For many years I have been making scrapers from can and bottle openers (sometimes called church keys). I grind the ends of the openers to custom shapes for restoring antiques and scraping odd-shaped trim; they’re also great for scraping glue out of tight corners. I have more than 50 different shapes that I use over and over again. To make a scraper, I first snap off the little tabs. Then I grind the pointed end to fit the project at hand, beveling the back of the blade slightly. The curved ends of the openers are just the right angle for efficient scraping.

Drawing by Jim Richey

Drawings by Jim Richey

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