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Hand-Scraped Flooring?

Hand Scraped Flooring.jpgIt’s funny how we spend a lot of money to make our floors glass-smooth. Tile, laminate flooring, and prefinished hardwood are at the top of the list. And for those of us with 100-year old hardwood floors, we spend a lot of time sanding and refinishing to get a smooth surface for our stocking feet.

Well, as proof that what goes around comes around and that history repeats itself, HomerWood® Hardwood Flooring (a subsidiary of Armstrong World Industries, the vinyl flooring manufacturer) has come out with a line of “hand-scraped” hardwood flooring. Yep.  Hand-scraped. By humans.  The Amish, as a matter of fact. They’re calling this new line of flooring the Amish Hand-Scraped™ Collection. Now, I don’t know what HomerWood is charging for this flooring, but I bet it isn’t inexpensive. And apparently there’s a segment of our population that is willing to spend the money for a “hand-tooled” finish.

Personally, I think they misnamed it.  Why?  Because in the photo on this page, the Amish man is using a hand plane (looks like a No. 4). And in the photo on this page, another Amish man is using a drawknife.  A drawknife?! Neither of which can be called a “scraper.” When I think of a scraper, I think of a Stanley 112 or at least a No. 74.  Or the modern Lie-Nielsen Large Scraping Plane or the Veritas® Scraping Plane.

In any case, I think “Hand-Tooled” might have been a better name. Maybe we ought to offer to go teach the marketing folks at HomerWood a little about hand tools.

Posted on Friday, April 20th, 2007 at 8:36 am. Filed under Hand Planes, Hand Tools, Hardwoods.
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3 Responses to “Hand-Scraped Flooring?”

david johnloz said,

I was wondering, which blade is used to create the long runs or hollows you see in the “Amish hand-scraped ” floor styles.

Thanks,

Dave Johnloz

(posted on February 23rd, 2009 at 3:10 pm)

Joel Hess said,

Dave,

I’m not sure what tool was used for this flooring, but the marks look like those left by a scrub plane.

Joel Hess

(posted on February 24th, 2009 at 10:14 am)

Mike Mielcarz said,

What kind of scrub plane? I googled scrub planes, and all that showed up was just the regular looking planes, with straight edge blades. Those wouldn’t make the grooves in the floor boards. Can you put different, curved blades in a scrub plane? What about an Inshave? or some sort of draw knife? I’m looking to do this type of effect on about 40 feet of 6″ wide boards, and can’t find anywhere online that says how they “handscrape” each floor board.

(posted on July 4th, 2009 at 11:28 am)