Thread: What bowl turning tools to buy

You can buy someones experienjce and knowledge by attending a course. If the instructor is worth his salt, it will beat all the tools you can buy anyday.

Good luck

Hi pwill

a course would certainly be worthwhile - Christmas pressie from the wife, maybe?

Hornsby also has a regional group of the Sydney Woodturners' Guild with 30+ members that meet monthly at Annangrove. A few of the members also contribute to this forum. Next meeting is the second saturday in Feb 05. It would be a good way of getting your questions answered.

cheers

Colin

I've been turning about 7 months now and my chisel collection comrpises the 6 piece generic carbatec (and others) chisel set, two home made bowl scrapers, a hamlet half inch skew chisel and a hamlet half inch bowl gouge.

The generic set is a good starting point because they are good enough to do some really nice work with but cheap enough to learn to sharpen on - the skill of sharpening chisels is as important as turning skills.
The bowl scrapers I made myself, one is a standard 10mm scraper and the other is an inch wide with the cutting edge running about 2 inches along the side of the chisel for side work. You buy the tool steel blanks from Carbatec, it's very easy to shape the edge and they work as good as a bought scraper.

If you want all out quality Hamlet is the way to go, british made, beautiful handles and a work of art, but you want to know how to sharpen before you get such nice chisels.

As others have said, a turning club is the way to go, aside from what you'll learn it's great to see what others are up to.
Cheers
Paul

What would be my 'desert island' bowl turning tool? Henry Taylor 3/8" superflute gouge. The varying radius allows you to take fine or heavy cuts, the flute is well polished so your cutting edge is even and the steel is first class.

But as the others implied, it's less about the tool than how you sharpen and use it. Lessons and/or clubs are the way to go.

Hei Ern,
Just checking the website and those Henry Taylor chisels look nice.
Who sells em down here?
Cheers
Paul

Hi Paul,

Carbatec Vic used to.

They're imported by
www.thewoodsmith.com.au
who used to sell them unhandled; check the website. Not cheap but worth every cent in my view.

Beware the sizing though - you know the makers use diff methods of determining the size. I was referring to what HT themselves labelled as 3/8". I also have their 1/4" which I don't find as versatile.

Hooroo

Hello Pwill,

I use a Glaser half inch Ellsworth grind bowl gouge for 80%-90% of my bowl turning, plus a Henry Taylor "Raffern" bowl scraper. I do a fair bit of undercutting of the rims and sometimes use a Rolly Munroe hollowing tool or a Sorby RS200KT if required. Make quite a few hollow and closed forms too.

All the best and enjoy you bowl turning, it's great making the shaving fly.

Peter

I know I am odd man out here, but for 80% of my bowl turning I use a 1/4" Oland tool. It is easy to make and use. For the other 10% I use a 3/16" Oland and a 3/8" Oland. Okay the need is there for the 1/2" Oland but only for roughing. Once in a while I undercut a rim with a hollowing tool but this is really a variation on the Oland. For end grain bowls I like a hook tool.

Darrell
www.aroundthewoods.com

Welcome to the forum Darrell.

Tell us what an Oland tool looks like. And how does it go with hardwoods?

Originally Posted by rsser

Welcome to the forum Darrell.

Tell us what an Oland tool looks like. And how does it go with hardwoods?

An Oland tool is an inserted tip tool with the tip ground to 45 degrees and rounded. A better description and details on making one are found at
http://aroundthewoods.com/oland.shtml

I use it on all kinds of wood, both hard and soft.