Cabinet Scraper Set

Ah, scrapers. I bear no more love for sanding, I imagine, than any other woodworker! it's a necessary chore, but tedious, dusty and frequently noisy. Did I mention that it's tedious and dusty? Scrapers eliminate 90% of that. Yes, you read right, 90%. Scrapers cut much faster than any sandpaper, but leave a very fine, tearout free surface on hardwoods. I haven't needed to buy a sheet of sandpaper coarser than #220 in nearly ten years, except for turning jobs on the lathe! Once you learn how to sharpen a scraper properly, you'll be producing fluffy shavings in no time, and wondering why you never tried this sooner.  (I recommend learning to do sharpen a scraper freehand: it's not really so demanding that you would need a fancy jig, and if you do it wrong, it's no great loss, just re-file the edge again) This 3-piece set from Crown Tools of Sheffield, England offers a great deal of flexibility, with up to six straight cutting edges and a few curves for the tricky places too. The steel is of good quality, and thicker than the Bahco scraper (they're stiffer, but won't burn your fingers as easily}. My only gripe {and the reason I only rate them at four stars) is that the scrapers are punched out of the sheet, no ground to shape, and so they arrive with one ridiculously aggressive, hooked cutting edge and one that is completely rounded over by the punch press. These need to be filed down past the deformed zone to get a good edge on both faces of each scraper, but that doesn't take long.