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Scratch stock blade

Recruiter's picture

Scratch stock blade (post #170771)

Recruiter on Tue, 11/06/2012 - 16:37 (updated 11/06/12 - 11:25) 
in

I am doing a restoration on a house that was built in 1908. On the porch, one of the the top and bottom rails had rotted out completely, at the ends. Needless to say, they are not your everyday railings, you pick up at the local home center. I have managed to fully restore both rails, using a combination of wooden planes I own.

 

I have one last detail to put on the top rail. In order to make it correctly, I will need to make a scratch stock of the correct profile. My question is, can I use plain sheet metal to make the pattern? Will it need to be heat treated? Would I be better off making the profile out of an old hacksaw blade?

Thanks

Dave

-A +A
Westchester's picture

Scratch Stock (post #170771, reply #1 of 4)

by Westchester in reply to Recruiter [original] on Wed, 11/07/2012 - 03:56

I found hacksaw blades to be to hard to cut or grind.  They will not give you much area to sandwich between wood clamps for holding  when creating the profile.  I used an old cut down hand saw blade or a scraper blade with good results.

SA

sid works's picture

the bigger power hacksaw (post #170771, reply #2 of 4)

by sid works in reply to Westchester [original] on Wed, 11/07/2012 - 08:09

blades are h/speed steel and make good cutting tools

ron

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roc's picture

Forget mild sheet steel. Forget heat treat. (post #170771, reply #3 of 4)

by roc in reply to Recruiter [original] on Wed, 11/07/2012 - 13:01

Mild steel sheet is only case harden-able with an added expense you don't want to invest in.  Trust me.

To pay somebody to heat treat some other steel that you come up with will be expensive and may take too long to get it back.

Old hacksaw blade . . .

Depends on the hacksaw blade.  Good modern blades for a hand held hacksaw will be fairly mild steel with a strip of hardened teeth about as wide as the teeth. These are called bimetal blades.  In a bimetal blade the wide main body of the blade is made of steel that isn't all that great for a scraper; too soft.   As opposed to a blade for a hacksawing machine from back in the day which is what some here will be using which is thicker, wider and hardened throughout the blade.  Pretty much.

If you have an old wood working handsaw , like a panel saw or key hole saw, you could cut that up and make a blade.  The card scrapers work well if you have one and can spare it, 

Here is a link with all sorts of options and ways to cut the material and shape it.

http://forums.finewoodworking.com/fine-w...

roc

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. Abraham Lincoln ( 54° shaves )

robscaffe's picture

Buy a card scraper (post #170771, reply #4 of 4)

by robscaffe in reply to Recruiter [original] on Fri, 11/09/2012 - 05:08

and grind the profile in that.