Great Gear: Small but mighty tool for burnishing

This article is from issue 115 of Woodcraft Magazine.

Small but mighty tool for burnishing 

Accu-Burr Jr

Forming a uniform burr on the edge of a card scraper can be a bit challenging. My preferred burr-making tool had always been a chromed hardened-steel rod and it served me well over the years. However, I recently acquired an Accu-Burr Jr from Blackburn Tools and Union Manufacturing Company, which is a solid carbide burnisher with three angled grooves to make fine, medium, or coarse burrs (5, 10, and 15 degrees, respectively). If you’ve done a good job of prepping the scraper edge: filing, honing , and so forth, the Accu-Burr Jr creates will be perfect along the entire edge. It also works on any scraper shape or hardness and requires less pressure than a steel rod, a real plus if you use gooseneck scrapers. This tool gets high marks for its ergonomics, aesthetics, and results. Its solid brass handles are comfortable and attractive, and their hexagonal shape prevents the tool from rolling off your bench. (Carbide is notoriously brittle, so a hard fall could be an expensive accident.) The only reservation I have is that the Accu-Burr Jr is priced for very serious users.

—Larry Okrend