Builders' Forum Archives

Scraper sharpness

Posted by Mark Camp on Jun 21, 2004

I just now read on the web that carbide blades cannot be made as sharp as steel.

As you know if you've tried a carbide scraper on epoxy drips, they work great, in spite of not being very sharp.

I mention this so that you don't do what I did when I got my Warner scraper home. The package and the catalog said "ten times sharper than steel". Yet the blade felt extremely dull. So I wasted time (at best) trying to hone it on a diamond file.

This error is especially likely if you have previously bought and used a plane (no Kurt, I mean the kind that doesn't fly), since one must hone new plane irons before first use.