Hey Drak....

[JohnJohn]

Hoe goes that "Cult of Flame"piece?

And what kind of poplar did you use for the Coco-Bola?

[Drak]

Here's the updated pics so far, with the top partially carved, showing the different steps I went thru for the carving sessions...

This is showing how far I came in for my lip. You can see the binding ledge, the level I wanted for my final depth, and the amount I came in.

The first ledge was cut using a pattern bit but following no pattern, just free-handing it. Then, the inner line is the line I used to free-hand using my big cove bit.

Here's the after shot after routing to the inner line with the big cove bit. I was going very slow because I was free-handing it, following the line, that's why the burn marks. If I went fast, there would be no black burn areas, but I would have made mistakes.

This is what I used to carve everything, my trusty cabinet scraper, freshly burred and sharpened to get some fat-dawg shavings. This pile was nothing, the wind kept blowing the shavings away...

This is how she's sitting now, I'm not done carving it yet, and the carve that is there is pretty hard to see, but nonetheless, this is the way it presently sits.

[JohnJohn]

Yeow-za that is looking sweet.

[VanKirk]

WoW! Very Cool!

I could use some lessons on how to sharpen my scraper like you have as well as carving that sweet top.

Keep us posted, plz. I'll be carving my top soon so I'll keep an eye on your progress.

[Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars]

Looks great.

Shount this be in the in progress secyion?

[Drak]

Sure man, here ya go.

First, you need to get a fresh edge on the scraper. You can use a file, but I usually slap it on my belt sander to do this, takes 15 seconds. You hold it perfectly vertical to the belt to get a perfect 90 degree flat fresh edge on it first.

Then, you run your edges (I do all 4) over this Veritas Burnisher. Over and over and over. You can clamp the scraper in a vise and run the burnisher over it like that, or you can hold it in your hands and do it.

The button on top releases the adjustment wheel so you can set the angle, or pitch, of 'edge' you want on the scraper. Once you set the angle, you tighten the button down, it locks it in place. I found 4 degrees works perfect for me. The more degrees you set, the flatter the scraper will sit in relation to your wood before it will start shaving. At 1 degree, it will be almost sitting straight up. I like 4 degrees.

The scraper, although a manual tool, and electricity being my friend, is an INCREDIBLE tool once you really get in there and start bending and flexing it, there's way more power in that little scraper than you would believe just by looking at it...

But I may well try the sandpaper on grinder method next time to rough out the bulk...but I really like that little scraper...it gives you so much CONTROL it ain't funny

And that little scraper will take off loads of wood rather quickly once you 'get to know it'.

I carved this top first, and used all these various tools to see what worked best. The little plain scraper easily won out over all the rest. I used nothing but the scraper for the second one.

[Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars]

thanx for that bit of info. I may well try that.

[JohnJohn]

Great info,anyone here cut their own scrapers?

[VanKirk]

Nice! Thanks alot.

Even my somewhat dull scraper does a great job. I see what ya mean about having control and removing wood quickly. It should be even better with a good edge