Best make Turning Tools for Large Bowls

[paulkane1]

I would like to hear ,what is the consensus among Large Bowl Turners (Platters also) ,of the best made turning tools to buy!I don't want to buy Tool Sets,I rather just buy the Tools that will get me started ,rather than have a load of tools,I'd probably not use,Would 3 Tools be enough ,? what type should I buy,I'd,Roughing Gouge,Bowl Gouge? etc

Kindly Paul

 

[Spindle]

Hi

Bit more research needed maybe - roughing gouges are for spindle work - don't consider them for bowls

As for quality - you'll get lots of personal preferences but in my opinion there's very little between the top brands

Pick from Robert Sorby / Ashley Isles and you can't go wrong - bowl gouge, parting tool and possibly a round nosed scraper until you've mastered the gouge

At the end of the day it's the skill of the turner that produces the work not the tool

Regards Mick

 

[CHJ]

Absolutely forget anything sold as a Roughing Gouge, never ever should be used on Bowls or Platters involving end grain cuts.

Correct name for such is Spindle Roughing Gouge.

For an understanding of what you need and how to apply them I can not recommend more highly that you get a copy of Keith Rowley's book " Woodturning:- A Foundation Course"

A read of the help notes for beginners at the top of this forum would not be wasted either.

 

[Silverbirch]

Any of the recognised brands will do the job perfectly well, i.e. any of the brands carried by specialist woodturning stockists. Those mentioned by Mick might be regarded as the premium British brands, but you could also consider, Crown, Hamlet or perhaps Record Power and Axminster (own brand).
I guess that you are just starting out and I`m not sure what you would regard as large bowls, but my suggestion would be to start with bowls of moderate size, with a 3/8 inch bowl gouge, plus the scraper and parting tools already mentioned. You might then add a 1/2" gouge later to facilitate the rapid removal of material on larger blanks. You would still have plenty of use for the smaller gouge.

 

[Wildman]

any make will do the job providing it is sharp, how long it stays sharp depends on skill of the user and quality of the steel.
Any of the well known makes are a matter of personal choice and depth of your pocket. As a beginner practice with what you have, ensuring you keep the tools SHARP.

 

[BearTricks]

I have some by nielsen (the cheap brand, not lie nielsen) sorby, Crown, and one by J.B. Addis and Sons from eBay.

In all honesty they perform similarly in all aspects aside from the fact that the sorby ones keep an edge for a few minutes longer than the cheap ones and the Addis one seems to keep an edge for ages. It's a tiny, maybe 4 or 5 mm skew that I use as a parting tool sometimes.

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

 

[duncanh]

Any of the tool manufacturers mentioned above do good tools as long as they're high speed steel (HSS). I would avoid Axminster's Perfom branded bowl gouge (the one with the pale handle) as it has a shallow flute which is more like a spindle gouge.
I like Ashley Iles tools as it's easy to buy them unhandled and make a handle to suit yourself. However, if you're just starting out then it's a chicken and egg situation as you'll need tools to make your handles!
If you're just starting then I'd avoid large bowls and platters for now until you have enough skills to not waste any wood and, perhaps more importantly, put yourself at risk of injury (even a small piece of wood flying off a lathe at high speed can cause nasty injuries, and there have been cases of people seriously injured when large lumps of wood hit them). Of course, it depends on what you mean by large.

Anyway, for bowls, if you start off using a screw chuck and a faceplate you could get away with a single 3/8 bowl gouge. It's a bit limiting but it can be done. A round scraper might be useful.
If you want to use a chuck for holding your bowls then something to create dovetails would be useful - a simple length of HSS mounted in a handle and ground at an angle does the job just fine.

As Chas suggests - read the Keith Rowley book. Also consider attending a local club if you have one nearby.

 

[KimG]

I use a half inch Crown Cryo bowl gouge ground long for all my big stuff, reasonably priced, keeps a good edge.

 

[Paul Hannaby]

If you are starting from scratch for bowls only, I would go for a 1/2" bowl gouge and a 1/2" spindle gouge (which can be used to cut the spigots and can also be used for some detailing/shaping). You can add a wide french curve scraper or one of the many bowl/shear scrapers but as you improve you probably won't use that as often.

If you also want to turn spindles, add a parting tool, spindle roughing gouge and skew chisel.

If you get serious you will soon find your collection of tools will expand rapidly!