Traditional Wooden Rake

First rake -a garden rake 

I decided to have a go at making a traditional split handled garden rake using hand tools (see Ray Tabor, The Encyclopaedia of Green Woodworking, p127, for the different patterns). I recall my father making one for gardening with wooden tines that I used in my youth to rake but also using the back to beat out clumps of clay in the garden to get a fine tilth. The split handle was apparently the style that was most popular in the midlands and southern part of England. Although ash and willow were traditionally used to make rakes because of their strength and lightness, other woods such as birch, beech, alder and hazel have also been used depending on their availability. I have lots of hazel available locally and as it is also a strong hardwood, I decided to give this a go. My first job was to find wood for the shaft or stail, the tines and the head. I had some green hazel poles for the handle and seasoned hazel billets for the tines and head (this had been left after felling in an unheated workshop over the winter).

This is the finished garden rake made from seasoned hazel from Dartmoor.

Making the Stail

I used the adjustable rounding plane or stail engine to shape the shaft (the construction of the stail engine is described in another post on this blog:  Construction of a Stail Engine. This worked well with two main passes, the first removing most of the bark and the second to get the shaft to the size that I wanted. It made a slight taper as I wanted a thicker end to attach to the rake head.

Using the stail engine to plane the shaft or stail

Stail after planing. Length: 173 cm or 5 ft 8 inches, diameter tapered 3.01-3.54 cm (1 3/16 inches to 1 3/8 inches). It has a slight curvature that I could steam bend and clamp, but it is not really necessary. 

The split in the stail for mounting to the head was 17 inches and sawn with a rip saw down the centre. The split was stopped using some thin stainless-steel strip (about 1 inch wide and 4 1/2 inches long) and fixed with two 1-inch galvanised nails.  This left two halves of the stail that needed to be shaped to fit into the head so that they were about 4 inches apart and joined between tines. There are two options, a) make a tight-fitting rectangular mortice and tenon or b) shaping the ends to cylinders and drilling appropriate holes in the head. I decided to go with the later making the fits 5/8-inch diameter using a small spokeshave and scraper card (Information about scraper cards)

Split sawn and metal clamp fixed.

 

Shaping the cylindrical tenons. The pencil cross was the centre of the semi-circle marked after sawing. The spokshave and card scraper are also shown

Making the Tines 

I cleaved some 9-inch seasoned hazel billets and rounded these with a 1 inch and then a 3/4-inch rounding plane. Traditional these would also have been carved individually or passed through a tine cutter (basically a sharpened tube). This is when ash would have probably been easier as slow grown hazel tends to have a twisted grain that makes getting straight tines more challenging but possible!  The tines were longer than I needed but will be cut later to a reasonable length once inserted into the head. Once mounted, the bottoms of the tines were shaved to about 1/4-inch width and tapered.

Making the hazel tines with a 3/4-inch diameter rounding plane.

Making the Head.

 

This was also made of hazel, probable not the easiest wood to work with but nice to have a challenge!

Large hazel billet (about 4 x 4 inches and 2 foot long). This has a twist so needs quite a bit of work to get into shape. 

This was shaped by sawing two faces at right angles and then planing the other faces with a roughing plane, large spokeshave and smoothing plane. The final shape (18 inches long and approximately 2 by 2 inches) was slightly curved in one plane which was a shape I wanted but hadn't planned, but sometimes the wood points you in the right direction.

The finished head showing the curve in one plane. Because of the complex grain in the hazel, the surface was scraped after planing. The pencil crosses show the centres of the 13 tines

The centres for the tines were marked and the holes drilled with a 11/16 th  brace bit (1/16 th less in diameter than the tine size). These were carefully drilled perpendicular to the base (drilling from both sides) and then adjusted to obtain a tight fit. I decided to drill right through for strength and then use hardwood wedges in the top to prevent movement.

 

Before drilling the holes for the stail, I decided it would be better to fit five tines around the centre to prevent any tear-out in the tine holes. This was straight forward by checking the fitting of the tines and knocking them into place after sawing a slit for the wedges, sawing them to the correct length and finally hammering in some hardwood wedges and trimming. They were not glued. The ends of the tines were also shaped.

The stail was connected to the head by drilling two 5/8 th inch diameter holes right through the head. It is important to get two correct angles: a) the angle of the stail "prongs" going into the head. I calculated this as 7 degrees from the perpendicular, b) the angle to give the head a slight tilt forward so that the tines point backwards towards the user. Because the stail was already curved to the ground at the rake end, this angle (normally adjusted to about 75 degrees) was left at 80 degrees so 10 degrees off perpendicular. I think 75 degrees would be too steep an angle for a garden rake.

