I tried to show someone how to sharpen and use a scraper yesterday but couldn’t find a burnisher, do we have one and where is it kept? If not do we have any drill rod that we could make one out of?
https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/kunz-round-burnisher.aspx
Haven’t seen one around in a long while. I can bring one in (probably not useful offer at this point), or you can use anything that is round and hardened. Try a larger diameter drill bit shaft or a nail setter/punch. Again, need to be hardened steel…harder than the scarper, at least.
I had some Thompson shaft and a chunk of mesquite, so I made a burnisher, I need to let the finish dry and cut the shaft to length and glue it in. I’ll bring it in later this week.
I actually made two of them, I used part of a broken teak chair leg for the first handle (I am turning new legs). The teak handle is nicer than the handle on the burnisher I bought many years ago and I decided I couldn’t part with it. Teak is interesting because it is sort of grayish green at first but eventually turns golden, I think when exposed to UV light. I fixed two of our chairs about 10 years ago, the color didn’t match at all at first, but now I can’t tell which ones I fixed.
Before I remembered I had the thompson shaft, I tried using a 1/4" steel dowel, I thought they were hardened, but it wasn’t hard enough and you could see some scratches caused by the scraper with a 10x loupe.
Randy
