Failed inventions

Arch, Production toolmakers often used A-1 or air hardening steels. You'll have a helluva time forging this stuff. Before you buy, ask what kind of tools steel it is so you know what annealing, hardening and tempering to do. Dan

Arch, since you are only going to use a short portion of the flute, why not use a piece of oil hardening drill rod.

While it is still soft, mill or grind a short flute. Then forge the end to the shape that you want. You could also grind directly in to the the center of the rod about 3/8" from the end with a ball type grinding stone. You could create a "ice cream scoop" effect where no forging would be required. Just grind the end bevel and use with a toward the center movement to remove that high spot in the center of the bowl or box. The solid section of the rod will give greater stability when reaching over the toolrest and the section of flute "around the bend" will not be used any way.

snip

Arch

What's a "safety razor"? Am I showing my age?

A safety razor has depth control, unlike original straight razors.

A36 is mild (low-carbon) steel, not carbon steel.

See

Many thanks for all the good advice; rcw is alive & well nourished. I see in my woodturning textbook, aka the CS catalog, that Dennis Stewart has a short length of 1/4" gouge cutter to use like an inserted bit @ $17.00. Should be easy to grind or cut off a piece of one of my bowl gouges and insert at an angle into Gerald's $1.20 per ft. 3/4" steel shank for less than $17 plus fun in the making thereof. Hoot, mon! Now someone please tell me how to use such a contraption. For aye, Arch

Fortiter,

Hey, Arch --

Robert Chapman, in his (excellent) book titled Woodturning: A Fresh Approach shows the use of such a bent gouge for keeping the bevel rubbing at the bottom of a deep, natural-edged bowl. I believe he also sells such a critter through his tool and accessory company, BCWA tools, which can be found at

Safe Spinning,

Brad Vietje Thetford, VT

Hi Gerald,

Your description seems very interesting ... I already used car shock absorbers but only for scrapers tools or the like ... It may also be fun to make a groove on one :-) But, since my English language is a bit limited, I can't understand what kind of tool you use to put your carbide burr in (what is a "tailed drill", in French if one knows the French word ?). Is it a kind of Dremel with a flexible ?

Also, how do you manage to cut a regular groove (= flute ?) if you do it by hand ?

Won't you have a picture of one of your tools ?

Thanks for any more explanation :-)

JYS