Cabinet scrapers are steel hand tools used for smoothing wood and removing old paint or varnish. They come in various shapes and sizes and are often used for intricate woodwork. Before use, they need to be sharpened or burnished to create a burr for maximum contact with the wood surface. They are slower than sandpaper but fit easily into corners and cause less damage to the surface.
A cabinet scraper is a woodworking hand tool made of steel. These flat pieces of metal may have handles or a frame support of some sort. Cabinet scrapers can be rectangular in shape or have a more curved, oblong shape. Like sandpaper, furniture scrapers smooth wood, however, they tend to cause less damage to the surface. Cabinets, or card scrapers as they’re sometimes called, are designed for use on intricate woodwork; they are often used to smooth the edges of counter tops and table tops on furniture made with hardwoods such as cherry, mahogany, maple or oak.
Removing old paint or varnish is another common use of the furniture scraper. While cabinet or card scrapers tend to be associated with fine furniture because they’re more labor-intensive than sandpaper, boat builders also use these sanding tools to remove excess glue stains. Cabinet scrapers come in a range of sizes and shapes. To smooth rounded pieces of wood such as bowls and stair tops, a curved type of cabinet or paper scraper called a French curve is often used.
Some cabinet or card scrapers have two handles on the top to add easy grips while sanding or scraping. Other furniture scrapers feature the flat metal inside a cardboard frame cover. The metal piece can be slid up into the frame to make it easier to hold.
Before you can use a new card scraper, you need to sharpen or burnish it. In burnishing, a file is first used on the sides of the scraper and top edges to prepare the surfaces for use with a burnishing tool. A basic polishing tool is a narrow, cylindrical piece of hard steel with one or two bent ends. Roller burnishers are wider and feature a round, solid wheel-shaped piece on one end.
A polishing tool is pressed along the edge of the scraper to create a pointed lip or hooked section, called a burr. The burr on a cabinet scraper makes maximum contact with a wooden surface. During cutting, the burr becomes dull and typically needs to be re-sharpened at least several times during a wood refinishing project. While using furniture scrapers is slower than sanding with sandpaper, their flat shape allows them to fit easily into corners. Like sandpaper, a furniture scraper should always be used in the same direction as the wood grain.
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