Thread: New Turner

Just above elbow height with your hand across and slightly raised on your chest. You can go about an inch above if you like.

For bowls i like about 2" above.

The Sorby set has most of the tools you need and are good quality at the right price at the moment..http://www.cws.au.com/shop/item/robe...hs-starter-set

Thanks , yeah I can't fault any of the tools that i've looked at so far, still working out why some are so expensive and others way too cheap though.

This website has quite a selection

Wood Turning Tools Sets

Originally Posted by simonmags

... why some are so expensive and others way too cheap though.....

Quality of the steel & manufacturing.

Simon, As cliff said quality of steel and quality of manufacturing. The set of 8 in the link are carbon steel , fine to play with if you don't mind sharpening them every 2 minuets,. the other sets appear to be short handled which will mean the steel will not be as long , due to leverage. You are better-off to buy a set from Carba-Tech , Hare&Forbes or specialist wood turning outlet, . Sets are a good starting point, I have 1 and I have added a 3mm bowl gouge and a 1/2" bowl gouge , I am also going to buy 1 3/4" roughing gouge, 2 3mm parting tool 3 6mm bowl gouge 4 6mm detail gouge These will depend on the set you buy of course, mine from H&F the bowl gouges are the shallow radiused tools and not a standard type of gouge,. Use your set as a base and expand your tool range as you gain experience. AND IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE HOBBY , JOIN A CLUB . There you can gain knowledge from experienced wood turners. Jeff

Nice of to provide a link to a product 'out of stock'

PS buy unhandled and make your own - can save money and is good practice

Originally Posted by Sawdust Maker

Nice of to provide a link to a product 'out of stock' PS buy unhandled and make your own - can save money and is good practice

More on the way I have been informed.

Originally Posted by Sawdust Maker

Nice of to provide a link to a product 'out of stock' PS buy unhandled and make your own - can save money and is good practice

You will need one tool handled so you can turn the rest. I used a spindle gouge to do most of the turning for a handle. It is not a tool recommended for bowls. So far I am only turning between centers and that's giving me something to do.

Hi Simonmags,
Everybody with a few years Turning Experience have their own ideas on what Tools & which Make to get, so here is what I think. I'm mainly a P&N Chisel Man.
10 or 12 mm. P&N Spindle Gouge.
Make your own Parting Tool from an Industrial Hacksaw Blade, money saved there.
25mm. P&N Roughing Gouge. The only one as far as I'm concerned. Not Cheap, but worth it, as it has a bit of Weight & Guts behind it, Much better than a bent piece of Steel.
Forget the oval skew, buy 2 x 25 x 8mm.Scrapers & turn one into a Skew, the other to a Round Nose Scraper. Either P&N or have a look at the Chinese HSS from John McJing. There is quite a saving by buying 2 Scrapers.
10 or 12mm. P&N Bowl Gouge will do you very nicely.
All these Tool can be bought without Handles.
In the back of Richard Raffan's Book " Turning Wood " has a very nice shaped Handle in it.
The Round pieces of an Aluminum Chair make very good Ferrel's?
Cypress, Gum, Apple, Pear, Lemon, Apricot, Ti Tree, Photinia, Cotoneaster, all these woods are fairly easy to obtain, & make Excellent 13in.- 330mm Handles.
So that is my 2 cents worth.

Now I don't know for sure but the site identified by Simon has as a first set these 'Steelex D2228 Lathe Chisel Set, 8-Piece'.

We can get these in the UK as well, as they were explained to me,

They are poor quality steel and don't hold an edge - so you'll get loads of good practice sharpening.

Please, the old adage applies, buy the best you can afford, they will last you a lifetime.

And the other one I've only reciently learnt, Your not rich enough to buy cheap tools!

Also worth going back to this old thread & follow the links to the even older ones.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f8/lat...estions-46236/

Originally Posted by Sawdust Maker

Nice of to provide a link to a product 'out of stock'

PS buy unhandled and make your own - can save money and is good practice

In stock and waiting for orders

In stock and waiting for orders

As Bob Hudson sang in "The Newcastle Song"......Don't you ever let a chance go by, Oh No...don't you ever let a chance go by.....

Originally Posted by

Just above elbow height with your hand across and slightly raised on your chest. You can go about an inch above if you like.

For bowls i like about 2" above.

The Sorby set has most of the tools you need and are good quality at the right price at the moment..CWS Store - Robert Sorby 67HS Starter Set | Carroll's Woodcraft Supplies

+1 on the height, and definitely a bit higher for bowl turning and hollowing; more like hand on shoulder for that.

I wouldn't buy anything less than the quality of that Sorby set. You will get to use all of those tools to a greater or lesser extent, but expect you will eventually add some other tools to the set as you become a more experienced turner.

Should you decide to go down the unhandled route (eg P&N*) you would be welcome to borrow some handled tools from me to get you under way with making your own handles. Skew, detail gouge and parting tool would get you going for that.

*An issue with the P&N is the milling marks in the gouge flutes that have to be ground/polished out before use, but a quality tool once that is done.

Hi Simonmags,
Directed to NeilS, & I'm wondering about, how old your P&N's are, as when I read your Report, I went & had a look at mine, but could see nothing like you said were on Some P&N's. I have 10 & 12mm Spindle Gouges & 8, 10 & 12 Bowl Gouges, but still nothing there. My 12mm SG would be the oldest as there is only 75mm of Flute left, it's fine. The 10mm BG is the youngest, approx 3yr. old.

Just my thoughts.