sharpening spindle gouges

Re: sharpening spindle gouges

John C Lucas

I like a sharper angle of 35 or 45 for my spindle gouges. I'm on my phone at the hospital so limited as to what I can do. Go to YouTube and type in john60lucas/sharpening and you can find my sharpening video

Re: sharpening spindle gouges

George Balock

Jack,

I agree with John, 50 degrees is a little steep for a spindle gouge. Also, the angle of the "leg" on the varigrind doesn't have much impact on the nose angle of the gouge, just the angle on the sides. The nose angle is setup by adjusting the arm of the Wolverine jig closer or further from the wheel.

As you can see by the picture, I set my arm so that it is 6.5" above the level of the face of the Vari Grind. Hope this helps.

Re: sharpening spindle gouges

Jack Guzman from Maine

That was helpful,John. One more question. Do you ever cut a bevel on the heel for clearance? I have heard of this in videos but not sure how helpful this is.

I tried your video on my computer and couldn't get any volume but when I brought up youtube on the tv it worked fine.---Jack

thoughts

GaryG in MD

I like to use spindle and detail gouges for various things, and I shape them accordingly.

My "shortest one" (i.e., the one I use the most) is a 3/8" Henry Taylor that I have about a 50º nose angle on. But I also have some ground with a much more acute angle -- some 40º, and one even down to around 30º. Different tools for different uses. If you're only going to have one, I'd go 40º. A lot of people, including Stuart Batty, recommend that.

As with George, I set my VariGrind swing arm to somewhere in the middle -- not at one end as you showed it. I find that a bit extreme. I generally use the 4th notch for most things (but not all). After setting the swing arm on the VariGrind, I then set the desired nose angle by moving the V-block arm in or out. Works very well for me, and I've been doing it that way for 14 years.

If you read some available literature, you will find that many people like to sharpen bowl gouges with the lever arm on the VariGrind set in the middle like that. That's what Doug Thompson recommends, and others. It gives a good angle on the wings of a swept-back fingernail grind. Not quite the same effect for typical spindle/detail gouges, but I like it and do mine there too.

...GG

Re: sharpening spindle gouges

Keith tompkins

Hi Jack, with a continental gouge, such as you show, the jig is not necessary. Just drop the tool handle in the wolverine arm and roll the tool to sharpen. Simple. Some say the continental gouge is obsolete....it's not!

Re: sharpening spindle gouges

Jack Guzman from Maine

That's an old buck brothers cast steel gouge that I found at a flea market. Lots of steel left on it.---Jack

Re: sharpening spindle gouges

John C Lucas

I like he ing a very small main bevel and always round over the bottom corner. I grind a secondary bevel inbetween the other two. On my Thompson detail gouges I grind the two lower bevels be I pretty car to increase clearance.

rounding heel

John K Jordan

>>>That was helpful,John. One more question. Do you ever cut a bevel on the heel for clearance? I have heard of this in videos but not sure how helpful this is.

This John always rounds over the heel of the bevel, always at least some and often quite a bit. If I use the Tormek jig on the bench grinder it makes rounding the heal easy. I also polish the bevel some on a the leather Tormek honing wheel.

If the heel is not rounded or at least cut back, the hard edge can put a burnish mark on a cove, marring the surface just cut. Rounded and perhaps polished, the heel just slides harmlessly over the cove or can stay out of contact completely, depending. Same with bowl gouges.

JKJ

no heels!

GaryG in MD

...for sure.

I got rid of the heel on ALL my gouges many years ago after the first time I found that compression spiral in the inside of a bowl when I finished it (without doing much sanding). It was Bradford pear, which is pretty soft, and I was surprised. What is that?!?! That's when I learned what the sharp end of heel does to the wood when the heel is in the way of the cut.

You can't go around corners properly with that in the way.

It's funny, because I was recently trying to go around a steeper corner and had to remove even more from on of my gouges. It's in the way, get rid of it -- it doesn't need to be there.

I do my removal differently from some, and I find it quick, easy, accurate, and intuitive -- no jig is needed. I don't sharpen my tools by hand (I use a VariGrind), but I do this by hand. Just hold the handle horizontally, not vertically, so the offending material is touching the rough stone, and rotate your wrist. It's that easy. If you're right handed and have the coarse wheel on the left side, becareful not to rub your knuckles on the right-hand stone!

Keep whatever cutting bevel you're comfortable with -- could be 1/32", 1/16", or 1/8". You certainly don't need more than that. The rest can be rounded like a hemisphere -- you don't necessarily need more bevels, just get rid of the metal.

Don't be a heel. ;-)

...GG

Re: sharpening spindle gouges *LINK*

Vince Welch

Kevin from Oneway put out a video years ago explaining Oneway's presentation on grinding gouges. Check out the link.

Vince


http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmvlvY3mIHs

Re: sharpening spindle gouges *LINK*

Clifton C

Too many http's in your link Vince...Not sure if this is the vid you are referencing but at time 7:45 Kevin talks about the relationship between the jig leg and nose angle and the V-arm and the wing angle. One of the things he does stress is that the jig does not control the shape of the tool, that is up to the person grinding. Detail gouge comes along towards the end. I've had some folks come thru the shop with some "interesting" grinds, and what I hear is, "I set it up just like they said, and this is what I get.". So, getting a nice usable shape is one skill, and getting an angle that works is another. When the two meet and someone "gets it", well, that is even more fun.

cc


Oneway Vid

Re: sharpening spindle gouges

Joe Fleming

I haven't seen a video, but Google Stuart Batty 40 degree grind or 40/40 grind. You should find some good info there. I grind to 40 degrees, then grind the heel off such that there is only 1/8" of the original bevel left at the nose.

Ramsey grind

John K Jordan

This is a (poor, out of focus) photo of the grind that Chris Ramsey uses to turn wooden hats. He sharpens by hand. The bevel is only about 16", the rest is ground round.

JKJ

Re: sharpening spindle gouges

Keith tompkins

See Gary G's previous post on my flute less gouge.

Re: sharpening spindle gouges  *LINK*


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmvlvY3mIHs&t=221s