Thread: Bowl Gouge Grind

http://www.woodcentral.com/newforum/grinds.shtml
http://www.peterchild.co.uk/info1/sflute.htm

Originally Posted by BernieP

1. what grind do you have on bowl gouge ?

Both the old "traditional" square grinds and exaggerated fingernail grinds. 'Cos both have their uses in my shed.

2. Pros and cons?

Square grinds are easy to sharpen freehand, fingernails are probably best left to jigs. (Or those of us bloody minded enough to learn to do 'em freehand. ) I find fingernails are the best for hollowing in general, but are absolute nightmares when there's no bevel support. That's when I use the square grind. I also find square grind is good for the bottoms of deep hollows, such as goblets, where there's no room to swing a fingernail to get the right angle of attack.

3. any advice?

Experiment. Find what works for you... no-one can tell you what that is.

G'Day Skew and Ern

Thanks for reply, looks like I will have to invest in another gouge so I can have one of each, thanks for links Ern.

Cheers
Bernie

Bernie,

You can do pretty much everything to shape the walls of a bowl with the standard grind on a gouge of 3/8th or 1/2".

Getting around the 'corner' - the wall to base transition - can be messy but nothing that the 80 grit 'gouge' or some scraping and time can't fix.

I'm not a fan of swept back wings on a bowl gouge - the fine edge gets knocked off too quick with our hardwoods.

If you are going to invest in another tool, my 'desert island' recommendation is a 3/8" Henry Taylor superflute. The flute has two radiuses: a tight one at the bottom opening out to a wider one. You can hog out the timber with the wings and get fine cuts with the bottom. And the steel is second to none. It's not cheap but it's worth every penny.