"Woodborg" wrote in message
...
Up to now i have been free handing on the wet grinder, my
spindle and bowl gouges tend to be sharpen to a point, its about time i
had some conformity of shape which hopefully will cut down on sand paper
usage
with thanks and keep up the great work
ps whats the difference between a finger nail grind and a irish grind
please

Expect some disappointment. Tools don't make the cuts, turners make the
cuts. Best way I've found to cut down on sandpaper is to save the best for
last. HSS gouges are great hoggers, but I can make my carbon tools sharper
faster. Shaping done, the finishing passes are the privilege of the sharp
tool.

I'm not good enough at freehand cutting and duplicating my cutting angles on
various work to make it worthwhile to jig for a consistent contour, so I use
the ABC method. All I have to remember on any tool is that steeper is best
for entry and cross-grain cutting, while shallow angles work best for
peeling down the grain. If I can't get the angle I need with a particular
tool, I select another one which has the proper width, angle of grind and
handle length. Once the bevel is supported behind the cut, makes no
difference how consistent the form of the gouge is. The wood will teach you
how it wishes to be cut, so hold the tool to do it that way, not how you
thought you held it last time in similar circumstances or the way you saw
turner X do it on a video. If you had an X-Y-Z computer program and
consistent material instead of A-B-C and twisted elm, the angle of your
tooling would matter a lot more, but even there the choice is often a
compromise when the angles vary.

Fingernail is a shorter Irish. The business end looks like an arc of a
circle when viewed from the inside. Not sure where the textbook answer
resides, but if the edge is back a full radius or beyond, it's not a
fingernail in my book. Half radius is a good comfortable peeling contour.
Back farther, especially on deeper gouges, where the wing is longer anyway,
call it Irish. Then there's another variable in the amount of roll you do
(or don't on some gouges) put on the edge, varying the angle of the grind as
you draw back the ears, and the width of the nose you leave, where the
textbooks are mute on when a pinky fingernail becomes a pointed gouge.

If this sounds vague, it should. Lots of different people grind a lot of
different ways to cut the same wood. Rather than change your posture and
angle to suit some grind, change your grind to allow you to cut at some
angle - the wood will teach you - by getting another gouge to fit in
narrower or poke in deeper. I have to laugh at folks leaning out and down,
peering inside a bowl as they try to make the latest and most fashionable
grind on their long-handled gouge make the turn they need to fair the
inside. I'm not proud. If the wood demands it, I'll change gouges in the
middle of a finishing pass rather than have to stoop or resort to 100 grit.
Buying another tool to grind a different angle, if it lets you keep your
face out of danger and your back straight, is well worth the expense.