# Used a card scraper instead of sandpaper to maintain a cutting board



## Bert2368 (Jan 29, 2019)

A card scraper (cabinet scraper) is an old fashioned wood working tool used for smoothing surfaces before finishing, made from a piece of springy sheet steel, usually somewhere around 50 RHC.

Scrapers can be had as rectangles for flat surfaces and in various curved profiles for contours- Or you can modify one with files, grinding & etc. to any custom profile you need.

It is a technique requiring developing a "feel" for what the tool and the wood are doing, plus you need to learn how to form and maintain that cutting edge. It is a little bit more demanding of time and attention than just handing an inexperienced person a powered sander, but has certain advantages-

It's QUIETER and any wood removed stays right about where you scraped it off, instead of blowing away and ending up in your hair, eyes, lungs and generally all over the room.

It's SLOWER than a belt sander, orbital sander, etc. using medium or coarse grit paper. You can ruin a piece with power sanders PDQ, I certainly have done so. Any mistakes you make with a scraper will happen slowly, giving you more time to correct your technique. This is one reason why people re-finishing nice wood pieces like to use scrapers.

Grit particles from sandpaper will embed itself into the surface of sanded wood, where it will dull any cutting tools used later on that piece of wood- Such as knives used on a cutting board (my particular reason for doing this project).

Sandpaper wears out and you need to buy more. A scraper will last for years, you just re form the "burr" (cutting edge) in a fashion similar to steeling a knife when it slows down. Also similar to knife sharpening, you will occasionally get past the point of merely re forming the "burr" and need to start over. You then stone the edge square and smooth and form a new cutting "burr" with a hard steel rod.






The infamous edge grain board (the larger maple board on bottom). It has been a few years since it was smoothed, there are a lot of knife marks, a few small chips have even come off where knife cuts intersected. Look on the left for the worst of this dammage.





Here is an example of what a scraper can do. Very thin wood curls may be scraped from the surface of the wood, almost like the shavings from a hand plane.





Part way through the process, the burr is getting worn out, the shavings are more like sawdust, time to re form the edge!





Finished scraping! The board is 24" X 30", I spent a couple of hours doing this job, including re-learning how to form the burr, experimenting with different angles to get the results I wanted. I could likely do it again in half that time, now that my hands remember what to do.

Now to finish:

I dampened the wood to "raise the grain", then gently steel wooled the surface to remove any "fuzzies", followed with a tack cloth to get any remaining sawdust or steel wool fragments off.





Applied several coats of mineral oil until the freshly exposed, raw wood stopped sucking it in (I recall this needing about 5 coats). Then buffed on a beeswax/oil mixture similar to "board butter".

And she is done, just in time for Sunday dinner.



I did this job in the kitchen. I did not need to wear a dust mask or vacuum clean the kitchen afterwards- and the person sitting in the dining room for most of the process didn't complain about the noise.


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## rickbern (Jan 29, 2019)

Bert, great post. Thanks, learned something new!


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## HRC_64 (Jan 29, 2019)

rickbern said:


> Bert, great post. Thanks, learned something new!



+1 really like this technique and want to try it


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## RonB (Jan 29, 2019)

Sorry folks, but I have to disagree with using steel wool on a cutting board. Particles of the wool can get caught in the wood and transferred to food items prepared on the cutting board. Here is just one article on the effects of ingesting steel wool:

https://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines...e-steel-wool/689846-3204352-tr1f3h/index.html


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## HRC_64 (Jan 29, 2019)

yeah, steel wool IMHO isn't needed at all...scraping and using finer (increasingly so) grits of sandpaper should do pretty well to keep the surface clear. also just using much lighter pressures ... took my boos block to 180...was much, much better than stock surfaces....


for not a huge extra work.


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## zitangy (Jan 29, 2019)

I did try this method for removing thin layers of polish on wood and fine saw dust layer each time and for fine tuning a japanese plane.

By chance i discovered that their 90degrees blade position kanna serves this purpose.. i think!

Be aware adjusting the plane good desired positon (even depth)takes some serious experience. I am struggling


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## Bert2368 (Jan 30, 2019)

RonB said:


> Sorry folks, but I have to disagree with using steel wool on a cutting board. Particles of the wool can get caught in the wood and transferred to food items prepared on the cutting board. Here is just one article on the effects of ingesting steel wool:
> 
> https://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines...e-steel-wool/689846-3204352-tr1f3h/index.html



I am gob smacked, food service standards and procedures in some parts of Africa are very different.

