Having a handy cat scratcher or cat scratching post is a necessary accessory, particularly if you have a young kitten or cat that has a habit of scratching your furniture or other objects inside the home. It is known that scratching is a natural inbred activity for cats so they can exercise tendons and sharpen their claws and is a method used by some cats to mark out its territory.
A number of years ago I had a kitten that had a nasty habit of clawing anything it could get its claws into. On one occasion I can recall walking into my lounge room and to my horror finding it at full stretch on its hind legs raking the back of my expensive recliner chair. As a result, I scouted around various pet suppliers and bought an expensive scratching post and spent many hours trying to train it to scratch it but it was simply not interested. This prompted me to make my own cat scratcher from a length of square wood about 15 inches long that I found in my shed. As a covering I used an old piece of carpet that I wrapped around and nailed securely onto the wood. My cat surprisingly took a liking to this home-made model so I kept it inside for some time where he used it off and on until he eventually decided that scratching trees and other things outside the home was much more interesting.
If you have experienced a similar scenario with your cat scratching furniture inside your home then you may need to be aware that it is not practical to expect your cat to stop scratching or train it to stop scratching. Also, punishing your cat physically for scratching can also tend to cause long term damage to a cat and could cause it to become scared and afraid of you.
It is difficult to know what would be the most suitable type of scratching post for a cat, although it can be a good idea to choose something firm that is wrapped with a cat-safe substance a cat can dig their claws into. Because most cats have a character of their own, it is hard to know whether it would prefer a basic piece of scrap carpet or a solid secure post.