I’m not sure when Stanley begun the production of these burnishers, but they are an ingenious invention. The burnisher itself is no different to any other burnisher with one exception and that’s the point on the end that has a 30° bevel.
When you’re burnishing, you may end up rolling the burr and the rolled bottom rides on the timber and doesn’t cut. Have you noticed that sometimes you have to lean your scraper much further than other times to get it to bite into the wood? Well, that’s what happens when you roll the burr beyond the 30° angle. Stanley came up with the idea of grinding a 30° bevelled point on the end of the burnisher. To use it after the bevel is rolled, you place the pointed end on the end of the burr with the bevel resting against it and lightly pull back along the scraper a couple of times. This pushes the burr slightly upright or back creating a consistent 30° bevel. As long as you have done all the other necessary steps correctly prior, your scraper will produce shavings and not dust.
Vintage versions can still be found and range from $90-40
or you can buy one from Phil Lowe he makes his own.
For me it’s a little pricey and I think I will be making one myself. In the end it may well cost just as much as Phil’s. For the time being, I came up with a little work around. I angled my burnisher to approximately 30° and made a couple light passes and it worked.
A scraper is a wonderful tool often neglected due to difficulties many face sharpening it correctly.
