Well, being one who has discovered that I have to experiment for
myself to see what works best for me, I have some of the $200 and $60
gouges. I do like the handles that I made better because I like big
and heavy (many years of concrete construction), and they fit MY
hands. As far as the edge holding ability, the fancy steels do hold a
workable (I can still hog more stuff off) edge longer, but don't hold
the 'finish cut edge' any longer. I have ground one Ellsworth gouge
down to a triangle tool, and now have 4 gouges I am working on. They
are all getting shorter by the day, and will need to be replaced in a
year or two. What will I replace them with? I don't know, it depends
on what is new out there that I don't have yet. I don't have a 'tool'
problem, it is all research. I do use a 320 grit wheel for my gouges,
and that has greatly extended their lives.
robo hippy


On Feb 15, 4:05 am, Prometheus wrote:
On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:09:21 GMT, "George" wrote:

"Arch" wrote in message
...

And another thing. How many years does it take Ms. Average Turner to
wear down her frequently sharpened gouge to a useless length? Let's say
the gouge actually touches spinning wood for 3 hours a day for a 5 day
week for 40 weeks a year. Seems to me it would take many years to wear
down an 8 in. flute. No?

I'd say so. Now I also believe it's cheaper to sharpen for the final pass
than use the grits of paper that a sharp gouge saves, so maybe I sharpen too
much? I'll bet there's less than a penny worth of steel in a full 16" bowl
from start to finish, even if you get one of the name gouges.

Nah, it's more than a penny. But it is definately less than the
asking price. Enough 1095 (also known as [W1] water-hardening tool
steel) for about 12 turning tools cost me $6 (retail) last week- so I
figure that puts a gouge's raw steel value at about 50-80 cents.

Of course, you're not just paying for the material- you're paying for
every cost incurred by the company that made it, plus their profit
margin, as well as the costs incurred by the seller, plus their
profit. Everybody who touches it gets a nickel (probably much more)
per unit, and pretty soon it adds up to real money.