I'm installing unfinished 5" white oak T&G and want to create the handscraped look (we have five kids and a dog so might as well do it on purpose). I'm going to be doing about 800 sq ft and would like to know the easiest way to scrape the floor. What tool, what are the steps, techniques, tricks??

Thanks for your help.

Just sharpen your ice skates, put them on and then haul ass across the floor.

It will be both fast and fun.

Scrub Plane and Spoke Shave (curved blade) We do it while it acclimates on saw horses. Use block plane to bevel edges. Lei Nielson Makes the ideal scrub plane. Seen 'em from $140.00 - $170.00. Spoke shave is cheaper 'bout $30.00 and will get you by for one job. Don't forget to hit any seen ends you've sawn with the block plane before you nail down. I like to stain it too just to highlight the patina. You should have planks that closelyu resemble Homerwood's Pre scraped.
Hope that helps ... Don't forget to oil your elbows with some extra elbow grease

Realy nuthin to it
e-mail me if you need pointers

William:

Care to put together some pages on that? Sounds interesting

http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwo ... rticle.htm

Sure Ken. There are four jobs coming up. Three are hickory and one will either be ash or white oak.(soon as the h/o makes a decision.)

I'll grab a bunch of pics of us working over the planks and e-mail them to you for a kind of photo journal ... I only hope none of my competitors are reading. We make bank on the process and I personally enjoy it more than running an edger 8-10 hrs. a day.

I believe Festool have a planer with a special drum/blade that is supposed to give that hand scraped look with less work. I don't know how well it works though.

Seen it used. Kinda wish I had one (confessions of a tool junkie) but my concern is planer chatter marks making it look a bit obvious (to me anyway) that it was machine done... besides, I spend so much time around power equipment I kinda like to do some hand scraping as a sort of break from running equipment. You know ... catch up on some radio listnin time and get paid for it ....

PS 800 ft. takes two of us 2 short days (6-8 hrs per day) 3-4 days if you take it in stride 5-6 if ya just do acouple hours in the eavenings after your day job spread it out over your 7-10 days of acclimation ... woods just sittin there doin nuthin while acclimating anyway .....

have fun,
William

Thanks for the info -- should have known a fellow Idahoan would know what to do. I'm originally from Poky. I'll give it a shot and get my 16 year old son and some of his friends to hire on.

I look forward to seeing your pictures -- you could write a book about how to do it. As popular as it is, there is nothing about how to do it in print anywhere. I've searched. Most of what is done down here in the DFW area is cross-grain scraped with a paint scraper.

DFW?? How bout that? You're from Idaho living in Dallas and I'm from Dallas living in Idaho!! Figure the odds. My mom works in Las Collinas near the airport. My old stomping grounds are around Lake Tawakoni. Do me a favor and eat at Joe's Crab Shack once for me, would ya? And I'll do my best to snag a steelhead this Spring.

You're right about the info. I had to pay real close attention to pictures of Amish working on planks and realy look at marks on the wood and blow the dust off of some old time hand tool manuals to find what I needed. I'ts easier to get information about nuclear bombs from our gov't than it is to find someone willing to spill thier guts about 'how to' on hand scraping. This little chat here is the result of about 6 months of homework. I REALLY hope I haven't messed up and made public some kind of big secret. I mean I'm getting more than double the labor than sand on site in half the time and employee labor and most of my competitors are paying tripple for prescraped wood in short lengths to only get half thier usual labor for install only. I'd rather keep the money myself than pay some Amish fella and his kids to scrape it in Pensylvania ... duh!
And besides ... I don't gotta run no dang edger!!! AMEN?

So long Tex ... feel free to e-mail me if you need more info ... same to anyone else reading this rant(as long as your not a competitor )

Add in another Texan looking to learn how to hand scrape. Can't say I've ever been to Idaho, but I did eat at Joe's last weekend. D.chatt- you're correct about the cross grain scraping, I can't believe how many of these I've seen around here, and in my opinion they don't even look good- rather have sanded floors.

Ten years ago we installed 3/4" unfinished oak in our current home, are buying another now and the thought of all that sanding again is enough to push me over to prefinished. Have been looking around, but the cost for the good prefinished hand scraped is a bit prohibitive. Any light you'd be willing to shed on the subject would be appreciated.

