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hughie
1st August 2005, 02:50 PM
Hi,
What are the collected opinions on this bowl turning system. The price I know but what of the performance, durability, ease of sharpening etc

regards Hughie

Baz
1st August 2005, 08:41 PM
Dunno, never heard of it.
Cheers
Barry

Tornatus
2nd August 2005, 01:05 AM
G'day Hughie

I assume you mean the Pro-Forme (no 'r') hollowing tool system developed and sold by Ken Port of Woodcut Tools in NZ.

I saw Ken demonstrate his system at our club recently, and it performed very impressively in his hands. One of our members has bought the system, and is happy with it, although still getting used to it. I have had a go with it, and found it tricky to get the fine cutting edge at the precise angle to the wood, but once you hit the "sweet spot", impressive shavings ensue. I can't comment on durability, as my clubmate hasn't had his all that long, but the tool is certainly robustly built of quality materials.

As for sharpening, Ken sells a special jig for the Pro-Forme cutters, which fits his excellent TruGrind sharpening system. It would probably work with the UniJig or similar shop-built jigs, but I can strongly recommend the TruGrind as a simple and effective system for sharpening generally - I sold my UniJig and bought Ken's much-improved design after seeing him demonstrate it.

I don't know if you have visited the Woodcut website, but if not, you should check out the Pro-Forme page, as it has a video showing the system in operation (as does the TruGrind page).