Thread: Woodturning tools - standard or long handle?

Hmm...

I guess you could say that I like long handles for any job where I'm using two hands on the tool - I always keep one hand near the rest to control the cut and one at the butt of the tool - and standard(ish) handles for finishing cuts or one-handed finesse cuts. eg. when t'other hand is mainly supporting the piece, such as for small finials, etc.

I put longer handles on my roughing gouges and skew chisels, mainly because with the way I work they're often cutting air and all it takes is one serious misjudgement to have a serious catch. The leverage will often help me survive such a catch, even if the piece I'm working doesn't. I really, really. really do not like it when a tool is ripped out of my hands, even if not being sent on a ballistic trajectory at earth escape velocity.

For similar reasons, I like long handles on the bowl gouges I use for quickly hogging out. Especially if I'm hogging out a crotch or punky wood. All I need is to unexpectedly hit a hard knot or whatever and I'm thankful for the extra leverage.

Oh... and I definitely like long handles on deep hollowing tools. Again: leverage.

As to the lengths... well, my larger roughing gouges and deep hollowing tools are in the >600mm range.

My 'heavy' bowl gouges would be in the 550-650mm range.

The rest are probably standard(ish) handles.

There are some exceptions, of course. I have a couple of kryo bowl gouges I use exclusively for finishing cuts but I have long handles on them because it's not unusual for me to have them hanging a looong way over the rest to clean up the bottoms of larger bowls I can't get the rest closer into.

(You see my pattern? )

One of the considerations I take into account, is the physical size of the lathe one is going to turn on. Recently I picked up two quite old very long handled bowl gouges, on one, the wood part was close to 650mm long while the steel part was around 300mm long. Now I have a pretty big lathe, but for any work over the bed ways, there were definitely space problems. They are now fitted with handles about half that length and are a delight to use.

The shape of the handle is more of a concern for me, I like some curves so I can easily grip without sliding when I'm hot and sweaty. I tend to have a shape similar to the Crown handles, it suits my style of turning.

Mick.

I like to use a mix of sizes.

Longer ones for the reasons mentioned above but for small stuff I often find myself reaching for chisels from the cheap "pen turning set" I got with the lathe. These have handles that are about 180mm long. They do need sharpening a bit more often.