Thread: 19th-c-style preshaped horn scales?

Card scrapers are great for large flat surfaces but for me, they are hard on the fingers and hands, they are inexpensive and available from any woodworking stores.

You can make an inexpensive scraper from a dollar store putty knife, by just filing or sanding on a belt sander, the edge, in one direction. Granted putty knives are not hardened, like scrapers but work well for soft materials like Horn, wood and plastics and can be refreshed quickly and easily.

I recently refinished a wood laminated, vintage Ice Axe handle and just touched 3 putty knives to a belt sander to form a burr and scrape the old finish off and cut down to bare wood quickly and easily.

A 1.5 in putty knife is much easier to hold and you can easily form a curved surface.

You can also do the same with a chisel, that is hardened steel and the burr may last longer. Or purchase purpose built scraper from Gunsmith supplies like Brownell’s for about $15.

You can make a curved scraper by cutting a curve in a putty knife or chisel, but it would make re-surfacing more difficult. Though you can roll/burnish the edge, with any hard round surface like a Philips screwdriver. But really a small flat surface is much quicker and capable of producing the same surface with much less work.

You will sand the scales smooth anyway. The scraper is used to shape the material quickly. With horn or bone the added benefit is not having sanding dust and more importantly the smell all over you and your shop.