Flexible Scraper:
You only need a couple things:
-a piece of spring tempered steel the right thickness
-sheet metal cutter
-file
-sharpening stones, I use a coarse diamond stone, a fine diamond stone and a dual sided water stone with 4000 grit on one side and 8000 on the other.
A long time ago I bought a variety pack of spring tempered shim stock and have been using it for making flexible scrapers. For flexible scrapers the best thickness goes from .015" - .030", and the single best IMO is .020". Luckily, you don't need to buy a whole package of shim stock to get a piece of steel. The Exacto razor saw in the picture is made from .020" spring steel, will work well. I don't know the exact model since I tore off most of the packaging, but it's 7" x 2.5" or so, and you could get a couple scrapers out of one blade. You may even have an old dull blade sitting around you could use.
Cut one edge straight:
Put it in a vice with some wood to protect it and file that edge straight. If your cutters are old and dull like mine they may make the steel curl a bit when you cut. You'll know that you've filed enough off the edge when it straightens back out.
Cut it to rough shape. The new one is on the bottom.
Flatten one side. This is very important and is easily the part that takes the longest. The back of the scraper near the cutting edge has to be perfectly flat or you will never be able to get a good edge. A coarse diamond stone is the best tool for this job. Doesn't need to be a big one, 6"-7" will do.
This is after a few minutes on a coarse diamond stone. The whole back does not need to be flat, but the part along the cutting edge does. The blue along the edge means more flattening.
After a few minutes on a fine diamond stone it's obvious there is some more work to be done. You can see where the scraper is not flat near the edge. Back to the coarse stone.
Completely flat near the edge, done with the diamond stones. Now do the same thing on the 4000 and 8000 grit waterstones.
This is what you end up with:
Go back to the coarse diamond stone and holding the scraper like this, put a 45 degree bevel on one edge going 1/2 way around each corner. It helps to flex it a little and just rock your wrist forward and back. You will know you are done when you can feel a burr form on the back edge (the flat side, where my thumb is in the picture). Make sure you feel this burr along the whole edge, all the way along the straight part and 1/2 way around each corner. Now is when you need to start being careful handling the scraper because it's getting sharp.
Put the scraper flat side down on the 8000 grit stone and remove the burr.
Go back and re-do the bevel on the fine diamond stone until you have a burr again, then remove the burr again on the 8000 stone. Now the final honing of the cutting edge is done on the 8000 stone. Tilt the blade just a tiny bit more than you did when making the bevel on the diamond stone. You don't need to sharpen the whole edge from the front to the back. Since you are holding the blade at a slightly steeper angle you only need to sharpen a tiny bit right at the edge. Make sure you go 1/2 way around each corner to sharpen that also.
Then, place the flat face down on the 8000 stone and give it a few strokes. Hold it at an angle one more time and give a few strokes, then face down again and hopefully you are done.
Give it the fingernail test all along the blade. Holding it almost flat against your fingernail push gently. The blade should immediately grab your fingernail. If it slides across without biting you need to go back a step and re-hone.
Once it bites it's as sharp as any chisel or plane blade so be careful.
This is a scraper burnisher. It's just a piece of hardened tool steel. You can buy one or you can just use something like a socket wrench extension which works fine. I put this in a vise.
The last time I bought the black epoxy was probably 12 years ago. I bought about 6-8 of them and really don't use a lot. After posting that I went online to find it and if you can find it the price has more has tripled, it's at least $25. I think I'd still buy it or find another black epoxy though. So much easier than refilling pin holes in wood glue and sawdust five times. The other one is from Germany and looks like you can get it through Amazon in the double barrel version.
In fact, I got rid of all my buffing equipment years ago and am putting together a new buffing rig because I don't plan on doing much varnishing anymore. Hopefully once I start the finishing process things won't get exciting in a bad way!
probably not as effective as your method, but works for me.
