[Ayden]

Ed, I used the scrapers last night and they worked perfectly on my poplar.

The was some fuzzing on the rounded edges but I figured out how to smooth them out by changing the angle of the scraper.

I've only done the edges of my club so far and will start in on my detail. I really need to make the time to take a snap shot to show everyone my first basic carving piece but I get so caught up in working my wood it's useless to get me to do anything and sleep is a burden not to mention my cold.

I'm glad I bought the scrapers as I know I would ruin some of the flat features of my piece trying to smooth out my carving knife marks on my club. I think I may not need to sand except for the round end features where the scraper fuzz is most pronounced.

The poplar has a real nice straight grain going throughtout, I'm really excited.

Thanks for all the help everyone,

Ayden

[Thomp]

Ayden,

My grandfather use to use a broken coke bottle to glass shave all his hickory tool handles he made. they came out slick as glass, but he worked on them for a long time.
one thing i learned from this method,
if your scraper is dull, it dose weird stuff to the wood.
and there is 2 points in the radus of a dowell where the scraper dont work well, its where the grain switches direction as you round the dowell.
follow the grain like using a plane spoke shave or knife, then after you think you got it smooth dampen it to raise the grain, then smooth it off with a final sanding with xtra fine paper or emery..

being a utilitairian object i suspect you might want to finish it with a hand rubbed blo or danish oil finish,

[wdrite]

Scrapers save a lot of sandpaper. I make mine fron old handsaws in all shapes and sizes. Usually I sand lightly after scraping.

[lorax]

I seem to remember a tool called a scrapecarver (?) in some of my numerous catalogs I recieve. It was shown with a walrus carving. It had a special handle to keep it at the correct angle without too much fatigue on your hands. I was seriously considering it, but since had forgot about them until this thread. Anyone use those? or had any success with them? (or horrible failures )