Having recently been visited by a starting woodworker for some discussion and tips, this topic quickly rose. This moved me to write, so here we go. 

You do not absolutely need any machines/power tools. Look in a museum, online, or in a book at some 300 year-old amazing furniture. No electric machines. Though surely one person did not make an entire piece.

Before about 55 years ago, I also had no power tools. Though I made lower quality things, a few are still used. Later, I bought an electric jigsaw and borrowed a power drill. 

So, if you want the quiet, prefer the effort, like the feel, and maybe want to save money, enjoy non-electric woodworking! You can still make excellent things!

The first power tool I recommend is a thickness planer with a helical cutterhead and 13” cutting width. Most have a 6” cutting depth capacity, more than you are ever likely to need in usual use. 

You can get one for well under $1000. A 15” model, though a stronger cutter with larger infeed and outfield planks, is much more expensive, much heavier to move, and you only gain 2” of cutting width.

I now use an Oliver (a little more expensive than some). It works very well for accurate flat thickness. It cuts an excellent surface finish with virtually no tear out, even in difficult wood. My old DeWalt, to which I built in a helical cutterhead, inexplicably bit the dust last year. 

The thickness planer does more work, faster and easier, than any other power tool in my shop.  

This is a fairly heavy machine to move, so I keep it removably screwed on a wood framed platform with at least 4 1/2 feet access on both in-feed and out-feed to allow the vast majority of my work. I use dust collection but that is getting ahead of the overall subject.

Of course, this machine only makes the side being cut come out flat if the bottom side of the board is already flat. Otherwise, the machine bends the board and transfers much of the error at the bottom to the cut surface at the top.

If this is your only machine, what can you do? The most traditional answer is to hand plane the foundation side to be flat. Keep in mind that hand planing has much of the same bending effect as the thickness machine.

You can tape a few slivers of wood/veneer/playing cards at the bottom, using a truly flat workbench for reference to make it not wobble. Once the top surface is planed flat, flip it over, remove the slivers, and machine it. Alternatively, you can bypass hand planing by securely taping the slivers and then directly feeding it into the machine. Make the top flat, then flip it over to do the other side after removing the slivers.

Thickness planers at this level tend to slightly over cut the first 2 to 3 inches of the board going in and coming out. The simplest trick to avoid this is to send in a foot-long piece first, touch the tail end with just the workpiece going in, grab the foot-long by its leading end on the way out, and pass it or another piece in again at the tail of the workpiece. This works. Safety is your responsibility but please keep your hands well away from the opening of the cutting zone!

Having no other machine, you can still size, straighten, and square the edges and ends of the workpieces to perfection with a hand saw and hand plane. Sure, I do most by machinery, but if you are starting out and/or lack space or money, this is very doable work without plugging in. 

Next, my suggestion for the next machine to buy early on. 

I think it would be good to review and make sense of this handy device that was pictured and cited in the previous post.

As you can see from the photo above, this is simply a glue-up of three pieces of flat sawn red oak on a base of plywood. It is 11/16” thick, and about 15” from the screwed-down end point on the left to the opposite end where it is measured. I cross sawed it from a much larger piece. The “long” grain (which is essentially stable) is just 1 1/2”.    

Observe that the glue up is done with pieces in alternating grain orientation to avoid a large curl-shaped change with moisture change. The large amount of exposed end grain allows moisture content and resultant wood movement to change rather quickly with humidity change. Changes of temperature have no significant effect on the wood length. 

Note also that this wood has not been finished. Therefore, reduction in expansion and contraction, depending on the type of finish used in a project, does not affect this device. 

There is a grid of 1/16” gradation on the plywood base at the right end of the red oak. (The grid is actually wider than needed.) A brad in only the plywood meets the bottom side of the oak to prevent it from rolling from the screw hold and dropping down when you pick up the device to look closer. It is stored vertically on the wall using the hole just above screwed end.   

left side:

right side:

The full range of movement, going from the initial full ~30% water content of wood to fully dried in an oven to 0% content, for red oak, is 4.0% radially and 8.6% tangentially. The approximately “flatsawn” wood in this piece would move somewhere between those two numbers, closer to the 8.6%. Let’s say about 7%.

So, if this piece of red oak went from the ~30% wet to oven dry, it would loose about 7% of its length. 15” would become about 14”. Of course, this never happens in the shop.

What if it really went from a humid shop holding it with 13% moisture content to the shop being drier and holding it with 7% moisture content? The 15” board would shrink to about 14 3/4”. You would see that on the gradation at the right end of the gauge.

Does this really happen? Yes, or at least somewhat that. Also, note that wood shrinkage and expansion actually decreases in range over the years. So, you may observe less than you calculate. However, the expansion-contraction issue is real and must be considered in your construction design.

This simple monitor helps keep you aware of this in a rather large but simple example. I highly recommend it for your shop. It is very easy to make!

I have accumulated attachments for several handy items on the wall just behind the right side of my workbench. This allows for quick grabs and returns of very frequently used helpers.

