Several years ago, I was searching eBay for a Stanley 62 (bevel up/low angle) handplane to add to my collection. I checked every week or so for over a year without much luck; the 62s that showed up were either junk or way too expensive. Late one evening I decided to check the site and accidentally punched in Stanley 82. Up popped this long-handled scraper-like device. I’d never seen one before so I immediately decided I needed it. There wasn’t much competition and I bought it cheap, a good thing when you’re not sure what you’re buying. The 82 turned out to be one of those serendipitous purchases—once I got it in the shop, I wondered how I had gotten along without it.

The 82 comes in two different types, both numbered as Stanley 82. One type has a short handle, a spring-loaded adjustable head, and uses a double-edged paint-scraper-style blade, although it can accept a straight blade. The other type has a long handle, adjustable head, and no spring. That’s the one you want.

The long-handled 82 shares its blade with the Stanley 80 cabinet scraper, so replacement blades are easy to find. Most scrapers will need one. Any good quality high-carbon steel or tool steel that is at least 0.040 in. thick will work, so you can easily make your own. Lee Valley makes a great replacement blade.

The blade is sharpened at 45° and a light burr (one light pass of a burnisher) is pulled across the sharp edge with the burr facing away from the bevel. The burnisher should be held just shy of 90° to the bevel side of the blade. With the blade correctly sharpened, this scraper will produce curls just like a sharp card scraper. It provides tons of directional control with low physical effort because it’s essentially a pull plane. Keep the blade edge flat and the corners sharp so it scrapes flat and right to the corner of the blade. Typically, I can get three or four burrs before I need to resharpen the blade, pretty much like a card scraper. Install the blade bevel-up with the burr facing you.

The adjustable head can be set to take comfortable advantage of the burr on the blade. I found that with a little experimentation, one particular angle seems to work best for the burr that I typically pull. With the front knob removed, it’s easy to reach into the corner of a drawer or into the back corner of a cabinet to clean out excess glue or straighten out a surface flaw. The blade can be shifted a bit to the side, exposing the edge for cleaning up rabbets or pulling glue away from a partition in a cabinet, one reason for keeping those corners sharp.

With a sharp burr it’s easy to clean up gluelines without tearing out the grain of the wood, even if the glue has dried overnight and is hard. Leveling string inlay is a breeze and getting rid of the slight indiscretion between laminated boards takes just a couple of pulls. It’s an incredibly versatile tool.

Unfortunately, these gems are no longer manufactured, so the only choice is to find a used one. Make sure that all the parts are intact and that the castings haven’t been broken. The thumbscrew that holds the head in position is large and has a hole drilled through it to ease tightening; a 16d nail works great! If the screw has been replaced with a bolt, which seems somewhat common, it’s not a deal-breaker but the price should be considerably lower because of it. I find that once I’ve adjusted the head angle I seldom change it, so if it’s a bit cumbersome it’s no big deal.

I now have three of the long-handled scrapers in my shop and have given a few more to friends, so they aren’t made of “unobtainium,” they’re just not terribly common. I haven’t paid more than $40 for any of them so you could use that as a price guide, or not. It’s worth the time and effort to find one; you’ll use it frequently.

If you have any tool-related questions for Rollie, send an email to: [email protected]

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