Engineers scraper arrived blunt

[RIP]

Bought this clearance engineers scraper from Zoro so that I can scrape my cheapo Lathe Steady so it sits flat. The tool has arrived completely blunt though. Is this normal? Just thought I'd check before I sharpen it. It's HSS steel, do I need to keep the heat down when sharpen it or re-harden it or anything like that or just sharpen?

This is the manufacturers description:

Scrapers reduce high spots by removing minute amounts of metal from a surface which has been previously machined or filed.

 

[frank horton]

all the bearing scrapers I've ever bought came with a flyer telling u to sharpen it/them....
ur's does look quite bad to start with tho...

 

[Brad93]

Should of just got a carbide scraper

 

[Spark plug]

A scraper will only be supplied semi finished so that the user can set the radius and rake angle of their choice, depending on application eg. Roughing, finishing or flaking etc.

I do have a number of HSS scrapers but they are only used for the likes of gasket scrapping these days, if your wanting to remove material carbide is the way forward.

 

[Agroshield]

Just curious where the idea of it being HSS comes from. With high speed steel, the clue is in the name: it retains its hardness at the higher temperatures generated from higher speed cutting. Now, unless a person had a bad case of St Vitus' dance when undertaking their scraping activities, they will never attain a high enough speed to trouble a scraper made of good, high carbon steel. So why would a manufacturer use a more costly material for a tool when it is not needed? The classic way to make a hand scraper is to grind the teeth off an old file and reshape it. I have not seen many files made of HSS.

 

[Pete.]

You could use the same reasoning to ask "why use carbide scrapers?"

I've used carbon steel (briefly), HSS (briefly) and carbide (chiefly).

 

[ronan]

Should of just got a carbide scraper

+1, i used an old Eclipse hss scraper last year and i spent as much time rubbing the bloody thing on an oilstone to sharpen it as i did working it. Sandvik have a place down the road, i should have dropped in and bought one from them.

 

[Spark plug]

Just curious where the idea of it being HSS comes from. With high speed steel, the clue is in the name: it retains its hardness at the higher temperatures generated from higher speed cutting. Now, unless a person had a bad case of St Vitus' dance when undertaking their scraping activities, they will never attain a high enough speed to trouble a scraper made of good, high carbon steel. So why would a manufacturer use a more costly material for a tool when it is not needed? The classic way to make a hand scraper is to grind the teeth off an old file and reshape it. I have not seen many files made of HSS.

This logic could be applied to hand taps, HSS are far superior at edge retention than carbon steel.