Here they are, left to right, top to bottom:

1. The shop-made tool oiler. I wrote about making this in a 3/29/2009 post:

https://www.rpwoodwork.com/blog/2009/03/09/shopmade-tool-oiler/

The Camellia oil gets used on lots of tools every day. It sits in a little box rack screwed to the wall.

2. A light weight wooden mallet.

3. A heavier mallet hammer. 

4. A group of usually sharpened pencils: good old #2, and red and white. These stand in a leather chisel guard glued to the wall.

5. Two pieces of wood, each with three grooves. The neck of my Japanese chisels sits in a groove so the tool will not role. 

6. The pair of bench dogs that I wrote about in a 8/10/25 post. 

https://www.rpwoodwork.com/blog/2025/08/10/make-these-bench-dogs/

7. The handy little brush with bristles cut short. This gets countless uses, such as clearing the cutting edge opening of a hand plane.

8. The dead-on accurate 12’ tape measure. This also sits in a little box rack like the oiler.

9. A constantly used, durable Lie-Nielsen dusting brush. 

10. Wood shrinkage/expansion monitor. I wrote about this in a 5/30/2020 post.  

https://www.rpwoodwork.com/blog/2020/05/30/watch-the-wood-move/   

This modest set up helps efficiency in the shop, and improves the comfort of time in the shop. 

And that is still good time!

At this point, I switch from the sharpening station to my scraper set up that I have described in a recent previous post. That rig has been working for around 40 years and still going strong. 

It pays off to first use your burnisher (you can read about what I use from a few posts ago) to push and stroke the flat side of the scraper. Keep the edge as close to flat as you can, without being totally in contact of the full width. It is really only touching near the edge. Go back and forth several times with moderate pressure. 

Finally, it is time to burnish the edge you will use for scraping. As seen in the photo below, the scraper is securely clamped with just a short amount exposed. The burnisher is pushed and/or pulled the full length of the edge with moderate pressure. 

I find it very helpful to move across some of the length of the burnisher as I push or pull it. I find this creates the scraper’s cutting edge better. 

It is important to set the angle and keep it consistent throughout the stroke. But at what angle? I have changed over time, back and forth, and realize there are many good choices. 

I think about 5° is a good starting practice, and is what I generally prefer now. Note that as you go more steep, the scraper must be held and worked at a stepper angle to cut the wood. That starts to reduce your scraping ease and hand power. 15° is the maximum practical angle. 10° is overall better. I have seen as little as 1-2° recommended.

I set my angle at the beginning with my Wixey angle gauge. The real key is to be consistent throughout the burnishing stroke. This will make the scraper yield a consistent cutting effect for the width of the scraper as you work.

After using the scraper for a while, you can resharpen it by just redoing the final steps (i.e., what is in this post). No need to redo the sharpening stone work. Use the burnisher to flatten the curled edge by compressing against the flat side of the tool. The burnisher is held just a trace less than fully flat against the flat side of the scraper.

Then burnish the edge as you did before. You can even readjust the angle. After about three times, redo the whole routine again. It will be easier than at the start. 

I hope this has been useful to support, alter, or even begin your work with this very handy tool – the cabinet scraper. It is not a mysterious or difficult tool to prepare and use! Happy woodworking! 

We well start from the beginning. 

The edge is made flat, straight, and very smooth at 90°. This can be filed first, though I generally find this unnecessary because all can be readily done with sharpening stones. If you prefer, use a smooth mill file and a piece of wood to hold it square to the scraper edge. 

I start with my 325/45µ DMT diamond stone, using a simple block of wood to keep the scraper edge square to the stone while consistently moving it to different spaces on the stone as you scrape it. 

I do the same next on the 1200/9µ diamond face. Then I finish on the next finer step that I have available: the 8000/~2µ Kuromaku stone. To stop at 1200 is not bad but there is not much extra work to finish finer. Even 4000 is pretty good if that is what you have available. 

Next, the same general process is done to the flat face. Here, however, there is no need to take forever doing the whole surface. Just a short width – say 1/8” or so – needs to be treated to meet with the edge.

The easiest way to do this is the same general method developed by the late master David Charlesworth for the general sharpening step of the back of a blade. He used a thin strip – I like a .020” strip of plastic – under the blade on one side of the stone, while the other side the blade only contacts the stone with a very narrow width. For scrapers, I again use a simple block of wood to keep the edge contacting the stone flat and straight. Thus, only the most outer small fraction of an inch gets sharpened, and it is much less work.

Just like the edge work up, I go through 325, 1200, and 8000. I usually like to use grippy, waterproof gloves for this work on the wetted stones. 

I find that a little bit of back-and-forth between the edge and the side faces cleans things up nice and neat. And now you are done with the hard work!

Next, we will do the burnishing work.

