Nice scraping work

Bob Korves

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Rest In Peace
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Jul 2, 2014
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Wes has a very good channel, worth the subscription. I wish my scraping skills were half as good as his. I only recently subscribed to his channel, but everything so far, covering multiple disciplines, is excellent.
 
Very nice video. I'm a novice scraper, and have only done manual scraping - boy that Biax takes a lot of the work out of it!
 
Very nice video. I'm a novice scraper, and have only done manual scraping - boy that Biax takes a lot of the work out of it!
I have an old Biax that has seen better days. It works OK, though it could use some tightening up of the slides. Although the Biax is a lot faster, that also means you can screw up work a lot faster. I do not have enough time using the Biax to be good, but I have found it very easy to make gouges in the work with it if not really careful to hold it properly, without twisting it sideways. I need more practice with it. It is also not light. Using one all day would be a real chore...
 
I like the way Wes does his scraping with the Biax. Never saw Richard teach it that way in the class I attended or any of the other classes I've seen. Wes has the old "blue" Biax, and like you said, that sucker is heavy, and he holds it like it only weighs two pounds. I have the same blue Biax, I can keep it steady and control it if I hold it close to my body and he's holding it out away from his body. And the pattern he creates, I like that. I still have some work to do on a couple of my straightedges, I'll have to give it a try. Thanks for posting Bob!
 
I couldn't agree more, Ken! Wes must be strong as an ox to use his arms so much, but his scraping rows are beautiful.

While he doesn't use his legs and lower body the way Richard recommends, the even rows and clear individual scrapes of even depth are precisely what Richard teaches.

I also was really interested in his homebrew marking inks. I just acquired some red and black pigments and tried mixing it with machine oil as he suggested (though he used mortar pigment I'm hopeful any dry pigment should work equally well). I'm off on a business trip tomorrow so I didn't have much time to experiment, but I can report that it works just as Wes said. It's very different than using Canode or Dykem high spot, though.

Wes said he'd post a video about marking inks, but I did just discover one thing on my own: I think trying to mix the pigment and oil directly in the tin was a mistake. Far better to thoroughly mix on a plate and then transfer it to the tin, I think.

IMG_0437.JPG

I'm just using dry artists pigment from a company called Gamblin and machine oil.

I noticed when I used a brayer to spread it on the surface plate that I still had some dry clumps because I hadn't mixed it thoroughly enough. The dry clumps were definitely thick enough to cause bad readings.

I think mixing on a plate thoroughly, and rolling it out thin with a brayer and really working it for a while before scraping it back up to store it in the tin would have worked better.

Here's a part with the red base layer applied:

IMG_0438.JPG

And here is a markup with a fairly thick layer of black on the plate:

IMG_0440.JPG

Sadly, it's not really much higher contrast than I was seeing with Canode or Dykem. It does seem like a reasonable choice for roughing, though.

I want to try some more experiments when I'm back. I've also ordered some special high contrast pigments that should be fun to play with once I receive them.

Regards,
--
Rex
 
Before Rich gave me the leftover marking pigments after one of the classes I attended, I used red lead in machine oil; the shop where I worked was using it for lubricating high stress bolts on bridge hinges, I managed to divert some dry red lead and did the oil mixture and as advised in the Machine Tool Reconditioning book, I put it up in cardboard snuff boxes; in this way, the excess oil is absorbed, and when you want to use it, you just drop a drop or so of lube oil in and mix it around with a finger, and apply it with the very same digit and spread it out with the other fingers included; I do appreciate that the stuff that he gave me is much easier to clean up than red lead or Prussian blue.
 
I remember that in visiting my mother's uncle in Mass., he had served his apprenticeship with Brown & Sharpe starting, I think in 1912; he told me that they scraped there (I assume for reference surfaces) to 64 spots per inch.
 
I managed to divert some dry red lead and did the oil mixture and as advised in the Machine Tool Reconditioning book, I put it up in cardboard snuff boxes; in this way, the excess oil is absorbed, and when you want to use it, you just drop a drop or so of lube oil in and mix it around with a finger, and apply it with the very same digit and spread it out with the other fingers included;

One of the things that appeals to me about scraping is just how messy, old-school, and ... tactile the process is. It appeals to my finger-painting inner child. :)

I'm becoming a fan of spreading the marking media with my fingers as well as using a brayer. I used to think that your fingers could only detect down to 0.001" or so, but I now have no doubt they are far more sensitive than that. While a brayer will pick up much of any grit or dirt on the plate, there's nothing like your fingers to discover every last little fleck that can screw up a marking pass.

It also never ceases to amaze me how well you can FEEL a hand scraper hitting the high spots in an individual scrape. The tactile feedback lining up with the blue spots seen by your eyes is incredibly satisfying for some reason.

The absurdity also appeals to me: scraping is all about precision, and cleanliness is incredibly important: the tiniest little fleck of dirt will totally destroy a reading. Yet it's an incredibly messy process that leaves metal scrapings and ink all over the place, and leaves you filthy head to toe!
--
Rex
 
One of the things that appeals to me about scraping is just how messy, old-school, and ... tactile the process is. It appeals to my finger-painting inner child. :)

I'm becoming a fan of spreading the marking media with my fingers as well as using a brayer. I used to think that your fingers could only detect down to 0.001" or so, but I now have no doubt they are far more sensitive than that. While a brayer will pick up much of any grit or dirt on the plate, there's nothing like your fingers to discover every last little fleck that can screw up a marking pass.

It also never ceases to amaze me how well you can FEEL a hand scraper hitting the high spots in an individual scrape. The tactile feedback lining up with the blue spots seen by your eyes is incredibly satisfying for some reason.

The absurdity also appeals to me: scraping is all about precision, and cleanliness is incredibly important: the tiniest little fleck of dirt will totally destroy a reading. Yet it's an incredibly messy process that leaves metal scrapings and ink all over the place, and leaves you filthy head to toe!
--
Rex
Which classes with Rich did you attend in the Bay Area? I did the one in Richmond and the one in Oakland at the blacksmith shop. Yes, there is good reason to spread out the medium with the fingers to detect grit; a brayer is OK to get on the plate, but it should be spread with the fingers, The only thing I did not like to see in the video was that he left the top off his medium container all the while he was scraping and cleaning up, risking getting gritty stuff in it.
 
I took Richard's class in Georgia at Keith Rucker's shop, not here where I live in the Bay Area. I travel a lot for work so it wasn't too crazy to go that far.

Cheers,
--
Rex
 
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