I really like this little scraper. It’s a dangerous little beast and can cut through most finishes, if not most materials. I’m certain if Carry Underwood dug the Bahco scraper into the side of her boyfriend’s suped-up 4-wheel drive it would have been irreparable.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars 

Experience:
I reviewed the Sandvik/Bahco Carbide Scraper in 2009. These scrapers are some of my favorite tools and I use them often. I have three of the Bahco scrapers and appreciate the strength, positive grip and effective performance. The Bahco detail scraper has a small triangular carbide tip that can be rotated if one side of the triangular blade dulls. The precise corners of this blade allow it to access the smaller detail lines of window dividers, crown moulding or casings and it digs deep into most any material.

Comments:
Use of this tool comes with a cautionary note: Be careful not to damage or destroy the woodwork by using too much force. It’s an effective tool for removing unwanted finish in the hard to access crevices of wood trim.
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Some day I’ll find an old car that I can prove my opening comment on.

Links: Bahco 625 Premium Ergonomic Carbide Scraper.

It’s interesting how some of the tools I appreciate the most I didn’t anticipate owning. Certain tools, like the odd-shaped blade with the dark wood handle, find their way into your shop and take a favorite spot.

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Blades:
That odd-shaped blade with a wood handle is a nineteenth century ink erasure and quill sharpener made by Miller Brothers Cutlery Company between 1872-1926. I own two of them and find them dangerously useful.

With an individual X-ACTO Knife in different specialty toolboxes, two are always within reach. (Picking up the X-ACTO Blade Dispenser was almost as smart as buying the Stanley Utility Knife Blade Dispenser.)

Swiss Army Knives:
If you saw what happened when TSA tried to take away my mother’s Swiss Army Knife you’d know she wasn’t the one who tossed her son’s Victorinox Camper in the jobsite dumpster. Since I found this one in the garbage, I don’t mind abusing it. Over 34 years ago I received my first Swiss Army Knife (a Tinker) and couldn’t count how many Victorinox knives I own today.

Unfortunately for the Victorinox Classic without scales, it was on the keychain that I left on a scorching stovetop burner for 20 minutes. I still haven’t come up with the $400 they want to replace my truck’s keyless entry. Scales or not, I still find this ‘classic’ useful.

Beauty & Health:
Something every woodworker knows well about is the tweezer. Here, amongst my most reached for tools are three pair. The Tweezerman LTD Point Tweezer I HIGHLY recommend owning. These are precision ‘point’ tweezer, so sharp you can slice your skin to get at the intruder. (When these are too small, I use Uncle Bill’s Sliver Gripper Tweezers that didn’t make the photo.) The other set shown is rusty and barbaric and I use them for projects. The last thing they did (yesterday) was hold a battery contact while I soldered it back in place.

Two vintage health and beauty aids including a Revlon Stainless finger nail file and a small vintage screwdriver are also among the frequently used workbench tools in my shop.

For thousand of years the Axe has been a quintessential tool for humankind. Once an integral part of every carpenter’s tool box, the axe is rich with symbolism, history and function. An Axe is a bad-ass tool in the hands of a carpenter and the Trail Boss was an instant favorite that I now carry in my truck day-to-day! Though I queued up nearly a dozen Fiskar and Gerber modern ceramic chopping tools before purchasing this traditional steel axe with it’s hickory handle, I am very happy with my purchase.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Description:
The Cold Steel Trail Boss is a 23″ wooden-handled traditional european-shaped ‘camp’ axe weighing about 2.5 lbs. It’s economical price and beautiful 4 1/2″ cutting edge combined with a classic hickory handle sold me on this axe over dozens of others.

Specifications:
Primary Edge: 4 1/2″
Overall: 23″
Hawk: 6 1/2″
Weight: 41.5 oz.
Drop Forged 1055 Carbon Steel

Experience:
I bought the Cold Steel Trail Boss at Amazon during the extraordinary winter of 2010-2011 for one purpose alone, chipping ice dams. A condition New England homes experience as continuing heavy snows accumulate, melt and refreeze causing lifted roofing, ice penetration and leaks. Ice dams can cause significant damage. To effectively chop them down, I needed an axe that I could use with one hand, while leaning from a ladder in the freezing cold. A hatchet is ineffective and a full-size axe too heavy. As with most construction jobs a back-breaking task is made a lot easier with the right tools.

Once I got my hands on this 23″ axe, I was set for weeks of work with just three tools; my snow-shovel, a framing hammer and my new Trail Boss axe. (and a lot of ladders)

I cut more ice with this axe than you could imagine, clearing ice as high as 24″ from gutter after gutter. (I cleared so many feet of roof that I actually started to get in better shape from the workout and wished that the pay, and the harsh winter, lasted a little longer.) When work ended on the roof, I used the Trail Boss to chop away driveway ice, some more than one foot thick. It was pretty cool work, hitting the ice with an axe, sometimes the ice would pop off in large chunks, others were tenacious.

With winter past, I recently used my Trail Boss to rip a rotten cedar roof, plywood and all. One tool demo’d the three layers of material pretty quickly. I felt like a fireman, which got me thinking I might like one of their axes next.

Comments:
I’ve never shied from admitting my inexperience. Throughout a lifetime of tool use with a true affinity for ‘the blade’, I am not sure I understand steel hardness or it’s various forms. What is 1055 steel and how does that fit in with Rockwell hardness? What are S30V® 440A, 44oC, AUS8, 1055, 5160 etc…? I know there’s some bit of strength and flexibility in the Rockwell #’s so 5160 steel is probably rockwell 51, 60 – but what is 1055 Steel? …That I never learned that one in science class. (or I skipped that day)

My only concern with this Axe came at sharpening time. It was so easy to mill-file the edge to shape. Common sense might say an axe shouldn’t be brittle because it will break – so there must be a fine line between hard and too hard when it comes to an axe blade. I don’t know where this axe falls. ..and how does this compare to newer ceramics?

