[Marty Jacobson]

But yeah... lots of sandpaper... no matter how good you are with a scraper, there's still sanding you have to do. The scraper, on a carved top, just eliminates the need for 80 & 150 grit and you get to start sanding at 220 or 320.

[Rob Roy]

I have found that a 1/2" thick soft foam pad on a quality 5" random orbital sander is very handy when you get to that stage. The soft foam conforms to the dome contour while evening out irregularities. You have to start in the center and work your way out to the recurve, sneaking up on the binding ledge. Mirka makes an amazing line of disks called "Abranet" that are a flexible screen product. They're a bit pricey and require their own interface pad but leave a remarkable finish. I use this system up to 400 grit on figured maple backs which leaves an absolutely glassy surface, ready for dye or finish.

[Champlin]

I've always found that I get a much cleaner surface and nice shaving off the scraper on hard woods rather than on spruce or cedar, and it can be especially tricky getting a clean surface in the recurve and other areas with complex contour. I still use my scraper for the tops too, but like Marty, I follow up with plenty of sanding still.

[mandolinplucker]

Don't know if they still have it but sears had a sander that worked sort of like a triple head electric razor. It has three small pivoting sanding disks that follow the curve of the object being sanded. It is not a strong tool that will hog off lots of wood but for what it is designed for, like sanding a arch top instrument, it works really well. Don't know if the donut shaped sanding disks are still being sold but I just cut my own from larger sanding disks.

[Wes Brandt]

But yeah... lots of sandpaper... no matter how good you are with a scraper, there's still sanding you have to do. The scraper, on a carved top, just eliminates the need for 80 & 150 grit and you get to start sanding at 220 or 320.

Totally disagree… you can use a scraper up to 400 grit … I do it all the time, just like they did before there was sandpaper.

It took years for me to learn how to sharpen them, there's no one way but I have a fairly flat radiused burnisher, shaped like a birds tongue file and really hard steel scrapers from LeeVally...and when you are actually doing the scraping it really helps to angle it so you are somewhat cutting in a shearing motion, especially in difficult areas … and of course you still need to watch the runout, though you can carefully go "in reverse" if you have to...

[HoGo]

I agree with Wes.
Working with scraper requires experience and skill. My most used scrapers are made of old fretsaw approximately 0.5mm thick blade the recrangular one is 4x2" and it is flexible enough to smooth out marks on outside or inside arch. You can smooth outside well into the recurve with such scraper if it is sharp and you pull it downhill right into the bottom of the recurve, this evens out the depth of recurve as well. Big difference is in sharpening. My scrapers are not particularly hard steel and I sharpen to square edge (cabinetmakers style) and the edge holds fine and needs just few strokes with burnisher when it starts getting dull, I can repeat that few times before I resharpen on 400 grit paper. Sharpening to 45 degrees will make sharper edge but it will go blund much faster and you have just one edge per scraper side.

[Marty Jacobson]

Totally disagree… you can use a scraper up to 400 grit … I do it all the time, just like they did before there was sandpaper.

You're just being argumentative. :-P

[Brian Evans]

I find that you have to pay attention to the direction of the grain with a scraper, just like with a plane. Scraping across the grain often works, as does scraping with the scraper at a good angle across the work. At the end of the day, I use a random orbital sander and 80 grit to do the final shaping of the plates. Then hand sanding.

[Wes Brandt]

You're just being argumentative. :-P

Oh yah? I know you are but what am I? ~


I'm going to get into doing some videos at some point…and I'll show you…stay tuned.

Actually I was expecting someone to come back and say they made their own or used shark skin.

I've seen instructions for making your own with sifted crushed glass, thick hide glue and stiff paper… strangely, hide glue will stick voraciously to glass.

Shark skin was mentioned in some really old references and I have a piece of it I keep just to show off.

[Marty Jacobson]

Oh yeah, I bet glass bonded to linen with hide glue would make great sandpaper. Glass scrapers are cool, too. I have some thick microscope slides that really work nicely for detail work, and can be scribed and snapped to any shape needed.