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Wood Lathe Tools

I’ve noticed that a lot of people seem to use their wood lathe tools pretty much inconsistently, they turn on their lathe, get a block of wood turning and grab whatever instrument is nearest at hand and start cutting. This works to a certain extent, but results are not going to be as good as desired. In order to turn a professional looking piece it’s absolutely necessary to use the correct tools for the job.

So, what is the right tool? In some cases it’s clear and easy to correct, but most people still don’t care. Take rough cuts as an example. I know a lot of people who will do their rough cuts with a bowl gouge! Hard to believe, but I’ve seen it over and over again. Many don’t even seem to notice that it takes them the better part of 45 minutes to get their spindle looking round, or the fact that their equipment is bent and chipped from all the hard roughing they do with it. They start with the their favorite chisel, and you had better believe they just keep on going with it! I’ve seen projects done from the first cut to the final cutting off with just a single chisel.

So if you’re one of the people who does this kind of thing, or just not sure what gouge is best for making scallops, I will attempt to go over the most used wood lathe tools and explain the uses and shape of all of them.

The first tool is simple. It’s the roughing gouge. This is a big tool with a round nose and a ‘C’ shaped profile. This gouge is designed for one purpose and one purpose only. Making your spindle with it’s rectangular shape into a rough cylinder. Any tool could do this eventually, but it goes much faster with a big gouge like this.

Next up we have the skew chisel. This is a small tool with a flat edge at an angle. It is usually used for smoothing, trimming and doing tough v-cuts. Since it’s such a useful tool, it’s normal that it will get a lot of use, but that doesn’t mean it should be used for everything. A parting chisel is a pointed tool that is roughly diamond shaped. The small, sharp edge is perfect for cutting off at the end of a piece, and also for doing detailed and delicate trimming, but not much else. This tool will likely stay in the box for most of a job and only be used at the end.

Last but not least for turning scallops or groves you are going to want to use a round nosed chisel. This is similar in many aspects to the roughing gouge, with a similar shape and contour, but it’s smaller and more suited to precise carving.

About the Author

I hope you’ve found this piece useful and interesting! You can read all about wood lathe tools on my site Wood Lathes Online.

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