Thread: Carbide Cutters

I got 3 of these from 'Eddie' they're very good and last a long time.i got a piece of 20mm mild steel bar and made my own tool

Paul

I find the such cutters work fine. But often down under we have some silica content to the timber and this plays merry hell with any edge .

like the your idea of the 600g lap for touch ups, it obviously produces a nice fine edge and by the sound of it you have some fairly hard wood to play with up your way as well.

I renew the edge on my carbide tips in batches, and that way I avoid any down time, other than a tip change, while turning.

My preferred method is to only sharpen the edges and leave the polished upper face as supplied by the manufacturer; I do this as I'm never going to get that face as smooth again with any sharpening method that I have available, well not in any reasonable amount of time. I have found that the polish on the cutting face has a noticeable effect on the durability of the cutting edge and the quality of the cut.

I sharpen the edges upside down on a diamond wheel. The matrix bond tends to let the diamonds go (some bonds are stronger than others) before the diamond themselves wear out. Presenting the cutter upside down to the diamond wheel on the bench grinder avoids the sharp edge of the TC picking out the diamonds from the matrix.

BTW - I dislike the way hogging down with a scraper, made of whatever metal, sprays you with splintery shavings... With a gouge you can direct the shavings away from you...