Making profiles for a Stanley #66

I bought this stanley #66 beading scraper a while back. It only cost me a couple of euro’s but it was missing its fence and only had one scraper blade included. Otherwise, it was in great shape. I haven’t been able to date the thing exactly, but I read that it was probably made somewhere between 1900 and 1941, since it doesn’t look like it was once japanned. I ordered a Lie-Nielsen fence for it, which fit after a bit of filing, and some Lie-Nielsen blanks.

Here’s what I used to make these blanks into cutters:

I ended up not using the marker, but just scratching to mark. Which files you need will depend on what kind of profile you aim to make.

I clamped in the blank and marked a center line by measuring and marking from both sides. I often use my calipers as markers, by scratching with the tips. It’s a lot harder than most things I mark, so this doesn’t damage them.

I wanted to make a small, simple bead. I used a round file for this. Then I marked one centimeter down on both sides.

I filed down a slant from next to the bead to the line. This will make a slope in the wood to the bead.

I decided to put a bevel on the back of the profile. My #81 scraper also had this slope. It makes it easier to turn a burr on such a thick blank.

I polished all sides a smooth as possible on wet-dry sandpaper and stropped them with chrome oxide honing compound. I don’t think this matters for the cutting, but it makes the cutter look nice.

I tried the beading tool on some spruce and it worked fine. It’ll probably work even better on harder wood. After this small bead I made a larger bead on the other end of the cutter using a larger file. Making these cutters is easy, the blanks are cheap and buying them ready made from Lie-Nielsen is expensive. Just buy some blanks and give it a go.