The #23 Medium Sand Scorp

One flurry of tool making produced four tools. One of these, the Long Sand Scorp, was a howling success but too big for many jobs. I needed one to get into smaller spaces. I'd also fallen in love with cherry wood; I went to a hardwood lumber yard and bought two boards from which to make tool handles.

This tool was more difficult to make than any other I've done so far. It required several drawings and sketches and some cardboard models of the blade. Why? It had to fit very stringent requirements, centering on being as small as possible while still removing a useful amount of sand.

Besides the planning the tool required very careful work so as to make the small parts fit without splitting. In the interest of lightness, I made one big mistake: planning on holding the blade on with just two screws, offset to prevent blade rotation. This didn't work so I had to squeeze in another screw. In future tools I'll solve this problem either by tapping the metal and using machine bolts, or putting a threaded spacer inside the wood for machine screws. Either technique will prevent splitting by wood screws.

Making this tool took an afternoon and the morning of the following day. Then I had to wait a week to try it. Finally the day arrived; I made a free-pile sculpture after hauling sand for the next day's sculpture.

All of that thought, planning and model-making paid off. This tool works very well. With the Long Scorp I can get just about any interior carving job done quickly, and saving time is one of the big benefits of tools. I have only one day to make a sculpture. The faster I can carve, the more finished the sculpture can be.