Old timer showed me the cabinet scraper trick I'd been missing for 15 years

I spent years sanding every single face frame joint smooth by hand. Last month a 70 year old retired cabinet maker saw me doing it and asked why I wasn't using a cabinet scraper. He pulled out his old Stanley #80 and showed me how to sharpen it with a burnisher in about 2 minutes. Took me 30 minutes to finish a whole kitchen cabinet set that would have taken me 3 hours of sanding. The finish was actually smoother too with no dust clogging my paper. Has anyone else had that moment where an old timer showed you a tool you already owned but never used right?

2 comments

2 Comments

river_wright1mo agoMost Upvoted

The real trick is knowing when not to sand at all and just scrape.

the_shane1mo ago

Gotta hard disagree with you there @river_wright. Scraping leaves way too many gouges and uneven spots for my taste, a quick sand always gets a smoother finish in my experience.