I haven’t gotten around to making a nice board with slots for each hone, and for some reason this setup wasn’t obvious to me so I thought I’d share. Front is against a bench dog, back is pressed against the rubber foot of the edge of the bench. It is easy to swap in the different hones, and doesn’t scoot around.
(Still figuring out how to put a burr on that card scraper though.)
You should grab a burnisher for that card scraper…
Yeah, I tried a bunch of things I had around, but seems like I need a real burnisher. I’m wondering if I ended up with a particularly hard scraper.
What I have found about card scrapers:
Any old burr needs to be removed, so hone the edge flat against the stone. Do both sides before doing the edge.
The edge must be square. Think of it like a board, it’s got thickness, and that edge face must be flat and square. Any old burr must be removed. If that edge is domed at all, it won’t burnish right. So I made a little fixture that’s just two pieces of oak held together with screws.
That way I can hold it perpendicular to a hone to properly flatten it. Or file it if need be.
The burnisher needs to be HARD. Like, file hard. I got a burnishing rod which is quench hardened steel, it works okay. I also bought an Accu-Burr which is carbide, it works pretty well and is a little bit more idiot proof. Even if you don’t go with an Accu-Burr, if you’re going shopping for a scraper burnisher I’d recommend a carbide one rather than a steel one. Consider that recommendation the opinion of Some Guy On The Internet.
Could be a couple different things. A lot of times to get a good even bur going you’re going to have to polish the edge and then the face of your card by wet sanding with a fine grit. If you skip this, you might be skipping across the high spots with your burnisher.
Another problem could be that your current burnishing tool might not have enough texture. You can always grab a honing steel from the kitchen and give that a try.
On a separate note… How do you like the diamond plates for honing? I feel like the diamond plates I’ve used in the past take off too much material for frequent use.
Interesting about texture, I wasn’t sure if I wanted smooth or textured, I thought it was just about pressure not drawing the material out. I have been careful to get a nice clean/square edge before starting though.
The other thing I’ve been uncertain about is how big the burr should be — just big enough to feel, enough to really hold into a thumbnail? Or does it work either way?
I like the diamond hones. I got Atoma diamond plates from the Burrfection store. I had been using water stones before, and these are much less messy and durable. They do go a bit faster but I feel like I can just take care not to take off too much material. And when I do hit a nail with my brand new plane (sob), at least I work down to fresh iron somewhat quickly.
I have an old burnishing tool I got from an estate sale that works really well. It has an almost sharkskin texture to it, almost like it’s been sandblasted by really fine grit.
As far as how big the bur should be, I prefer for it to just be able to catch on your nail, but not necessarily hold onto it.
I might have to give the diamond plates another shot, I’m guessing there’s a big difference in quality between brands. I have some ceramic stones, but I hate getting my tools wet in any given situation.
I’ve only done this once, and like an idiot I thought it was a knot and backed it up and ran at it again like 2 more times…