Hello Kevin,

Congrats on getting your new carving gouges. I'm a professional woodturner
and I carve quite a bit on some of my work. If you are looking for an
inexpensive option for honing, consider making an MDF stacked cylinder
mounted onto a steel rod. Glue the sections together and make it about 10" -
12" long, securing the cylinder with a bolt.

You can then mount the rod into a Jacobs chuck in your spindle and secure
the other end in a recess in a live centre (the kind that lets you change
the end points). Then simply turn on the lathe with the (glued) stacked
laminate mounted and turn recesses to match your carving tools profile (V's,
shallow scoops, deep scoops etc.).

Load the cut areas with honing compound and using a slow speed, simply hone
the edge when needed. Works like a charm and it's cheap to boot! This is
also really good for unusual shapes that profiled leather wheels won't work
with, or special tools that you may make. Take care and all the best to you
and yours!

--
Better Woodturning and Finishing Through Chemistry...

Steven D. Russell
Eurowood Werks Woodturning Studio, The Woodlands, Texas
Machinery, Tool and Product Testing for the Woodworking and Woodturning
Industries

Website: www.woodturningvideosplus.com

³Woodturning with Steven D. Russell²
Volume #1 CD ROM e-Book * Available for Shipment
Volume #2 CD ROM e-Book/DVD Video * Available for Shipment
Volume #3 Double DVD Video on Bowl Turning * Available for Shipment



On 1/8/07 10:50 AM, in article
, "Kevin"
wrote:

Hello All,
Just got back from visiting the wife's family in China and brought back
some carving tools - gouges of various sweeps and a few straight and
skew chisels. My idea is to dabble a bit in carving bowls. Plan is to
turn the outside of the bowl, do a bit of carving, and then turn the
inside.
Questions are about the sharpening the gouges. I've snooped about a
bit on the Internet and found a couple of ideas. One involves getting
a good piece of wood, taking the gouge you wish to sharpen and cutting
a groove in the wood. The inside of the groove is then filled with
some sharpening compound. To sharpen, merely put the gouge in the
groove and rib. The secind idea is to get a piece of PVS of
approximately the right ID (or OD for gouges sharpened on the inside of
the flute(?), atach sandpaper of an appropriate grit, and sharpen away!
The PVC could be formed to the correct radius with hot water.
Any other ideas or links to instructive pages would be appreceiated.
Thanks