[Image] Stanley Rule & Level Co. I picked this up a few years ago and played with it some without doing much to sharpen it. This weekend, I decided to sharpen and hone the blade and see what I could do with it.
It wasn't terribly expensive, I think I paid $15 for it. It was cool and unique, so I grabbed it.

It's pretty beat up, but fully functional. Dating it to 1874-1884 due to the logo on the blade, "Stanley Rule & Level Co." The handle is tight, as is the ferrule. A little worse for wear, but still good.
So what is a box scraper? Prior to corrugated boxes, foam peanuts, etc, items used to ship in wooden crates, and often the crates were reused. A box scraper was used to quickly remove any labels or markings from the wood. Especially if you didn't want to ship your widgit in a competitor's crate. So it used a curved iron and sole to allow for wood that isn't flat, and remove just the necessary surface markings.
I pulled the iron and flattened it. The iron was very bent so it took some doing. The edge was badly chewed up, so I reground it with its characteristic curve then honed. 
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The back of the iron is interesting. It's got a folding pattern in the steel. 
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Obviously, I doubt that it's truly folded steel. Cast on sand? No idea. If anybody has some info, post it in the comments.
The sole was pretty beat up. I smoothed down the burrs and worst scratches with some 600 grit paper followed by 1000 grit, then waxed. It pulls smooth and clean, and the iron cuts great.
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But what can it be used for? Since its original use is now obsolete, why would I want one? Well, I started playing with it to clean up the wood top of my lathe stand. Since I use lots of water when finishing and polishing on the lathe, the wood looks pretty nasty. A few quick pulls with this scraper cleaned it right up. I can use a smoothing plane or a sander to get it flat and smooth. Or even leave it as is. It's got a nice hand scraped texture when done.