Thread: Woodcut bowl gouge and jig puzzle!

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I quite like Woodcut's bowl gouge tips.

Woodcut gouge tip.jpg

For an M2 steel they perform very well and they have a very nice parabolic flute profile.

One of the claimed advantages of their solid shafts is that they are less flexible, although I've never found an issue with vibration in full length flutes. I do, however, like to take advantage of Woodcut's extra long shafts for some applications like turning inside deep bowls and hollow forms.

Although I haven't done it myself (because I'm not much chop as a metal worker) another advantage of the tips is that they are an economical way of getting a bowl gouge if you make your own shafts (and handles). The tips themselves are reasonably priced compared to buying a full length flute BG of equal quality.

Woodcut Gouge Replaceable Tips | Woodwork Machinery..

There may not appear to be much usable length in them, but with the CBN wheels that we have now that grind so little off when resharpening they are going to last much much longer than most of us would expect and very few of us will ever grind one beyond its usable life.

If ever you did need to replace a tip or add one to your DIY shaft here is a video with Terry Scott doing that.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/28...p/mp4/file.mp4

Anyway, to the main purpose of this thread... the Woodcut bowl gouge and jig puzzle!

Woodcut make many excellent tools and accessories for the woodturner, including their bowl gouges and their Tru-Grind sharpening system, one of the best gouge sharpening jigs on the market.

CWS Store - Woodcut Tru Grind Sharpening System

However, those two (their BGs and sharpening jig) don't work together as well as they could or should, IMO.

I find the Tru-Grind jig works very well with full length fluted gouges. One of the things that a sharpening jig achieves is repeatability; ie. precisely the same grind every time. With full length flutes the jig holds the gouge by clamping across the top of the flutes to hold it at the same rotational angle. If the flute is ground properly (ie symmetrical) it should hold the gouge true to its 'axis of symmetry' and the grind should be the same on both wings.

With the round shaft on the WC BGs the jig has no easy and accurate way of holding the gouge and setting the axis of symmetry in the jig so it is true to the face of the grinding wheel every grind.

Some just eyeball it, but I found that just the slightest variation in rotational angle would miss the edge on one side or the other. At one stage I made up a jig to hold just the tip before aligning the Tru-Grind jig and clamping onto the round shaft but that was fiddly and still not 100% accurate.

Others put a straight edge across the top of the flutes and align the jig with that... OK if you have three hands!

I subsequently adopted the method used by some others of placing a small bar magnet across the top of the flutes and aligning the jig with that. It is still an extra step that takes time, but at least that can be done without an extra hand...

I am currently trying a new method, well new with Woodcut BGs. It's something that turners have done with long fluted gouges when they finally grind down to the point where their jigs run out of purchase across the flutes.... eg from PommyPhil

Aligning Woodcut gouges in sharpening jig

Here is the same thing that I'm trying on one of my Woodcut BGs...

WC BG mod top view.jpg

WC BG mod sideview.jpg

I may have made that flat a little wider than necessary to be held firmly by the jig. Doing that could potentially be an issue for two reasons. Some may be concerned that it will increase vibrations in the otherwise solid shaft, however, I haven't found any indication of that so far. The second issue is how close the flat runs to the drilled hole through the back of the tip to hold it onto the shaft. I'm not anticipating that will become an issue, but I might be wrong there.

If that last point is a concern for you, only grind down the mild steel and leave the tip as is. I ground down the tip that way as I wanted to avoid opening up the jig clamp an extra turn to get past the tip and again when taking the gouge out of the jig... yes, I know!

The above two issues might be the reason why Woodcut hasn't made this modification available, at least as an option, for their BG range. However, I reckon their very good gouges would have done much better if they had managed to deliver a gouge that fits into their also very good sharpening jig so that it clamps the gouge quickly and easily in the same precise orientation every time to give a consistent and repeatable grind.

Anyway, this modified WC gouge is now working a treat with the Tru-Grind (giving quick and repeatable grinds every time), which will probably mean that it will get even more regular use from me now.

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