The stail and head joined with the tines in the centre in place. 

Finished rake after treating three times with linseed oil.

The tines were shaped ready for use.

As this was my first try at a rake, I'll make a few comments on the method and how it could be improved:

1. The teeth could be made slimmer so there is more leeway in fitting the stail to the head. However, they are going to get the brunt of the action in the garden and need to be a good size and held firmly. Some designs actually use nails as tines.

2.  My stail was slightly curved to start with and it would have been better to steam it and try and straighten it, However, as the wood was green, I clamped it straight whilst it dried and that worked well.

3. A rectangle mortice/tenon might be easier to do than a cylindrical one because of the complex angles involved. I found this stage the most difficult. 

Hopefully the rake will last a long time. I'll update after some use!

 Some notes on historical designs.

A good source of information on hay rakes is a chapter in the book by Drew Langsner "Country Woodcraft" Rodale Press, 1978. This chapter covers several designs including a rake design from Finland that is very different from the English design that I have been describing. He states that the best tines are from cleaved straight-grained hardwoods such as oak, ash, beech. hickory, locust or mulberry (author lives in the USA) and the Finns traditionally use lilac.

 

A hay rake displayed in Gimmelwald, Bernese Alps. This is a different design from those I have seen in UK. It has three bow stays to hold the head in place (some are broken) and it looks like the stail (shaft) has been attached to the head with a metal plate, probably as a repair measure. It also has about 24 teeth which is a lot for a hay rake (normally around 15 on a 28-inch head, Tabor, 2000).

Second rake - a hay rake.

Hay rakes are generally wider, have thinner tines and also a longer handle, I decided to have a go but this time using alder poles for the stail but sticking with hazel for the rest. Alder was used in the past I think and certainly for scythe handles.

I started by getting three poles from a sapling in a nearby coppice. I expected the upper portion would be too thin for a stail but would make a useful stake for the garden.

Coppice of alder and hazel.

One sapling but three 6 ft poles ready for debarking and shaping with the stail engine.

I used the draw knife to remove the bark and smooth knots. On the two wider poles it was possible to shape the poles to reduce any curvature. The use of the stail engine has been given in another BLOG post so I will not repeat that here: Construction of a Stail Engine. Basically, the more I use the stail engine, the more I get to know how to set it up and get good results; it is definitely a bit of an art to operate but it is good fun once mastered.

The poles drying after rounding and one of the poles was split ready for mounting on the head. The other one will be stored for now.

I chose the middle pole to split about 21'' inches from the bottom and put a thin stainless-steel strip around to prevent further splitting. The strip was held in place with two galvanised nails. The other pole will be dried and kept as a backup. Later, when bending the bow stay, I placed the stail inside the steam box for 1 hour and after steaming bent the rake end of the shaft to give it a curvature of about 20 degrees. This will allow the stail to be inserted into the head at right angles.

The 15 tines were made from seasoned hazel by chopping to size (about 7 '' long) and then using the rounding planes to get to 1/2'' diameter as described above.

The 1/2'' rotary plane in use cutting a tine for the rake head.  Larger diameter planes were used to reduce the size to get the 1/2'' plane to fit.

The rake head was made from a trunk of hazel that had fallen in a storm and was partially dry. 

The mixed woodland containing hazel, ash, pine and field maple where the hazel pole was obtained from a fallen trunk.

The 30'' hazel tree trunk used to make the rake head

The head was made by using the froe to cleave four sides to start shaping. Then a flat face was chosen and prepared by a combination of cutting with a draw knife, roughing plane and wooden fore plane. The surface was made flat and winding sticks used to ensure a minimum of twist. Once a good face had been prepared, this was used to mark a cutting line on the opposite face to give a width of 1 3/4'' and then sawn with a rip saw using the guidelines to keep the cut true.

Marking the rip-cut line with a kerfing plane.

The shape of the head was then finished by sawing and shaping with the fore plane and jointing plane. The head had a slight curvature, shaped with a large spokeshave, from about 4 cm at the ends to 5 cm width in the middle. The tine positions were then marked along a centre line and 2 inches apart giving a total of 15 tines. The holes for the tines were then drilled using a tradition auger 1/2 '' bit from the top of the head through and then finished by drilling from the bottom of the head.