I read the (Ugandan?!) article. Begins with the author VISUALLY identifying steel wool in his meal while eating at a restaurant by glints of metal in the sauce?! HOW MUCH steel wool would that require to be left over inside cooking pots from their DISH WASHING methods. Which apparently don't include much in the way of rinsing? Also, don't people there notice the TASTE of all that rusty steel?

I DON'T WANT TO EAT AT THAT RESTAURANT.

If they're leaving that much physical debris on their equipment after washing, what kind of biologicals are also being left?

Quote is then given from a medical person who advises drinking MILK to "soften and push through" steel wool, rather than the (alleged, never been to Uganda) common practice of eating rough foods which will scour it from the throat?!

I am skeptical of this medical advice.

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I used some very fine steel wool for this. The board was then gone over with a tack cloth, it was dust free after. Then the surface was sealed with oil and finally with wax. I don't think an ammount of steel capable of doing physical dammage is coming off the board after this. 

I was curious as to the possibility of any fragments being left in the board myself, ran a strong rare earth magnet over the board to see if any steel fragments were still present. 

My reason for doing a magnet sweep was the possibility for any steel that might be left to oxidize in situ and stain the maple with black Iron oxide discoloration. I got nothing visible stuck to the magnet after using the tack cloth, I did indeed pick up a tiny bit of steel dust BEFORE using the tack cloth. 

Due to the possibility for such Iron oxide stains after using steel wool for stipping wood finishes, there are "synthetic steel wool" stripping pads sold by 3M for refinishing work. I have no idea what issues ingesting significant ammounts of fragments from THESE products might cause- Peritonitis, as is said to occur from ingesting chopped tiger whiskers?! 

I will certainly do further research on food prep area grade wood finishing materials.


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## Bert2368 (Jan 30, 2019)

I used the scraper specifically to avoid using abrasives, as some grit will always be left in the wood. Boardsmith and every other cutting board maker I know of uses sanding during production and finishing. I may be trying to avoid a problem that is so negligible in practice as to be not worth considering- But I was taught in school NOT TO SAND WOOD UNTIL ALL CUTTING IS COMPLETED, to prevent dulling of the shop cutting tools from residual grit. 

Is it worth considering a grit free method to preserve knife edges? Comparison testing would be in order to check my assumption that it may be. 

Is it worth using a scraper to avoid the dust and noise from a powered sander for one board? I think so, others might prefer speed. 

Any commercial maker would certainly choose the fastest method. Boardsmith and every other maker I know of use abrasives, and lots of them. See the statement by a maker regarding 70% of board production work being sanding in the "cracked cutting board" thread-

Production work being what it now is, many people never learned traditional, unpowered wood working techniques. 

Or that for small jobs sharp, properly used hand tools can be the better choice. In the time it takes get a tool out, run a cord or find/charge a battery, find and install the correct blade/bit/belt/etc. and otherwise adjust the tool- I have done many small jobs by hand and not needed hearing protection or a dust mask. Plus the benefit of "making my mistakes more slowly", as I think of it. 

The only powered tool in my wood shop I couldn't sensibly get by without is a vacuum cleaner.


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## stringer (Jan 30, 2019)

As an urban apartment bound knife hobbyist I'm always looking for ways to cut down on noise and sawdust. Thanks for sharing. I'm definitely going to have to pick one of these up.


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## Lars (Jan 30, 2019)

Love my scrapers and have used them on my Boardsmith before with succes.

Lars


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## XooMG (Jan 30, 2019)

I use some heavier scrapers and they work fine. I once collected dust from some 180-grit sandpaper for a fill project and found dozens of abrasive grits and substrate flakes hiding once it was spread out thin. Embedding wasn't apparent but I still like using cutting tools when not too inconvenient.


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## ACHiPo (Jan 30, 2019)

Scrapers work great. Sharpening them, like anything, takes some practice, but when they are sharp, they work amazingly well, especially on figured wood.


