Lathe Tools revisited

Re: Lathe Tools revisited

Lyn J. Mangiameli

>This begs the question "For What."

P&N has the best skew shape in my hands, and has good detail gouges and great roughing gouges (the best I've used), and very solid heavy duty "Supa" gouges.

Crown has great 1/2 inch thick scrapers, has a good bowl gouge with an Ellsworth Grind on it from the start, and has a lot of innovative specialty tools you won't find elsewhere.

Henry Taylor has another Ellsworth Grind gouge and the whole family of Superflute bowl gouges on which the Ellsworth based his own grind, a good selection of basic tools, and is the manufacturer of a lot of other specialty "signature tools" like the handly Ray Keys double sided shearing scraper and the tiny Bonny Klein gouges. The Artisan series is essentially the same without the full range of selection, and with a little less surface finishing and cheaper handles.

Sorby also has a wide range of tools with a good spindle gouge (as does HT), is the only one who makes a full range of oval skews (if you like the sort of skew---I don't) and has probably the best flute finish of the bunch. They have wider, more U shaped flutes compared to the more paraboilic flutes of the Henry Taylors. Some prefer the wider flute, particulary for peeling off large amounts of wood, others like the more parabolic flute of the Henry Taylor, finding it more versatile, and yet others (like me) prefer the V shaped flutes of the Glasers and the P&N gouges John Jordan used to bring in.

Hamlet has much the same range as Henry Taylor and has over the last few years worked to expand its range of offerings. I'm no big fan of Hamlet, though others are.

What I would suggest is that you consider more the specific tool and not try to obtain "matched sets," or even worry too much about specific steels, etc. Almost all of the tools from the above are credible tools and you are apt to find more differences in you tool technique and sharpening practices than you are in the overall minor variations in M2 steels and manufacture of the tools as a whole.

Go with Lyn...it.s a sure bet!

David

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