Bowl gouge grinds
john lucas
Here are the bowl gouge grinds that I use or experiment with. The top I seldom use anymore. It is a 75 degree nose angle used for the bottom of steep sided bowls. I almost always use the Hunter #4 or #5 shown at the bottom of this photo. It has an effective nose angle of 82 degrees so you can turn the bottom of boxes and really steep sided bowls and still have the gouge almost straight out.
The second one down is a grind I used to use all the time on my hand mirrors. It was done with a pull cut and the handle almost straight down. Because it's a U shaped gouge the wings are very thin, probably 25 degrees or less so it's a very clean cutting tool. Now days I almost always use the Hunter Osprey in a push cut from center out using the lathe in reverse. It's more controllable than this long pull cut grind.
3rd down is the grind I use 90 percent of the time for almost everything but spindles. It is Extremely similar to what Doug Thompson shows in his sharpening demo. Nose is about 55 degrees, it's a V shaped gouge so the nose is pretty narrow letting me reach into tight places. The wings are long enough to do a nice pull cut and the sharpening angle is blunt enough to hold a good edge when taking off 1/2" deep cuts on a push cut roughing bowls.
4th down is the Stewart Batty 40/40, except mine is 45/45. On this gouge the slightly more blunt edge holds up better. It is a Henry Taylor gouge, not Stewart Batty brand so that may be the difference. I use it a lot on bowls, not so much on my hand mirrors. On my hand mirrors I use the Thompson V gouge for most of the cutting and switch to the Osprey for clean up cuts.
5th. This is my home made traditional grind. I made is so I could play and learn the differences between it and other grinds. My favorite cut with that tool is with the flute straight up and cutting with the left wing in a push cut. The wood passes the edge at an almost vertical slice so it cuts very clean. YOu have almost no pressure on the bevel so it cuts down vibration on thin bowls.
6th is the Hunter #4. It has a cupped cutter so the cutting edge is about 30 degrees. So you use it the same as the very top bowl gouge but instead of cutting with a 75 degree edge your cutting with a 30 degree. Far cleaner with cuts that almost don't need to be sanded.
You'll notice that I've gone to the small main bevel on all of my tools. I feel that you have more control and can "feel" the cut better that small bevel. Does it give less catchs? Don't know. I seldom get catches anymore unless I do something stupid. I need to take a tool and grind it with one long bevel and see if I can tell a difference I just haven't done it.