I sharpened it beautifully!~ after filing, I used a coarse diamond plate to smooth my work, then a fix blade cutter to define the sharpest of edges. This Cold Steel Trail Boss is ready to shave with, though it’s a mighty thick razor. I love it!

THE AXE – What a great tool to have and hold. What a great tool in action!

Links:

Manufacturer’s website: Trail Boss

Check the excellent price on the Cold Steel Trail Boss with Hickory Handle at Amazon~!

Notes:
I, like man for thousands of years before me, hold my axe in high regard. Held firmly it is an empowering tool. Sharpened, it makes quick work of it’s task. There is something about ‘my’ axe, as if it’s engrained in my DNA, that suits and pleases me deeply. There is little more satisfying that a refined blade, one with heft and the tactile experience of a select hickory handle, one with a smooth curve from toe to heel, from blade to butt, that make owning and using an axe a symbol of pride.

I know there are higher-quality axes available but due to an empty wallet I couldn’t afford to spend a penny more than I did so I am very pleased with the overall size and quality of the Cold Steel Trail Boss for the price.

In all the articles I’ve written for ToolboxBlog.com I am not sure if I’ve ever actually directly recommended going out and buying a particular tool. If I think about it right now, I could only recommend my top ten tools. I’m talking to every homeowner out there, not tool people. I don’t care if you buy a cordless drill/driver, I don’t care if you buy a handgun but if you don’t own an axe then I highly recommend you click Cold Steel Trail Boss and buy a nice small affordable axe right now. Maybe you will like it as much as I do, though somehow I doubt it. …because I can throw this one~!

The Bahco Carbide Scraper is of my favorite tools! I know that may seem odd since I’m a carpenter, not a painter, but this carbide scraper does it’s job perfectly which is more than I can say for most tools. I was reunited with my lost Sandvik Carbide Scraper today prompting this gallery of my Sandvik/Bahco contractor-grade scrapers.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Experience:

A great thing happened today! I had done some work for the same client years ago. Today, I needed a hex key that I didn’t have with me and checked in the client’s open toolbox in the garage where I found my Sandvik Carbide Scraper. Lest you think I was imagining it was my long lost scraper I recognized my social security number engraving. (see my dremel 290.)

My specialty as a contractor often requires the scraping of many layers of old paint to get at the woodwork. I recently used the Bahco scraper during a large window replacement job. After prying away the window stop we removed 6′ x 6′ panels of glass before using the Bahco scraper to clean away debris, lots of old silicon and paint from the openings. This is a heavy duty tool producing fine woodworking results.

After losing my Sandvik Scraper years back I quickly replaced it. The new one says ‘Bahco’ on the handle. Hmm… could have sworn the one I lost said Sandvik. One and the same is my guess.

Comments:

This scraper is on the short list of my favorite tools. I own many different scrapers. I can’t exactly remember the specific job I bought my Sandvik scraper for but I immediately liked the results. This is a dangerous tool! Why? Because it really scrapes. You can just as easily scrape a hole in a car door as you could scrape a few layers of paint off an old front door.

I noticed the new one is different, with a design change to allow more exposed blade at the edges. Should help getting in tight corners.

If I had a highly recommended list, the Bahco Carbide Scraper would be on it!

Links:
Bahco 665 Premium Ergonomic Carbide Scraper

Bahco 650 2-edge Wood/paint Scraper 2

Bahco 625 Triangle Detail Scraper

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As a carpenter, I don’t get to put my lathe to much use. As a homeowner with a penchant for furniture making I get a chance to crank out a few turned pieces over the year. Even after a decade of hobby-type interest in the lathe I feel like a novice when I set a blade to the spinning material.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Features:

• 1/8″ gouge
• 1/4″ gouge
• 1/4″ skew chisel
• 1/4″ round-nose scraper
• 1/16″ parting tool

Experience:

In 2008 I turned some legs from 12/4 stock for a 9′-long bench I made from a pine slab but that didn’t allow for the use of my Sorby ‘micro’ tools. If you look at the picture, you’ll see the cobwebs and rust that plague this quality tool set. Respected but neglected, these are supposed to be quality turning tools. (Like their nice Walnut rack?)

You don’t need a mini-lathe to use a Micro Turning Set. Soon after purchasing my 36″ Jet lathe I picked up these small-scale turning tools for the work I enjoy the most; Santa’s Christmas Workshop.

My Lathe is set off on it’s own in a small room devoted to the machine and it’s various accessories. I put off turning the legs for that slab for a long time. Sometimes the tasks we ‘have’ to do take a backseat to the projects we’d rather do.

Since I don’t turn for a living, this Sorby Micro Turning Set is reserved for the projects I like to do.

Links:
Sorby Micro Turning Set at Amazon.com

This is a great tool for a miserable task, cutting Cement Board. My first experience with WonderBoard^® was far from wonderful. Even now that I’m fairly proficient with this material dealing with it still sucks. It’s hard, it scratches, it’s heavy and it’s difficult to cut. I don’t mind putting a diamond blade in a skilsaw to cut cement backer board but no matter what, I’ve got this nondescript double sided carbide tipped cutter “knife”. Scratch through the fibers, score the concrete board, crack like sheetrock. Good Luck with complex cut-outs.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars – This tool got a good rating simply for existing and for being very dangerous.

Links:
Carbide Cement Board Cutter
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1. Famowood Water-Based Wood Filler
2. *Mixol Universal Tinting Paste – get a couple colors, a little goes a long way.
3. Hyde Tools 3/4″ Flexible Putty Knife