Woodturning gouges / turning tools by design
Woodturning gouges / turning tools by design
EXPERT KNOWLEDGE WOODTURNING GOUGES TURNING TOOLS BY DESIGN
When it comes to woodworking, woodturning is literally a round job. The quality of the blades is crucial to the enjoyment of woodturning. Steel must be heat-resistant to prevent the cutting edge from annealing. HSS steel, from which most blades are made, is resistant to temperatures of up to 570 °C and extremely wear-resistant. Powder metallurgically produced PM steel is even harder and more abrasion-resistant than HSS. The vibration behaviour of the turning blades is also essential: Strong handles made of dense wood dampen vibrations and thus improve the result. At the centre of our range are the Crown irons, which have been proving their reliability for Length. Henry Taylor tools impress with their particularly fine workmanship. The Hattori turning tools prove that excellent steel quality does not have to be expensive. It goes without saying that we also offer a 3-year quality guarantee on these!
Which woodturning knives are available?
The range of tubes, skew chisels, blade scrapers and specialised woodturning tools is huge and confusing. Besides the tools that can be found in almost every basic kit, there are countless turning tools that are less well known. For this reason, here is just a compact overview; detailed information on the woodturning knives can be found in their respective product descriptions.
The most important woodturning knives for long wood turning:
- Roughing-out gouges are only used for long wood turning. It is used for roughing the blank, i.e. for rough material removal. Roughing-out gouges must be very stable so that they can withstand the sometimes powerful blows (blade width up to 50 mm). Used correctly and well sharpened, it leaves a perfectly cut surface and can sometimes also be used for shaping. Roughing-out gouges are available with a straight bevel and with retracted flanks. We have included short videos with the shapes for the different uses.
- Skewchisels are the simplest and oldest shape of turning tools. Turning chisels also come in two different shapes: simple flat chisels and oval chisels. Handling skew chisels is not without danger, as they "catch" comparatively easily. However, with a little practice and experience, Skew chisels can be used to create more intricate shapes and leave a mirror-smooth surface.
- Parting tools : These are mainly used for cutting workpieces between centres and for turning dimensionally accurate tenons and notches. Parting tools are available in numerous profiles and bevels, such as the straight knife shape, the tapered trapezoidal shape or the diamond shape that converges on both sides with one or two bevelled edges.
- Spindle gouges usually have a bevel with comparatively short flanks for shaping in long timber. As the name suggests, spindle gouges are used for shaping, i.e. for turning profiles.
- A detail gouge is similar to a Spindle gouge, but has a smaller cross-section (from 6 mm blade width) and a flatter moulded flute. It is used for detail work.
The most important woodturning tools for cross turning:
- The Bowl gouges / crosscutting bowl gougesaremainly used for crosscutting work. It is similar to the Spindle gouges, but its hollow (tide) is often only forged out for a short time, so the blade has a solid Shaft and the bevel angle is steeper in order to be able to turn the bottom or the transition cleanly for deeper Shawls. Some models have an additional secondary bevel to improve the surface quality.
- The Blade scraper is suitable for reworking the inside of shells, but can also be used to produce profile edges.
Special shapes and special tools for turning:
- Hollowing tools such as the Martel or Wiedemann turning hooks and the Crown Revolution tool can be used to undercut internal shapes, allowing you to produce bulbous shawls and vases with a consistent wall thickness. The use of unscrewing hooks and Ring tools without chip limitation must be practised. Blade scrapers or ring tools with chip limiters are safer to use.
- There are numerous special tools for special tasks and projects, e.g. thread chisels for wood threads, ring tools for cutting so-called "trapped rings" or can scrapers for turning out the bottom of a wooden can or urn flat.
- Texture tools such as the Henry Taylor "Decorating Elf" or a pointed steel can be used to decorate and soften the surface of turned objects with patterns and grooves.
What is meant by "ready-to-use bevel"?
Some woodturning knives such as Shape, Roughing-out gouges and Roughing-out gouges are pre-sharpened by us and can therefore be used immediately. Nevertheless, you should be able to sharpen your woodturning tools yourself, as this is constantly necessary during woodturning. Bear in mind that the steel used for woodturning knives (HSS, PM, Cryo) is very hard and that you need suitable machines (e.g. a wet grinding system or a slow-running dry grinding machine) and a suitable sharpening device (e.g. a CBN or diamond-coated grinding wheels or suitable sanding belts). In our sharpening courses for woodturners, you can learn how to sharpen woodturning tools under professional guidance.
What is the difference between forged and milled tubes?
Round cross-section (raw material) = milled tube
Oval cross-section (raw material) = forged tube
Compared to milled tubes, forged tubes have a denser structure and are therefore somewhat more wear-resistant. In the past, this difference was more significant, which is why two variants have developed. Today, larger tubes are preferred for forging in order to minimise material consumption.
Blade width dimensions
We always specify the outer diameter of the tools in millimetres (mm).
