A question has been on my mind for some time now. In recent time, I have seen in magazine articles, a flat, simple piece of steel used for scraping wood referred to as a card scraper. Does anyone know the origin of this term? Having studied texts written and approved for formal education by state adoption committees, I recall never seeing this name used. To verify this, I dug out 7 texts used in high schools and universities dating from 1887 to the present. They all agree that the name of the tool is ‘hand scraper’, also sometimes referred to as cabinet scraper or steel scraper.
Did some self taught guru, lacking in formal education in the field , coin this name and because he was so gifted, others have picked it up or what? I have nothing against being self taught except that I have always felt that there is much to be learned from our elders. That which has stood the test of time is usually more likely to be true. If anyone out there has an answer, I would like to hear from you.
Replies
In my English texts dating in the first few years of the 20th century, they only use the term scraper. Not even hand scraper, cabinet scraper or steel scraper. The gall of those authors for eliminating words so carefully proscribed by the state adoption committees you bothered to consult.
So...what again is the problem?
Take care, Mike
"That which has stood the test of time is usually more likely to be true."
No, that which has stood the test of time is usually more likely to be adequate.
-Steve
Don't know where the name "card scraper" came from or how it began to be used but?? I think the odd shaped hand held scrapers that were being cut out in the 20th century prompted a more descriptive name for the rectangular scraper that looks like a card(in some cases). I have a hand held scraper that I bought pre-shaped like a french curve tool that illustrators use. People refer to it as a "gooseneck" scraper. How did that come up?
On a practical note, most woodworkers I have been around seem to know what you want when you ask for a card scraper. This doesn't happen with me much -- mine is always in my back pocket if the light is on in my shop. Always. No I don't sit on it when I take my coffee break-- I'm usually standing. Ha.
Speaking about standing the test of time: when was the last time you heard a discussion about a try plane, jackplane? Came and went from what I see.
Its all fun
dan
I assume from your comment that you don't know.
This is a test.
Do not reply.Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
This is a reply.
Do not test.
Now Samson, THAT was funny!
I don't know who invented the term, but I'm glad that he did. Words evolve as they're needed. Without "card" you have no way to quickly distinguish between different tools, to wit the scraper blade held in the hands, that held in a device like a spokeshave, and that held in a plane. In a recent thread re scrapers some of us were at cross-purposes because there is as yet no unanimity on what name to use. If you go to LV and ask for a cabinet scraper you will have to clarify your choice.
Before the 19th c. , according to the OED, scraper was used in a very general sense, the only one specific to woodwork being scraping-plane. Card did refer to scraping in the wool and cloth trade, originally using teazel but later a metal plate, to remove fuzz from cloth and to clean skins. I doubt that that has anything to do with the use now because there's no continuity of usage.
Language does and must change, even if to an old codger like me the change grates on the ear. If we stuck to the way our ancestors did it we'd still be speaking Anglo-Saxon. That wouldn't bother me too much, but I'd have a hard time ordering stuff at HD. There were words for adze and axe, but not many other tools.
Jim
Most card scrapers are about the size and proporation of 3x5" index cards. Not all and not exactly 3x5", but the similarlity is there just the same. Language evolves. There is nothing more intrinsically "true" about the name "hand scraper" than "card scraper" for the same item. Indeed, "card" arguably imparts more useful information as is differentiates the scraper being referred to from the Stanley 80, paint scrapers, and pontentially various scraper planes. Card also to my mind conjures the notion of a rectangular scraper as opposed to steel sheet stock scraper made in the shape of french curves and the like. Both may be "hand" or "steel" scrapers, but the "card" is the rectangular one.
wdwrite, when first introduced to the tool they were called scrapers or cabinet scrapers by all the old farts that taught me in the workshop I trained at.
Later, probably sometime in the late '80's I saw the term card scraper in an American woodworking rag, probably FW now that I think about it. It didn't take a lot of brains to work out the author was describing a scraper.
Although I don't use the term 'card scraper' I do think it's a very good descriptive term. I don't mind someone using it and language does evolve, so it's not objectionable to me.
Now, if you want a word used indiscriminately that does get my goat, it's dado. I'm pretty tired of (and I'm afraid it's mostly American) woodworkers that describe every groove, channel and slit as a bloody dado. A dado goes across the grain, never with it. Slainte.
Richard Jones Furniture
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