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## podzap (Feb 2, 2019)

Looks effective, same principle as a wood plane. In any case, that is not a cutting board - it's a pastry board. The long strip of wood rests against the front of your countertop to stop it from sliding forward while you are kneading dough.


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## mengwong (Aug 21, 2022)

I wonder – would it be possible to contrive an ad-hoc card scraper from, say, the far side of a Chinese cleaver?


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## stringer (Aug 21, 2022)

mengwong said:


> I wonder – would it be possible to contrive an ad-hoc card scraper from, say, the far side of a Chinese cleaver?



You're overthinking this. They are purposefully soft and very thin and springy. And cheap. 5-10$ for a Bahco which is the industry standard for like a century.


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## r0bz (Nov 3, 2022)

Bert2368 said:


> A card scraper (cabinet scraper) is an old fashioned wood working tool used for smoothing surfaces before finishing, made from a piece of springy sheet steel, usually somewhere around 50 RHC.
> 
> Scrapers can be had as rectangles for flat surfaces and in various curved profiles for contours- Or you can modify one with files, grinding & etc. to any custom profile you need.
> 
> ...



for someone who does not have a diamond stone and a burnisher rod how can i sharpen the scraper or cant i ?
i understand from what he says i can use the back of a screwdriver insted of a burnisher
but what about the sharpening with the dmt stone ?


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## mengwong (Nov 3, 2022)

Reasoning from first principles, what do you think the answer to your question might be?


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## r0bz (Nov 3, 2022)

mengwong said:


> Reasoning from first principles, what do you think the answer to your question might be?


idk you tell me


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## mengwong (Nov 3, 2022)

You gotta think, dude, all the clues are already there. If you don’t have a diamond stone, what substitutes might work? Why might they work … or not work?


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## r0bz (Nov 3, 2022)

mengwong said:


> You gotta think, dude, all the clues are already there. If you don’t have a diamond stone, what substitutes might work? Why might they work … or not work?


a regular whetstone can do the job but it will require some flattening after using it with the scraper ...


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## mengwong (Nov 3, 2022)

Btw, just to follow up on my efforts — I got the Bahco but the hinoki was too soft and just tore out. Buddy with a plane came by and smoothed it back down, in return for proper flattening of his stones with my NL-8. The last remaining bits of sticking-out wood fiber, I managed to just slice away with my gyuto. Now I have a convex board which is kind of cool. No accordioning!


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## mengwong (Nov 3, 2022)

r0bz said:


> a regular whetstone can do the job but it will require some flattening after using it with the scraper ...


If the scraper is at HRC50, how much dishing do you think the whetstone will suffer?


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## r0bz (Nov 3, 2022)

mengwong said:


> Btw, just to follow up on my efforts — I got the Bahco but the hinoki was too soft and just tore out. Buddy with a plane came by and smoothed it back down, in return for proper flattening of his stones with my NL-8. The last remaining bits of sticking-out wood fiber, I managed to just slice away with my gyuto. Now I have a convex board which is kind of cool. No accordioning!


what is a hinoki


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## Heckel7302 (Nov 3, 2022)

r0bz said:


> what is a hinoki


A type of wood, specifically Japanese Cypress


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## Bert2368 (Nov 3, 2022)

r0bz said:


> for someone who does not have a diamond stone and a burnisher rod how can i sharpen the scraper or cant i ?
> i understand from what he says i can use the back of a screwdriver insted of a burnisher
> but what about the sharpening with the dmt stone ?


Any reasonably flat medium to fine stone can be used on the scraper. The edge can be turned/burnished on the edge of a porcelain sink, the rounded top of your partly rolled down car window or even a thick walled glass bottle, numerous things that are harder than the steel + reasonably smooth are possible.


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## martchap (Nov 4, 2022)

Bert2368 said:


> A card scraper (cabinet scraper) is an old fashioned wood working tool used for smoothing surfaces before finishing, made from a piece of springy sheet steel, usually somewhere around 50 RHC.
> 
> Scrapers can be had as rectangles for flat surfaces and in various curved profiles for contours- Or you can modify one with files, grinding & etc. to any custom profile you need.
> 
> ...



Thanks for your encouraging and thorough post. Coincidentally, I happen to have a scraper & burnisher arriving soon, for a different woodworking purpose. Now you've inspired me to turn to the cutting boards when it's time.


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