On Feb 5, 7:25 pm, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

I have several 15~20 turning tools and I hate sharpening. I am really
seeing a lot of a new brand that never needs to be sharpened. They have
replaceable carbide teeth tips and some have 4 new cutting edges. IIRC
about $15 for replacement cutters.

Leon - what is it that gets you on sharpening? Spindle gouges,
roughing gouges, bowl gouges.... skews?

When I the turning bug really bad, I turned a few hours a week for
several years. No piece of wood was safe, especially interesting FOG
wood. (Found On Ground. ;^) )

I taught beginning and intermediate turning, and (of course)
finishing. Part of my class was sharpening, and I taught how to use
the Wolverine jig as well as homemade versions of the same for various
gouges. I have turned enough personally that I sharpen freehand.

At the time our club was very active and we were able to afford some
internationally known, excellent turners to come demonstrate for our
club. Most were **great** guys, and even though they were masters of
their craft, completely without pretense. Ask 'em anything, and they
would tell you. Sharpening was always a hot topic, and they helped me
get over any qualms about grinding my tools. I studied their tool
edges carefully; never saw a perfect grind in my ten years at the
club. Never. Not once, ever, did I see any gouge or chisel ground to
look like those beautiful grinds from the factory.

Most were faceted, some kind of lopsided, and depending on the tool,
just awful. Nonetheless, their work was superb. Collectively, their
idea was that they sharpened to get the edge they wanted, and when
that was gone, it was right back to the grinder for a touch up. They
never fussed over an edge until they were at the finishing stage of
things, and even then stressed a light touch over a supersharp tool.
And being freehand sharpeners, they sharpened some wild profiles on
their tools, and encouraged all of us to do the same.

I set aside my Sorby and other expensive tools, and found these tools

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/LCAN6M.html

that are an excellent value for midi users. (On sale I see, too!)

For a bigger lathe, I would tell the guys to get certain (or sets if
on sale) from this selection:

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/wo...ing-tools.html

Their tools are M2 high speed steel, and they hold their edges well
and are easy to sharpen. That gave me the space to grind away on
tools without thinking that every missed grind cost me $5 worth of
steel. And I like their profiles so much (the gullets aren't so damn
closed on their bowl gouges) I have happily bought many of their tools
as preferred users.

In a rare stroke of inspiration, I had my students practice on
something even cheaper. I had them get 1/4". 3/8" and 1/2" low carb
steel rod from our local
supplier, cut it into 10" lengths, and mount their "blanks" into a
handle they turned. Then they could practice their sharpening on a
piece of very inexpensive steel rod, not on a tool. This turned out
to be very successful for some of them, and they learned spindle
turning (handle), making their own tools, and sharpening in one
project.

My only bugaboo is the skew. I can sharpen all of mine until you can
literally shave hair. They are as sharp as my pocket knives. But
unless it is a planing cut, I can't get it. When we had "open house"
which was a chance for all of us to bring the tool(s) we couldn't use
to get help from other turners, it was always the skew. I don't know
what it is I can't see when using it, and it is really, really
frustrating. I can use the tool when my skew buddy was standing there
telling me to raise or lower my elbow, change my approach angle, or to
angle the blade a certain way. By the time I got home, it was all
lost. After hours and hours of failed attempts, I have given up. My
skew is now used to open paint cans, scrape paint, knock the mud off
my boots, weed the yard, etc.

Just kidding.

I now use what is known as the 180 grit skew in the form of sanding
tape.

The tools you are looking at are machinist tools, and you can find
many of the "bits" in a machinist's catalog. They are plentiful and
cheap. They can be resharpened with diamond files like these

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/206...tone-Fine.aspx

and their brothers. The only thing I don't like about those is the
fact that they are still scrapers, not cutters. I have seen some
lovely work in the right hands when using those tools, but never
finish grade work. They do make excellent shape roughing tools, as
well as the opposite end, detailing like rings, beads, etc, if you
have enough room to get the holder in place.

Robert