It is important to get the right levels when drilling at right-angles to the head. I did this using a straight guide and small set square.

The rake head after shaping and drilling the holes for the 1/2'' tines.

Making the Bow Stay.

This rake was wider than the garden rake and so for added strength a bow stay was used to reduce the leverage on the central fork. Some hay rakes have the stail mounted directly into the head without splitting and use a bow stay to stabilise it. I think a more robust method is to retain the fork and split stail and add a bow stay (or even two). 

To prepare a bow stays I found ash and hazel saplings about 2 m in length and about 3/4 '' in diameter and rounded them down to 1/2'' diameter with the rounding plane and then left these to dry. I will choose one of them after I have tried bending. They were not supple enough to bend without breaking and would need to be steam bent into shape on a former. 

The ash and hazel bows ready for steam bending.

Steam box with saplings inside. The box is about 2 m long, made of pine and coated on the inside with polyester to help protect the wood from water. 

The steaming took 45 minutes with the steam fed in the middle on the top and two drain holes near the ends at the bottom.  The steam was generated using a standard wallpaper stripper.

 After steaming the saplings were bent on a former as shown.

The rods on a former after steaming and left to cool to get the correct shape.

The hazel rod worked best, mainly because it had fewer knots. The rod was obtained from a six-foot length of hazel (chosen with minimum knots!) about 1 inch in diameter and turned down to 1/2 '' for the stay before bending.  It was not dried but still green when it was bent. I did try shortening the steaming time to 20 minutes, but the wood was still too brittle to make a tight bend. I found that the green wood was not supple enough to make a tight bend and some steaming was needed. 

 Construction.

All that then remained was to shape the end of the stail to fit into the head, I did this with a spokeshave, knife, scraper and sandpaper to obtain two prongs of about 2 1/2'' long and 5/8 '' in diameter. The prongs were clamped in position on the head to mark the correct placement and angle before drilling the 5/8 '' diameter holes in the head.  The holes for the bow stay were then drilled (1/2'' diameter), two through the head at right angles to the head but inclined at the measured angle, and one through the stail above the metal ring. A temporary fix was made to measure the length of the bow stay and finally the cuts for the hardwood wedges were cut in the prongs and the ends of the bow stay.

The rake was put together and tightened using hardwood wedges (no glue was used) and joints finished by chiselling and sanding. The bow stay was fixed in the middle to the stail using a galvanised nail.  The rake was then given two coats of linseed oil.

Finished topside of the rake.

Underside of the rake showing the tines.

Adjustable Rounder Plane or Witchet

 As far as I can see, these planes are no longer made and are rarely available second-hand, so making one might be a challenge. They are called adjustable rounding planes but they have different names depending on their use. Ladder makers call them "rung engines", rake makers call them  "stail engines" the term "stail" being the name of a rake handle. Boat builders call them "spar shavers" but in the USA they are also called "Witchets" but no one seems to know why they got this name. Anyone know ? Basically they allow poles to be rounded and made smooth e.g. rake handles or stails, or they can be used to produce tapers as the diameter cut can be varied.

This is a Varvill (York, England) large adjustable wooden rounder plane. Plane was probably made  between 1862 and 1904 but there is little information on the manufacture and when these type of wooden planes were made.

This shows the components of the above plane. Notice the brass liner and it's shape and the good quality wooden screw threads.

This is the plane partially open. It measures 9 1/2 inches long and 3 3/4 inches wide (i.e. the total width were the mouth sits) and 3 1/2 inches thick.  These measurements are approximate as I've not seen the plane.

This is a copy from "Ancient Carpenters' Tools" by Henry Mercer, 1929.

The plane illustrated by Mercer (shown above) is different from the Varvill plane in several respects:

1. It is larger, measuring about 12 inches long, 4.8 inches wide.  This allows more torque to be applied on using the plane.

2. The plane has two blades.

3. The shape of the mouth is less curved and more like a "v" shape.

4. There appears to be four dowels at each corner to guide the plane when the screws are applied. This is an option that I may need to consider after using the plane.

5. There is no brass insert in the mouth. I understand the insert aids turning and reduces the friction and also stops wear of the wooden mouth. 

This is shown in LeeValley tools and was made by T. Turner, Sheffield probably between  1840 and 1912.

