Tool Talk
Picture Forum => Picture Forum => Topic started by: john k on July 28, 2014, 09:39:47 PM
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A basic woodworking tool that someone here is interested in. For shaping chair bottoms, among other things.
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That someone is me. After almost 400 hours of research, the scorp is one of the very few tools I can document for Russian coopers of the 19th Century. In fact, archeologists have dug up examples from the 11th Century.
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It may seem silly, but I'll ask.
What makes it a "scorp" versus a draw knife, or are they the same?
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drawknife has a straight flat blade, the scorp has a half round blade. Think of hollowing out chair bottoms, bowls, dippers and such.
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In 1970 I worked for a one sawmill owner/operator in the mountains of northern New Mexico — Hispanic older fellow. He had a tool he used with one hand to scrape mud, dirty bark, etc. off of logs before a cut that would've been hit by the huge circular blade teeth. When I asked, he called it a "scorp." It was circular and had a single handle. I've never seen another like it. Thanks, John.
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drawknife has a straight flat blade, the scorp has a half round blade. Think of hollowing out chair bottoms, bowls, dippers and such.
If the handles are more or less parallel to a curved blade, it's a hollowing knife (used primarily by coopers). If the handles are above the level of the blade, it's a scorp.
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There can be many definitions for the same thing and cause many arguments. Also definitions change with local and time. Chuck Garrett
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I worked for an older guy who called the furniture along the wall behind his desk a "padenda." Once I replied "credenza?" back to him. He just stared back at me. I always thought his word sounded a little dirty.
Chilly
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There can be many definitions for the same thing and cause many arguments. Also definitions change with local and time. Chuck Garrett
In coopering, the distinction is unarguable. Inshaves are for preparing the staves on a shaving horse, and the handles are set for performing this task. Scorps, on the other hand, are designed to be used *inside* the assembled barrel so the handles don't extend beyond the ends of the blade. The two aren't the same thing. True, both hollow, but then, so does a gutter adze and a bowl adze.
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I got one with a bunch of other coopers tools and the handles are below the blade. This made sense to me since it seem to be more comfortable when sitting at a shave horse. Seems like you wouldn't have to lift your arms so high.
Mike
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I got one with a bunch of other coopers tools and the handles are below the blade. This made sense to me since it seem to be more comfortable when sitting at a shave horse. Seems like you wouldn't have to lift your arms so high.
Mike
That would be an inshave, and just like you thought, it's used while at the shaving horse. The best part about it is that you have greater control over the cut. But you can't use it inside the barrel -- that's work for the scorp.