There are cross-grained or curly places on nearly all pieces of wood that will tear somewhat under the plane no matter how skillfully it may be used. Such places must be made smooth before the stain and other finish is applied. Sand paper may be used to do this on soft woods, but on hard wood the scraper is the proper tool to use. For flat surfaces most cabinet makers sharpen their scrapers square across as shown at A (Fig. 31), but make the edge slightly crowning from end to end, as shown at B (Fig. 31).

Fig. 31.

Fig. 32.

The sharpening may be done either with a grindstone or with a file, followed by the oilstone. After the edges have been made perfectly sharp they should be turned with a burnisher (a hard, smooth piece of steel) so that they look somewhat as shown at C (Fig. 32). This is done by passing the burnisher, with considerable pressure, lengthwise over the edge of the scraper, tilting it slightly as the work proceeds.

In use, the scraper is held at an angle of about 60° with the surface of the work. If it is sharp and the edge properly turned it will cut like a plane. Inexperienced persons are often tempted to try to make the scraper do the work of the plane. This is a mistake for if much material is removed the surface will become very uneven due to the fact that the scraper tends to cut more on the soft than on the hard spots.

To counteract this tendency, the scraping should be done so that the strokes of the scraper will cross one another at an angle.

Some mechanics prefer to sharpen their scrapers as shown at D (Fig. 32) and to turn the edge as shown at E. A scraper sharpened in this way will take a very heavy shaving and should, therefore, be held in some sort of a handle or frame.