Hi:
These small scrapers have other names, but I know them by the name of G0 Devils, because you can go like the devil with them.
You can buy some really nice ones (rosewood and brass) from Veritas Tools, but I obviously made my own and that is what I am going to talk about today. I made these before anyone was making them commercially, did a little research, they are no harder than the spokeshaves to make. And you don’t need to buy any purpose made blades.
first the flat one…
You’ll need a piece of wood, something nice and hard, about 11 x 1 x 5/8 inches. I used Osage Orange. the Handle shape is not critical. You could leave the whole thing rectangular if you wanted to. I just happen to like this shape.
Since it is a hooked scraper type of action on the cutting blade we can make the blades perpendicular to the bottoms. We’ll tackle the flat bottomed one first:
Here it is disassembled.I made a recess to fit the throat plate. And a further recess to very closely fit the blade… but just a Hair shallower than the thickness of the blade so that the throat plate will clamp it down well. I drill and tap holes for the machine screws in the body. Then squirt some CA glue in there and re-tap when the CA sets up.
The tricky part is the throat plate. at the mouth, it needs to be @ 1/32″ open. nice and close, if it’s too wide the shavings will fold over and jamb up. If it’s too tight same thing. just right and they flow up and out the throat. you can also see there that the throat is wider at the top. It doesn’t want more than a 10 degree slope. just a bit to prevent friction from again causing a jamb.
Keeping the same throat geometry on the rounders is a bit trickier.
If you look at the Photo you will see what i mean, you still need to keep the throat @ 1/32″ all the way around or else it will jam up. But because of the curve, the throat ends up looking a bit odd. and because the curved cut wrinkles the angle needs to be a bit steeper
Once the body and front plate are done you can cut a piece of sawblade to fit. (if you didn’t start by doing that) and blue or magic marker it , clamp it in place and scribe the curve onto it. I use a Dremel tool to cut out the curve, file and burnish the edge. and you are good to go!
be well. count your fingers!
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