Robert Sorby Turnmaster

[woodyturner]

When I learnt to turn in school, all we had were scrapers (made of old files...no H&S in those days) and we made bowls, lamps, you name it from those. Didn't have chucks either. We used face plates and covered the holes in the bottom by either slapping felt on it or filling with smelly glue mixed with sawdust. Look at some of the amazing work you see on ld buildings and see what can be achieved with hardly any tools and skill.

pete

Same here Pete old files I got attacked on another forum for saying just what you said

 

[CHJ]

......Same here Pete old files I got attacked on another forum for saying just what you said

One of the problems Woody is that in the era you and Pete are referring to 'blacksmithing' and reworking decent carbon steel stock was still quite commonplace.

Treating the majority of currently available mass produced files from the far east, which tend to be far more brittle in a similar way, without the knowledge of basic blacksmithing/metal reworking that most schoolboys of the era took for granted, can result in a nasty accident from shattered files.

The word scrapers can also lead to mis-interpretation by metal workers coming into woodwork, common metalwork practise is to make bearing and surface truing scrapers from old files, hardness is key and due to the very low hand applied loads Brittleness is of no concern other than they may shatter if dropped.
A Wood Turning tool made the same way without regard to removing the Brittleness can lead to risk if used on a modern lathe with the same disregard for tool strength that is common practise with HSS, the use of which will be the demonstrated tool use examples the majority of new to wood turning will have been exposed to.

 

[Bodrighy]

I most certainly wouldn't recommend using sharpened files now Chas, and if I gave that impression I apologise. The point I was trying to make is that it isn't the fancy tools that make a good woodturner but practice, a knowledge of wood and of the tools available to us. As we get better and more accomplished we will get tools that speed up the work or help us to do different things but we should start with the basics. A bit like learning to drive in an automatic car, if you want to drive a manual later you have to start all over again and resit your licence.

Pete

 

[nicguthrie]

Gah! I posted here yesterday from my mobile and the network dropped out just after - I see that it did kill my post as I feared!

Thanks again for all the input fellas it's been a lot of help - sorry if you got the impression I was being snippy Dahlboy I wasn't, honest!

Those home made tools look amazing. More to the point, they seem quite easy to do! I'll have to get going at making some laminated stool tops and chair bits for my steelworker buddy and try to blag a favour in exchange - He'd knock these up in an hour or two, whereas with fretting and worrying and trying to hash together tools I don't have for the job, it'd take me days

Much appreciated, I'll see what I can do.

I'm not sure I'd trust any metals from cheaply made imported files these days, everyone seems to shave standards to just short of being totally hopeless even for the job things are designed for now. Even if I had the gear and knowledge to reshape, reharden and retemper the steel into a scraper or parting tool or whatever, I'd always worry about possible flaws in the material from the cheap, cheerful chop shop manufacture. Old second hand files from a car boot sale may be better, but then again, you don't know how they've been treated thru their working life.

The "disposable society" we live in ain't so great for repurposing things as it was when we were kids.