Lost Art Press

New Crucible Card Scraper for Flat & Curved Work

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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You can now purchase the Williams Welsh Card Scraper in the Crucible store. It is $20 plus shipping and is available for immediate shipment.

The scraper is named after Chris Williams, a Welsh chairmaker who first showed us this shape in 2018. While there are many custom scraper shapes out there for specialty work (especially scraping mouldings) Chris’s scraper was the first shape we’ve seen that is ideal for scraping both flat and curved surfaces.

We think it’s a huge improvement compared to the typical square-cornered rectangular scraper sold today. Here’s why:

The gentle curves of its cutting edges mean that you don’t have to bend the tool with your thumbs to scrape a flat surface – the curve is built-in. That makes our scraper much easier to use. (Side note: many woodworkers with arthritis who cannot use a rectangular scraper report that they can use our scraper.) Here are the tool’s other features.

  1. It is made from 1095 spring steel that has been hardened and tempered to a Rockwell (C) hardness of 48 to 51. This hardness makes it easy to turn a hook with a standard burnisher (though carbide is always the superior choice for a burnisher) and the hook lasts plenty long.
  2. The faces are polished and blued for rust-resistance.
  3. The scraper is cut to shape using waterjet – both for precision and to preserve the hardness of the steel. Then the tool’s edges are hand ground and polished in Nicholasville, Ky., to make the tool easy to set up and maintain.
  4. The scraper comes with a magnet, which acts as a heat sink while scraping, making the tool comfortable to use for long periods.
  5. The tool is supplied with a heavy paper envelope that is perfect for storing the scraper, protecting its edges while it’s sitting in your tool chest or cabinet.

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Sharpening the Williams Welsh Card Scraper is as simple as sharpening a rectangular tool. (We’ve prepared a tutorial here.) In fact, I think our tool is a bit easier to sharpen than a flat-edged scraper, especially when stoning the edges.

Like all Crucible tools, the Williams Welsh Card Scraper is made entirely in the United States with domestic materials. You can purchase one here.

— Christopher Schwarz

32 thoughts on “New Crucible Card Scraper for Flat & Curved Work”

  1. Holy crap. I was actually able to order a couple. I was afraid it would be like the elusive lump hammer.

  2. I have a question I’ve never seen you address. As I said above, I ordered 2 of your scrapers. I have several of the old Sandvik rectangular scrapers, and find it easier to sharpen them all at once, rather than use one, and sharpen when dull.

    But I don’t have five 3/8ths chisels, sharpen those all at once, and use each until dull. I have just one.

    So my question is, do you set up multiple scrapers, and sharpen all at once, or do you stick to one?

  3. Received the notice at 7:30. Sold out when I went to look just now at 9:30.

    I hate to sound like that guy, but: Sad. Very sad.

  4. Well those went quick. Do you have a ballpark estimate on the next production run? (Give or take a month.)

    1. I hope we’ll have another big batch in two weeks. We’re making hammers right this minute….

      FYI, that load of scrapers was the biggest batch of tools we’ve put up ever. We hoped it would last a few months….

  5. Wow! That didn’t take long! Less than 3 hrs after posting their availability, they’re all gone! Frustrating!

    Sent from my iPhone

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  7. I woke up, checked my email, clicked the link, and they were sold out. You have got to make more, and soon! Take my money!

  8. I for one have had it with Lost Art Press & Crucible Tools They are playing games with the supply & demand of their Lump Hammers and now the scrapers, if they truly wanted to meet the customers needs they would take orders so people didn’t have to set around and try to guess when the next batch will be listed just to have them sell out in 2 hours. Well I certainly don’t need either that bad so my response to Lost Art Press is to stick both your Lump Hammers and your scrapers where the Sun doesn’t shine!!!!

      1. Chris, I’d just like to say: I’m happy to wait. Be it for a book, a scraper or just the next blog post, I appreciate that you and the others at LAP are making things the right way, one or a few at a time. Every item I have from LAP is of the highest quality, and I’m sure the Crucible tools are as well. I look forward (patiently) to owning a few.

    2. This is funny on numerous levels, even though it wasn’t intended to be funny on any.

      “I don’t need these Things that bad, yet I absolutely feel compelled to write a frothing blog comment about my inability to buy these Things!”

    3. With limited preorders they would sell out in exactly the same way.
      With unlimited preorders they would end up with a huge backlog of orders and people would complain about that as well.
      Much better to only sell what they know they have on hand.

      Anyways, enough typing, I’ve got a new card scraper to go fondle.

  9. Sold out…awesome! Just a thought to propose a limited order amount for initial release? Maybe a waitlist? Share the love…

  10. Holy cow. I saw no reason to add my pablum to the mix. Until now.

    Chris, you need to slap a Crucible sticker on the next bag of cat crap and put it in the store. 🙂

  11. Chris and the rest at LAP: Thanks for everything you share with the world, on this blog and in your books. The idea of seeing time as a currency (of life) has influenced my thinking greatly.

    On that same note, to those who wanted but couldn’t buy a scraper: Chris has provided the shape of this scraper before, and now he also tells us about the materials used. There’s not much keeping you from making one yourself.

    I know I finally have a use for that one fridge magnet I have lying around…

    1. We published a drawing of the original here for people to download for free.

      https://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/chris-schwarz-blog-woodworking-blogs/a-much-better-shape-for-a-card-scraper/

      You trace the shape on your scraper, set the grinder’s tool rest to 0° and grind to the line. Check to ensure that the tool does not overheat while grinding. If you cannot touch the tool without your fingers jumping away, you need to cool the steel in a bucket of water.

      Once the shape is ground, then you file, stone and burnish the edges as shown in the tutorial provided yesterday.

  12. Wow. Guess I’ll ck on the next batch. So we gotta stay up all night for 2 more weeks ck’in in here now? Lol
    Scrapers look great Chris.

    1. I never would have imagined such demand for…a scraper. :/ I’m sure Chris sat agog for a moment and then dialed the upstream suppliers. Then you could hear the actual scream a second or two after hearing the electric one over phone “You want how many!?!”

      Again, good problem for Crucible to have. To anyone who doubts Crucible’s philosophy of getting and keeping the knowledge out there, I’d like to point out in the same post announcing the product, they _again_ gave away the design for the product.

  14. The Schwarz affect in full effect!!

    Love the tools, love the books, but your people are what makes LAP / Crucible great!

  15. They just hired a new CFO from Snapchat, however he had spent 20 years at Amazon. Now they have to get rid of Fields who is CEO. They need a car guy for the job.

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  17. Good looking scraper, clean, crisp blue steel. I’m sure it will do fabulous work. Yet, every time I look at the off-center, tilted label I’ll wonder about the people who packaged it.

    1. Ahhhhhh. that wasn’t a glued on label, but a magnet that must have been sliding around in the mail. BTW, very fast delivery!

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