Thread: Ever heard of a Twisting Gouge ?

Originally Posted by auscab

I'm amazed once again at how we never stop learning something new.

The bit about the fingernail profile used on the modern bowl gouge having its predecessor in the twisting gouge was new information to me.

Thanks Robert for this interesting thread.

Ive been thinking more about this and the Barley twist was a style used in Jacobean times and later and the thought occurred that rather than hand turning the work piece in the lathe that slow power and the twisting chisel could have been the way they were originally done . I was thinking of trying it out in my metal lathe with its slow speed capability and Ill give it a go.

In the old days before electricity the pole lathe with rope and foot treadle was probably how the chisel was first used for the barley twist . That's very interesting if its correct as the pole and foot treadle in this application does something that couldn't be done any other way except either by hand turning the piece like in the Stuart Mortimer video or until a geared or VFD electric lathe was invented.

Then I saw this .
Barley Twist Gouge

And a different image of the above .

twisting gouge - Google Search


And a thread from here from 2009

Twisting Gouge

Excellent videos Rob; thanks for the link. I’ve always wondered how they were done other than by slow carving.