I was looking for a long time at vintage scorps on eBay etc. and I just couldn’t bite the bullet on any particular one. I didn’t want to pay a lot for a vintage tool only to find that it was excessively correded or that the tool steel had been ground right down and left only the substrate steel.
I started looking at new ones and found that there are some very expensive ones on the market individually made by blacksmiths and they look like wonderful tools but this early in my chairmaking journey I just couldn’t justify that amount of outlay.
Here in the UK the most readily available scorps are from the Swiss company Pfeil and Ray Iles. Reading different opinions across the web there wasn’t a huge outpouring of love for the Pfeil tool but I couldn’t find any strong opinions either way on the Ray Iles.
I found that Flinn-Garlick of Sheffield (one of my favourite tools shops) had the Ray Iles scorp for the bargain price of £60 so I thought I’d give it a go.
Getting hands-on with the scorp for the first time I was pleasantly surprised how well balanced it felt in my hands. Bear in mind that I have no point of reference as I’ve never used an inshave / scorp before but I do know when something feels right.
The tool was very sharp right out of the box so there was no work to do to the cutting edge before putting it to the wood.
To take it easy on the scorp (and on myself!) I started out with a piece of softwood. I marked up the front edge of the wood with a scoop similar to that found on a Windsor chair set myself the challenge of working down to the line and hollowing out the block with something vaguely akin to a chair seat profile.
Once I got a feel for the cutting edge I was amazed at how fast I could remove wood. Even more exciting was how cleanly it was cutting. I had a big grin all over my face, this was such fun! I inevitably got carried away and went too far in some areas but overall I delared the test to have been very successful and the tool to have performed well above what it’s modest price tag might suggest.
Next up was the real thing. I was working on my first Welsh style stick chair and I’d elected to make the whole thing from some beautiful Welsh oak that I’d had for over 10 years. I clamped the seat to the bench, marked out some lines and set to work.
I’d expected the oak to be very challenging and to tear badly but working across the grain and taking manageable bites I had a result I was really happy with within an hour or so. The scorp had well and truly proven it’s worth and was set to be a long-term member of my chairmaking tool kit.
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