The above "Turner" plane  is different again:

1. It has metal plates protecting the handles.

2. The blade is fixed with two bolts into the body of the plane.

3. The blade is situated at the edge of the plane rather than in the middle.

4. It is easy to measure the angle of the blade to the body from this photo(45 degrees).

I made mine from two blocks of beech each measuring 11 3/4 inches in length, 4 1/4 inches in width and 2 1/2 inches deep (after planing). These were planed true and the centre lines marked for the position of the blade. A "v" shaped hollow was cut on each base. This was made 3/4 inch deep and 2 inches wide. This was cut using a tenon saw, chiselled smooth and finally shaped with a round wood file,

The most difficult part of the construction was making the housing for the blade and wedge (there was no chip breaker). The blade was housed off-centre (3/4 inch from the one edge of the plane) as this would  help keep the dowel straight during the rotation through the plane. I had the iron and wedge from an old wooden smoothing plane that had several cracks in the base. This meant I had the old plane to guide me in making the new housing although the depth available in the new plane was less because of the "v" cut. Looking at the photos of old planes I decided that 45 degrees was normal so marked out the dimensions on the sides of one of the blocks. The mouth itself was marked 2 inches across and 1/2 inch wide centred on the centre line already marked on the block. The shoulders to trap the wedge were 3/8 inch thick, The housing was made with a chisel making sure the 45 degree angle was maintained through the body and meeting the line of the mouth.

The tightening screw holes were drilled in the centre of the width and 1 inch from each end. Unfortunately I made a mistake and drilled the wrong sized hole for one of the screw threads which meant that the handle of the screw was near the blade. My remedy was to shorten the screw iron and make sure the hand grip of the tightener was beyond the iron.

To try the plane I used some spare wooden screws I'd already made. but found that I needed to shape the blade so it that about  1 1/2 inches of the blade was angled (about 1 mm maximum)  leaving the final 1/2 inch at right angles to the side of the blade. Also the entrance to the plane was slightly widened to allow some lead-in space for the dowel. This worked OK but I found that the chips blocked the mouth easily. The blade housing was then modified by making it wider at the base and shaping the inside edges to ease the flow of the chip from the mouth. At the same time it was important to keep the strength of the wedge channel that keeps the blade in place..

I then made the screw threads on the pole lathe from some 2 inch diameter beech. 

Progress so far. The adjuster arms are temporary.

Adjusting screw

So finally the plane was oiled with linseed and was ready for use. I will report later on its use and how it works. I have tried it on some beech poles and found the best way to make it ready for use is to adjust the screws to get a comfortable fit in the mouth and then tap the blade into place to make contact with the side of the dowel at the widest part of the blade and start screwing. This will take a few passes to get a continues shaving from all around the dowel. Experience will tell but I can see that the initial adjustment is going to be crucial in its use.

 This cuts from 1 1/4 inches upwards but not sure of the limit.

Some modifications:

a) To reduce tear and wear on the base and also aid reduce friction, I fitted some brass plate around the outside of the mouth. For this I used 1.5 mm brass and screwed this in place as shown.

Brass plate fitted as described.

b) I also sharpened the blade so that it was curved at both ends to aid entry and exit from the blade when cutting. The centre of the blade was flat and so determined the diameter of the dowel that was cut.

When the screws were adjusted to give the smallest  diameter this gave a dowel diameter of 1 1/4 inches which is about the minimum size for a rake handle. It can make much greater diameters but the blade needs to be inserted deeper.

I have used it a little but not yet to make a stail. The crucial adjustment is the position of the blade as well as the shape of the blade. I have used it to reduce the diameter of a short pole by starting with the widest diameter to get a consistent cut and then gradually reducing the diameter and getting a continuous cut.  I haven't seen any account of the use of stail engines so I will update this blog when I have tried to make a stail.

Update on using the stail engine.

I have now used the plane to make a stail (handle) for a wooden rake using a length of hazel found locally in a stream. The plane worked well starting at the thicker end and working along the hazel gradually reducing the diameter as I progressed.  This produced a stail 3.54 cm (1 3/8 inches) at one end and tapering to 3.01 cm ( 1 3/16 inches) at the other and of total length of 173 cm (5 ft 8 inches). It took several passes to get the desired result with the first pass removing most of the bark. 

First pass from the thicker end of the stail

Second pass after removing most of the bark and cambian.

The finished stail. There is a slight bend so it was clamped whilst drying to straighten a little,

The stail  was set with the blade tilted slightly. The only problem was that the shavings tended to get caught in the throat of the plane but this was easy to check and keep clear as the plane was rotated. It didn't interfere in the operation of the plane as the shavings cleared away from the blade and I can't see an easy modification as the throat has to hold the blade in place.  Generally I am pleased with its operation.

