Glad I finally got this

Helpful review. Welcome to LJ’s!

just got mine too, but won’t try it out till saturday.i’m glad to hear it is a good tool to have.

Yep; I’ve tried scredirver shafts, old drill bits etc.
I was never really successful until I got a real burnisher.

I got the same one after watching the William Ng sharpening demo on the Woodwhisperer’s site. It’s an excellent video if you haven’t seen it. I’d tried Todd Clippinger’s mill file technique, and while it worked to a degree I always still had to sand the surface a lot to get it finish-ready. Now I just knock the burr down with a few rubs across the edge and then two quick swipes and the burr is ready to go again. The hard part is the original cleaning up of the edge on your stones.

-- The difference between being defeated and admitting defeat is what makes all the difference in the world - Upton Sinclair, "The Jungle"

Thanks for the info and welcome to Lumberjocks.

-- If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Henry David Thoreau

thank´s for the rewiew
and welcome to L J enjoy and have fun :-)

Dennis

I have the same burnisher and really like it (tried unsuccessfully to use a hex wrench before buying it). The sharpening process for card scrapers has a lot of confusion and voodoo surrounding it, I’ve found. My current process is kind of lengthy, but seems to work:

1. Use the mill file (freehand) on the faces and edge of the scraper
2. Use my soft oil stone on both faces
3. Stone the edge, either by holding it freehand or pressing against a square block while moving
4. Draw out the burr on the face side with the burnisher
5. Curl over the burr on the edge side
6. Repeat 4 and 5 for the opposite burr on the same edge

I typically square up two sides of the scraper and only draw/curl the burr on one side. When it dulls, I’ll use the other side. When both dull, I’ll just burnish-out the burr without re-squaring a few times until it really needs squaring again.

Do you use a similar process? I’m curious what works best for people.

Thanks bobasaurus for sharing the process you use. I use a similar process but use a cheap set of diamond plates for the initial grind followed by the stone. I don’t draw out the burr though, just use the burnisher at an angle. Now that you said it though, I think I remember seeing that in some of tutorials. I will give it a try next time and see if I notice a difference. Also, I do all four edges at once.

I stink at burnishing. Can you describe how much downward pressure you put on the tool?

-- Don, Royersford, PA

@doncutlip: I don’t use very much. I knock the burr down, then just two quick swipes. If I put too much pressure on it (ie. I have to tip the scraper way forward to cut), I start over and use a little less pressure. If I don’t get enough burr, I just give it another quick swipe and that’s usually all it takes. Really, watch the William Ng video on the Wood Whisperer’s site, it’s an eye opener.

-- The difference between being defeated and admitting defeat is what makes all the difference in the world - Upton Sinclair, "The Jungle"

i am sorry it dulled

-- God is great.

i can see you are new to lumber jock’s so welcome.

-- God is great.

@Jimi_C: I saw you mentioned that video before. I’ll have to take a look at it. I love all the great info on the Wood Whisper.

@doncutlip: It’s kind of hard to describe the amount of pressure. I’m not sure what to compare it to. You don’t have to use as much as you might think. I like to hold the burnisher with two hands with one hand touching the scraper to help keep a steady angle. Not sure if this is the best way, but I saw someone do it that way and it felt comfortable to me.