The #22 Long Sand Scorp

The idea for this tool grew out of many influences. One was a need for a tool that would get inside a sculpture's spaces and gently carve sand away with little pressure. When you're working on an arch an inch thick you don't want to have to push on a tool.

My first attempt pretty much failed. This was the #19 Shaver Tool, and its blade was too wide for the purpose, the handle too much curved, and the blade too close to the handle so that it filled up with sand. It did work very well in one way: because its blade was bent back toward the operator, and sharpened, it did remove sand very gently and with little pressure on the sculpture. Call it proof of concept.

A year later I tried again, with the #20 Loopfinger. This was in essence a loop tool whose handle was attached at 45 degrees and I thought this would make it dig more gently. Again, I was wrong. The blade was too thick to angle into the sand, a problem it shared with the #1 Loop Tool. The Loopfinger did excel, however, in digging deep and fast so I changed its name to Powerloop and it's a valuable member of the team.

So, we need a tool that digs gently. We know the blade angled toward the user works. We know the loop tool works without packing up with sand because the waste sand just passes through the loop. How do we make a tool that combines these features in a useful size? I already had the shop set up for making the replacement tools.

I went back into the house and started drawing. I learned this from Mauricio. I decided to angle the blade at 30 degrees, and to put the bevel on the outside so the edge could be directed into or away from the sand; inside bevels tend to dig in uncontrollably. It had to be long enough to reach deep inside, even from the top. I chose a piece of walnut salvaged from the carpenter shop and went to work.

It's important to me that my tools tell me where they are just by feel. That way I don't have to turn my attention away from the sculpture. I can pick up the tool and my hand knows where it is on the handle, and where the blade is pointing. Pick it up and go to work. So, I chiseled the sides of this tool away in a long triangular area to make the cross section asymmetric. Sanded and oiled, it was quite pretty. I wondered how it would work.

The big test came at the end of the week. I knew the tool would have a problem with size but only use would show how effective it was. Beauty certainly didn't save the Shaver. Well, this time it turned out differently: this tool is excellent. It cuts with low pressure, it's quite sensitive even with its size, and I can feel everything it does.

The Long Sand Scorp worked so well that a couple of weeks later I made a smaller one. This one was much harder to make because its blade had to be as compact as possible. Using the same design desiderata, the Medium Sand Scorp is just as effective as the big one. They're both permanent members of the team.

The word "scorp," by the way, is somewhat of a mystery. It's not in my dictionary. Scorps are commonly used in woodworking, and they look much like the one I made. The key concept is that they cut on the pull stroke. I have one hint that the woodworking scorp was derived from some sort of agricultural tool, but this is unconfirmed.