The OP unfortunately doesn't make it clear if this is turning or carving. The assumption is turning and I will follow that.
Experience in lfe is that as I take up a new hobby, or look back on ones that are now well established or have been abandoned, to get anywhere in it I will have to reckon on £1000 investment at least. The problem always is that if you don't accept you have to invest that amount, you will not have the right equipment, and you will not in adequate time get the results you would like, frustration will set in and the hobby will fail. I suspect that there will be challengers to that opinion but I would ask them to think on how much they have spent.
I will recommend 3 books to look out for (Ebay, etc) - either or both of Keith Rowley's 'Woodturning A Foundation Course' or Mike Darlow's 'Fundamentals of Woodturning' (the latter is probably the better), and then as a coffee table book to drool over Mike Baker's 'Woodturning Projects'. There are plenty of others covering both aspects but those are two / three that are my 'go-to' books.
An inexpensive bench grinder is not the tool for sharpening wood turning tools as specific jigs are required to hold and move the tool over the grinding face to get the right profile - again see one of the basic books mentioned above. I'm not sure whether to suggest you take it back or retain for general metal grinding activities, but you really do need to commit to a specific system.
I started out 15 years ago without any knowledge of turning other than metalwork. I bought an old Wadkins lathe and in retrospect an unnecessary number of tools off Ebay. In the context of the tools and proper sharpening systems Ebay in my opinion is your friend as many collections of tools come up there from people for whom the hobby has failed or being sold by estate executors. I recommend such collections as the cost per tool is low and you then select what you want and re-sell those unwanted. There are plenty of turners who love to say - look at me I only use 4 tools for everything - very good but you then have to be on top of your sharpening and if one of those tools get seriously damaged you have no fall back; I have a choice of spindle gouges, bowl gouges, skews, etc none of which cost more than a few pounds each and I have a sharpening session every so often to bring them all up to scratch.
Rob