Am I right in assuming NO sanding is involved when hand scraping- even before scraping? I would be scraping before install.

I'd like to know more about how you stain- are you staining before install, when do you poly? I saw a multistep stain on a hand scraped floor that was very impressive, had used different colors, wiped in between coats, etc.

And of course as much information as you're willing to share on the scraping technique...

I also would like to view your hand-scrape technique....really hope you are able to post these. I looked into this (dogs....) but is quite expensive for prefinished. One question. When you install do you actually try to recreate wear-zones and patterns. In other words, do you have more or less wear depending on where the boards are placed. Usually areas (next to the sink, doors etc) in the older houses have more use and show it. If you don't try to recreate this do you have a floor that just looks worn or traumatized, without having the character of "old and well used"? Just curious. Anyway, hope you are willing to reveal your secrets. Seems it should be easier to distress a floor than build a nuke!

P.S. I am a Texan moved to Idaho and now in the northeast (rather be back in TX or in the NW). You've lived there long enough if you can properly pronounce lake Pend Oreille!

DVMMom

O.K. Here goes...
There are several teqniques from simple "hand scraping" (what I'll talk about here) to "hand distressing" or "aging" which can be WAY more involed all the way down to duplicating worm holes and worn areas etc. But for now let's just do a hand scraped floor.

Tool List:
*Saw Horses
*Clamps to hold planks to horses, quick clamps work well.
*Small Block Plane for beveling edges
*Convex (curved) Spoke Shave (works like a draw knife)
*Straight Spokeshave (optional)
*Regular flooring scraper with blade sharpend to a curve.
*Scrub Plane (you'll do some homework finding one, Lie Nielson is best...trust me. Could only find them on-line and don't waste your time or money on the $70.00 ones made of wood. Spend $140-$170 +s&h for Lie Nielson. BUT a spoke shave will get you by for one job and the results are great. If you're doing white oak or hickory buy a few 'cause yes you can break one hitting a knot.
*Installation Equipment (of course)
*Buffer with 3/4" white pad instead of 1/4" driver pad.
120 and 150 grit screens (depend on species and your desired effect)
and the rest is the usual stuff ... vaccuums, stain gear (if desired), and finish application gear

NOTE: best to brush on Poly by hand with 12" brushes ... for pointers on this method drop me an e-mail. Water borne can be kinda tricky 'cause the scraped wood texture can cause bubbles if you're not extra careful.

EXPERIMENT with your hand tools. By now you've seen pics and samples of stuff you like so... give it a go. Carve some wood. Notice how it scrapes in one direction compared to the other. Don't get too worried, the first 50 ft. are the hardest. IT WILL TAKE TIME TO FIGURE IT OUT. Setting the blade depth on these tools is something you're just gonna have to play with. It is your floor so decide if you want unique patterns or want to follow grain or heavy or subtle texture it's all up to you. I've found that less is more on blade depth. Shaving wood is better that fighting and gouging.

Assuming you've purchased wood and it has been delivered to the site and the site is propper for acclimation....

1) Find your favorite style of STURDY sawhorsees and set them up in the best work area available on your site. I screw the legs to the floor for added strength. You want to be in an area where you can have your 'before' pile on one side and your 'after' pile on the other. And be able to vaccuum shavings up frequently.(Note: if you smoke, dont flick yer ashes in the flamable stuff piling up around your feet!)

2) I like to bevel the edges first while thier in a stack on the floor before i kick a row (3-5 boards) onto the horses. (NOTE: Stack short ones that don't reach both horses on long ones that do and clamp em both to the horse ... one end clamped should be enough) Again.. EXPERIMENT ... do you want a worn edge look, straight bevel, large, small, un-even? ... all up to you. Just don't run a sliver up in your hand And be careful on end grain you can splinter the edge if you go too aggressive on your blade depth. One person can do this phase while others scrape, even rotate people to different phases as you go. If you're gonna use two part epoxy to fill nots, now is a good time to put duct tape on the back of your planks (if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about ... e-mail me.

