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  The steel cabinet scraper has some unique properties that set it apart from other tools. There's this old old saying (within the oral tradition of furniture making), "A cabinet maker is a man who can sharpen and use a steel scraper". What this actually means is : if you can't use a steel scraper the man who can will leave you in the dust. As you would expect, such a versatile tool was a trade secret, at least up to the 1940's in Britain.  
 
Close up of wood working plane blade bieng worked on a Japenese water stone
 


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      A steel scraper is a pice of steel 0.85mm thick by 2 1/2 " x 6". My favoured brand is from a Sweedish company formerly called Sandvic, now known as Bahco (more info). The illustrations below help clarify the videos. .        
   
 
The illustration above shows the 3 views of a steel scraper on the right and a close up of the side view with a jointing file on top. The idea is to file the top edge of the scraper at right angles to the face, leaving a sharp square edge.
 
   
  This illustration shows 3 stages in working the top edge with the jointing file. The irregularity on the scraper is exaggerated to illustrate an idea. The top view is what you are looking at as you file and you can see the areas the file cuts are brighter than the hollow areas and as filing continues the bright areas connect. At the moment all the bright areas connect the edge of the scraper is dead flat. So when you hear me talk about "seeing" and "feeling" in the video clip this is the seeing part. The feeling part is obvious, as the work approach's flatness the file is taking more and more on each cut, requiring more effort.
 
The reasoning behind stroping the scraper only once
 
The exagerated illustrations on the left show the sharp right angled edge of the scraper close up. Far left (1) is a freshly prepared scraper with one edge stropped only once, the turnover is slight, only that sharp right angle, the business end, has been turned over. Pic #2 has been stropped repeatedly, a lot of turn over , and the question is why? When the business end, that sharp right angle, is no better from the extra strokes and to return it to optimum condition (flaten it back and stroke it with the steel strop again) will require more work than the edge stroked only once. It's really a case of the most efficient method and with only one stroke with the strop the tool can be maintained in optimum condition with the least work.
   
 
 
               
     Cleaning up large surfaces is just the begining of using a steel scraper and, thankfully, is also the most demanding way to use the scraper. The way you hold the tool is the secrect, when you have the handling technique down and you can clean a flat surface really well, effortlesly pulling a good shaving, the rest is easy.
    Here's more on how to hold the scraper and a review of the ways to tackle flat surfaces, moving on to clips of cleaning up variuos chair components starting with flat shapes then cuved and cylindrical shapes, and I use the scraper towards and away from myself.!!! The difference is that the effort required cleaning up a flat surface is huge compared to that for working curved/cylindrical forms (like the chair top rail), the effort required is tiny by comparison so the scraper works well in either direction. Consider this clip as an introduction to the incredible versatility of the steel cabinet scraper.