The stail was bent slightly so it was clamped whilst drying.

Comments on the further use of the plane.

I have now used the plane to make several hazel and alder stails for wooden rakes. The video shows it in use making an alder stail. I generally start by removing the bark on the pole with a draw knife and on larger diameter poles, shaping it to try and reduce any unwanted curvature and smoothing any knots from side branches. I start the stail engine from the larger diameter end and do a first pass until the plane rotates without cutting. The key to using the plane is the adjustment of the blade so that it cuts into the wood at the leading edge but "runs out of cut" at the other end. Both ends of the blade are slightly curved to help prevent tear-out on the leading and trailing cuts. Also for larger diameters, the blade needs to go further down into the mouth to contact the wood and so cut. If the cut is too deep, I found that the thicker and wider shavings lead to congestion in the mouth and frequent stops to clean out the mouth with a wooden stick. Also with a deep cut there is more chance of tear-out making the pole less smooth. I found the best position of the blade produced a wafer cut, probably about 3/4 the width if the mouth. It was easy to remove 3 mm on the pole diameter on each cut and also keep the mouth from clogging with shavings. It is also important to keep the plane a tight fit to the pole by adjusting the arms. If the plane "wobbles", the pole will be marked erratically by the blade. All in all, the rotary plane offers many advantages, e.g gradually changing the pole diameter or tapering. However, it does take quite a lot of practice to get it working well and I guess each plane will be different. I am pleased I made a large sized plane with good grip on the adjusters for rotating the plane. 

Use and sharpening of card & cabinet scrapers.

 I have a Stanley number 80 cabinet scraper that I picked up second-hand that I have been using for some time to smooth surfaces that the plane finds difficult where there is "tear-out" of the fibres. An example is the hazel mirror frame that I recently finished.  More recently with some time on my hands I looked at the sharpening methods on the internet and also the use of card scrapers in general. One thing to recall is that the term "scraper" is a misnomer as these scrapers are designed to cut the wood fibres and not produce a lot of sawdust as sand paper does. 

Card scrapers have been brought to my attention whilst in Spain and visiting one of the Chinese supershops that sell about everything including tools. I found these scrapers that looked ripe for modification for use as wood card scrapers and making burr edges using traditional methods.

Possible card scrapers in a pack for 1.50 Euro. These are made for KMT tools and distributed in Spain. There are four in the pack of different widths, 10.5, 9, 7 and 4 cm with a plastic handles at the top as shown. They are 0.2 mm thick.

Cabinet scrapers and card scrapers are different and need a different method of sharpening and preparation. The cabinet scraper is mounted in a tool or jig that sets the blade at an angle to the wood scraped and the blade is thicker and bevelled to 45 degrees with a burr on the end. In comparison a card scraper is not mounted but held in the hand to "scrape" the wood. The working end of the scraper is sharpened to 90 degrees and a burr drawn from the surface that does the fibre cutting.

Cabinet Scraper

Basically the scraper consists of a rectangular steel plate that has two long sides ground to an angle of 45 degrees and then honed to something like 1200 grit, much like sharpening a chisel (although these a normally about 30 degrees).  I normally do this free-hand with a diamond stone (as the main filing has already been done). However I noted that Paul Sellers on one of his videos mounts the blade in a wooden block (he uses a block 3/4 inch thick and 2 3/4 inch by 9 inches) at an angle of 45 degrees with another small block underneath screwed to rotate and keep the blade from moving whilst filing and honing. The blade is put in the block with about 1 mm protruding up, fixed in position and then the block clamped into a vice. If needed the edge can then be filed diagonally across the blade ("through filed") and when there is a good bevel, the file direction is changed and the file is drawn horizontally  across the edge (i.e. file at right angles to the edge). The next stage is to use finer grits up to 1200 grit, and then remove the blade and remove the burr on the flat faces so that a nice clean sharp cutting edge is obtained on both long edges.