3) (Works best with a person on each end) Scrape with scrub plane (unless all you're using is a spoke shave) Hopefully you've done some experimenting by now and your ready to rock-on. Scrub plane first for more subtle, plank length troughs then spoke shave next for choppier, busier, more follow the grain look. Dont worry about little tags or chatters from blade skipping. Tags will be buffed off after install and chatters tend to add to the look. Fine tuning your look can be done with the regular floor scraper that you used your bench grinder on to shape the blade with then fine sharpened with your file.

4) CONGRATULATIONS! The hard part is over. Now fully finish acclimating and install. NOTE: If you like direction changes and doorway headers etc. remember to block plane the ends that have been sawn and can be visible in your floor so all your edges are beveled.

5) Whether stained or natural now is the time to even out the look by screening. This is no different than normal sanded floor screening before stain or finish except I now TRY to over screen and even cause a little "dish-out" here and there. I'll screen whole job against grain and again with grain. Most of the time 120 is good. Sometimes I'll go over once more with the grain with 150 if I'm concerned about scratces with some species and stains. I've found that using the thicker pad, made for pollishing, as a driver pad will help the screen follow the contour of your handscraping. If you can find 'em, steel wool pads work well too (BUT NOT IF YOU INTEND TO USE WATER BORNE FINISH!)
If you are resin filling your knots,before you screen, have them poured, dried and scraped down to match the surface.(orbital palm sander and tiger disc help too)

6)Stain/Finish -Nothing special on these steps, but I do recommend the brush on technique with finish for a more thorough application. Rag on and wipe of still works great for stain. Stain is a great way to show off the patina look those chattermarks gave you.
Screening between coats with purple pad and either 180 or 220 strips still works and recommended. PERSONAL NOTE ... I love tung oil finish on these floors. Recommend Waterlox.

Some awesome pics at www.wideplankflooring.com and ALL of those floors are done in tung oil and I have it from an insider that the brand they repackage and sell IS Waterlox. Notice on the site (under the hand distress link) the different variety of edges. The realy un-even "worn" looking edges can be gradually shaped with a flat spokeshave. Most of these pics are a more subtle, scrub plane only texture.

All of this info is quite honestly what you need to know to reproduce the pictures on that site and most pre-scraped floors available.

There are other techniques such as wire brushing, "summer" grain scraping, and even the notorious "beat the hell out of it with some chains" style. One fella even asked if I could wear golf shoes while I worked ... The most in depth process involes disressing, installing, staining ebony then scraping AGAIN after install to leave black down in the grain and joints etc. then finishing with tung oil or even coffee brown wax ... TONS of knuckle bustin going on those ones.

So hopefully All this helps ... AND HOPEFULLY none of my competitors are reading ...

HAVE FUN

P.S. Ken, I'll have to get you some pics ...

William, this is great information -- thank you.

One more question. I have already knocked the edgest down a bit (with the tip-top of a 1/2" router bit) because I like the look of each board being beveled. I was planning on installing and then scraping while on the floor. This puts me on my hands and knees but would avoid another week of not having it down and not having to work on the sawhorses. I'm told I have to wait two weeks after install to finish.

Would it be a lot harder to scrape after install?

Thanks!

A little more uncomfortble scraping after install but definitely do-able. At least they won't move around while you're trying to pull or push your plane/spokeshave. As a full time floor guy ... anytime I can do a sufficient amount of work standing up ... I'm all for it.

As far as waiting ... Not as critical on a scraped floor. If you were sanding I'd say let the wood finish moving a bit before sanding and finishing. You will not notice overwood or small joint gaps on a scraped floor as much ... and some think it even adds to 'the look'.

The reason for the wait: The wood tends to move from stress either created or relieved from "banging" it to the floor, If you sand immediately after install and get the floor totally flat while it's still doing it's thing, you'll find high edges (overwood) not long after your first coat. So, the prescription ... let her settle down then knock 'er flat. Since a scraped floor isn't exactly "flat" ... probably no worries.

Hope that helps ...

Excellent, detailed information, thank you! I wont be ready to start the floor for a couple months, so I'll probably have more questions for you then. For now, I'll start practicing on some old boards I have in the garage.

Would there be any problems (warping, etc) if I were to start scraping the floor for the new house, at the old house, so long as I properly acclimated the floor in the new house once we have possesion (it is not new construction). What if I were to store the scraped wood in my current garage?