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Hand Scraped Wood Flooring

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Hand scraped wood flooring is as authentic an antique wood floor as you are going to find.

Before electricity, the edges and ends of each floor board were scraped flush to the edges and ends of its neighbors.

When you were done, a room would look something like this:

275 Sq. Ft. of 7" Pine Plank in 1 hour

No amount of hand sanding was going to make those scraper marks go away, but sanding machines did when they were invented.

And most people said, "Good riddance!"

So what's going on?

Why the urge to hand scrape a floor?
or pay someone at the factory to do it for you?

(which IS cheating, by the way...)

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We love stories, right?

To tell the kin, "I hand scraped this floor myself." Now that's a great story!

For others it's the most appropriate look for an overall rustic design.

Then there's the growing family who just knows the floor is going to get beat up, so... beat it up to begin with and then we won't feel so bad! (I like that.)

And hand in glove with that attitude is the cost savings.

You might be tempted to go out and buy a spoke shave or draw knife.
These will last for generations, if they haven't, already!

So, check with Grandpa, first. If you wish to distress your flooring, you might also ask him for any chisels or awls, as well.

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To Hand Scrape on Your Hands & Knees

Job one is learning how to sharpen what ever tool you use. For this series of three videos, I am using a common paint scraper.

Here's a handy tip for knowing when you have scraped a joint flat.

And this video illustrates that the deeper you scrape, the more you need to feather.

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To Hand Scrape Before Installation

And here's the best price on a Jawhorse for you Amazon shoppers.

It's great when you are in the field and quickly want to dress up a board, let's say.

But if we are talking production...well, it's hard to beat the function, (and the beauty,) of a shop hardwood workbench.

This one my father-in-law built from a plan.

It has this great vise for clamping much bigger things than flooring.

But, as you can see, it's very

functional for beveling the edges or the butt ends of your hand scraped wood flooring.

Like the Jawhorse, this clamping business isn't very productive, just necessary.

When a guy needs to make time on the face of the boards, you really would like

some space to lay a few boards out at a time.

Check out these workbench plans if you prefer to make your own.

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