Now let us consider tuning up the hand scraper. Despite what you may have heard, read, or viewed, this is not a difficult task. What makes some demonstrations and discussions confusing is not presenting a simple understanding of exactly what you need to do with the scraper steel. Most demos do not clearly state what the actual task is for each step.

In the next post I will show and discuss the actual tasks being done. In this post, I will state what is done to the scraper metal at each stage. 

First, the sides and the skinny edge must be made flat and smooth. You do this because the steel is not manufactured smooth enough. That is ok. They should also be approximately square to each other. The surfaces should be honed to at least 1000 stone grit. Better is about 4000, even more. 

Second, compression should be applied to the side faces, just near the edges. Push hard on the steel repeatedly. 

Third, the edge itself should be burnished at an angle – to create the hook which is used to cut wood – scraping.  

That’s it. Done. There are variations and alternatives to achieve each step. These steps are not fully repeated for every sharpening. Every three or so sharpenings, however, require going back to some of the earlier steps. 

Coming up, I will show how I do it. There are other equally good methods and helper jigs to achieve the same principles.  

When you see – and understand – what is going on, you can alter the methods and probably come up with some of your own.   

Here are the dozen hand-blade scrapers that I use. In upcoming posts, I will discuss usages, techniques, and how to sharpen them. 

These are all steel in the hardness range of Rc 48 – 52. Most are Lee Valley. Lie-Nielsen and Bahco are similarly very good. Thickness dimensions are inches/mm.

Top photo, left column, top to bottom:

Sizes approximate. Widths vary from initial purchase due to honing wear.   

1.  .020”/.50mm  6” x 2 1/2”

2.  .024”/.60mm  6” x 2”

3.  .024”/.60mm  5” x 2 3/8”

4.  .032”/.80mm  6” x 2 2/8”

Top photo, right column, top to bottom, curved models:

1.  .024”/.60mm  concave-convex

2.  .024”/.60mm  double convex with different radii

3.  .024”/.60mm  gooseneck 

4.  .016”/.40mm  two mini scrapers 1” x 2” (1” parts sharpened)

Here is the simple storage block (4” wide x 3 1/2” long x 1 3/8” high) with angled slots sawn:

In the photo below, are three concave and convex small scraper combinations, 3” to 3 1/2” overall diameter. I find these very handy. I do not recall the brand name.

I store them in the simple thin leather stapled wallet:

So that’s my crew. I have left the cabinet scraper out of the discussion for now. More scraper discussion is on the way, including how to prepare, sharpen, and work with them.

I wrote about this tool a few years ago, having used it for many more years. It is used for scraper sharpening but it is derived from a saw sharpening device detailed in the book: Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking, Book 1, 1979, page 16. My design is significantly different and used entirely differently. 

This holder makes scraper care easier and more comfortable. I will show and detail the uses for sharpening and flattening scrapers in future posts. Now let us look at the construction of the holder.

Start with two 8” x 8” pieces of 3/4” plywood, each with a top bevel of 45°. (There is a vertical slot and horizontal rim in each piece of the Frid that are not used in this one.) The two pieces are joined by a pair of metal hinges at the bottom edges. 

At the top of each angled edge is a pair of hardwood jaw ends, each about 3/16” thick, to improve their grip. Note the tiny gap that is largest at the center of the jaws, and also the tiny gap at the lower edge of the jaws. These improve the grab contact of a scraper by the jaws.

To tighten them closed, the jaws have two 5/16” button head screws (using free holes), washers, and star nobs that are placed 6” from the bottom and 2” in from each side.  

Attached to the inner jaw is a 14” long piece from a good 2 x 4, trimmed to 3 1/4” wide, with the top planed smooth and flat. The attachment is 4” from the bottom of the jaws and centered. Use three strong hex head screws and washers.

Now let’s see how it is securely held in the tail vise of the workbench. Attached with wood screws at the inner end of the 14” rod is a piece of sturdy 1/2” plywood. It is a trace less than 3 1/4” wide. For length, you want about 1” available to reach below the full thickness at this area of the bench’s tail vice. 4 1/2” long works well for my workbench.

Now, use a direct way (hold it, then clamp it?) to mark where to screw on a horizontal “hook piece” of hardwood about 7/8” tall x 3/4” wide x 3” long. (See the right side of the top photo.) This hooks under the work bench construction.

Finally, screw on a piece of hardwood to extend outward of each side (see the next two photos below), about 5 1/2” long  x 7/8” wide x 3/4” thick, to the top of the 14” rod about 1/2” behind the front of the workbench.

Here it is entirely gripped by the workbench and the bench’s tail vise:

One more thing. Note the three 5/8” diameter x 3/4” deep holes on the platform area. These allow wooden pegs to prevent sliding for burnishing scrapers flat. The center hole is to work with cabinet scraper blades.

This construction makes the vise helpful and strong for burnishing a scraper. It is well held by the workbench. It also has a convenient area for flattening, avoiding medal debris on the workbench. The structure is not difficult to make.

More to come on the topics of scrapers and scraping them.