Sharpening a turning gouge

[tim brignall]

When I'm sharpening a turning gouge or skew should the bevel be flat or concave? Does it make a difference?

 

[NickWelford]

Hi Tim.
It doesn't make any appreciable difference if it is the same radius as your grinding wheel. If it is too tight a radius it would! But how do you make it too tight anyway?

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Tim

Welcome to the forum.

Cheers
Neil

PS I'll move this into the turning forum.

 

[Anonymous]

I was always told flat to convex. Hollow ground definitely not for turning.

The logic of it is that if the turned object has a greater radius than the hollow of the chisel, then the chisel can only touch the object surface at edge or heel, and not in between. It could then be too severe a cut, out of control, or a scrape instead of a slice.

cheers
Jacob

 

[TEP]

Welcome to the forum Tim.

If you sharpen your gouge on a 6" or bigger grinding wheel it will be fine for turning. The very slight hollow grind you get from the wheel doesn't make any difference when turning.

On the skew chisel a lot of people like to have the bevel flat on these because they tend to hone them on a oil/diamond stone.

Personally I never hone because I think that as you need to sharpen so much more often when turning than you would ever do with normal woodworking tools.

BUT honing is a personal thing, and a lot of people like to hone their woodturning tools.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tim and welcome to the forum!

conventionally, skews and gouges (bowl and spindle) have a concave bevel, this usually conforms to the wheel on which they're ground.

Eli Aversera's skews (made by Hamlet) have a convex bevel see http://www.asktools.co.uk/page25.html?lang=en-uk&target=d16.html

You'll find that the concave bevel is easiest to maintain... a convex bevel takes a little more skill and time

 

[Paul.J]

Hello Tim and welcome
Think it's all been said from our experts
Paul.J.