The next stage is seen to be crucial to creating a working edge to the blade. In principle this involves "bending" the sharp edge of the blade to form a burr that acts as the cutter when in use. To do this a tool called a "burnisher" is needed. This is any hard steel surface such as an older chisel but you can purchase burnishers for this purpose. Burnishing is basically pushing the hardened steel along the cutting edge of the blade, starting at 45 degrees to consolidate it. The blade can be mounted in a vice, the burnisher wetted with oil (some descriptions of this method talk about "kissing" the burnisher, so I guess wetting the burnisher also works!) and then pushing the burnisher along the blade starting at 45 degrees but gradually turning the edge to about 70 up to near 90 degrees. The pressure on the burnisher should not be accessive as this can be counter productive. In fact it should be no more than you'd use to push a traffic light crossing (if that helps; practice makes perfect?). You should be able to feel the turned edge or see it when magnified. 

When the blade next needs preparing, it may be possible to just repeat the burnishing stage. The next step is to mount the blade by putting a piece of A4 paper under the front of the cabinet scraper (the curved edge is the front) on a flat surface and then dropping the blade into place with the bevel pointing to the rear of the scraper. On the Number 80, the rounded edge is the front of the scraper so that it is pushed in the opposite direction to a plane as the bevelled surface does not cut but the burr formed at the tip does the work.  Then squeeze the blade in the scraper and tighten a little whilst squeezing. The wing-nut in the centre of the blade can then be tightened a little before trying the scraper. After that is is a matter of adjusting the wing-nut to get the required action. You should get shavings of wood or curls and not a lot of sawdust. I have found is useful to finish a surface after planing particularly where there are changes in the grain, knots or other features in the wood that make planing difficult  even with the sharpest blade and finest adjustment. Sometimes it also helps so go across the grain but again it comes down to reading the grain in the particular wood and how the surface is reacting to the scraper. Also I have found it useful in green wood working when working with wood with lots of growth "character",  e.g wood ripped from a smaller trunk where there has been spiral or twisted growth or lots of side branches. Some work can be done when still green but I have had more success after the wood has dried indoors for a couple of months or more, planed and is ready for finishing.

Card Scraper.

The preparation of the cutting edge is in many ways similar to the procedure described above for the cabinet scraper. The main difference is that the edges of the scraper are firstly flat, i.e. there is no cutting edge just a perfect box section with edges at 90 degrees. A wooden holder (this time 2 inches thick, 3 inches deep and 6 inches long) can also aid in the procedure but this time the blade is held perfectly vertical just above the wooden surface. The blade is inserted along the centre line, i.e 1 inch from the edges). The square edge is filed etc to produce a smooth surface with 1200 grit finish, the card removed and burrs on the flat surface removed so that a perfectly square edge is produced to a smoothness of 1200 grit or better. At this stage it is a good idea to remove the sharp corners of the card to prevent scratches on the wood when in use. 

The next job is to produce the working burr on both long edges of the card. The method here is a little different according to who you follow. Paul Sellers does it by oiling the burnisher, mounting the card in the block and pulling the burnisher over the surface at the same angle it was filed, i.e 90 degrees to the card. Then the burr is removed again on a flat diamond stone (or similar). Then the card is again mounted in the wooden former so edge protrudes by 1/8 inch. Starting with the burnisher level, itis passed long the face and then gradually the burnisher is lowered until is finally hits the wooden edge of the block. Again light pressure is needed with something like 8 to 10 passes at each stage (but I expect experience will aid in this). This geometry (1 inch width and 1/8 inch protrusion gives an angle of 7 degrees but anywhere between 5 and 10 degrees is said to be good.

The scraper is used almost vertically with fingers around the side and thumbs pressing the card in the centre to produce a curved edge. If the holding angle to the wood is too perpendicular, the scraper will slide over the surface without cutting. If the angle is too low, the cut will be too aggressive so it is a matter of feeling the action and making sure that you get "curls" of wood rather than a lot of sawdust.

Card scraper holder made of beech. The block is 2 inches wide with the card clamped in the centre. To produce the burr, the burnisher (in photo on the right) is drawn across the top of the card with it protruding 1/8 inch with the burnisher touching the edge of the block.

This shows the peelings from using the card scrapers. These are curls of wood and not saw dust.

The scrapers worked well in shaping the lampstands (see other post) after they had dried. A spokeshave was used to shape the stands but left some marks particularly near knots that needed smoothing to get a good finish. Using a card reduced the amount of sanding needed. It was also easy to see how the grain changed around knots etc and reverse the direction that the card was moved (as both edges of the card had a working burr).

Here are some examples of the use of a scraper when used to prepare the final surface of a hazel lampstand. The "peeling" edge of the scraper seemed to last a long time on hazel and ash.

Hazel lampstand after spokeshave and before using scraper.

Surface of hazel after using card scraper.