I'm a newbie who recently got my first face plate. I turned a shot glass
out of a little piece of ash, which took forever to hollow with my scraper.
At the flea market I picked up this for a buck:

http://www.glassgiant.com/misc_galle...p?galleryid=17

I'd been toying with the idea of making my own bowl gouge, but have never
worked with anything harder than sheet metal before. I thought maybe I
could grind this down, and, if need be, turn a longer handle for it. I
realize it's small, but I doubt I'll be hollowing anything deeper than about
4" for quite a while. Would that work? BRBR

That looks like a forged bowl gouge (not made from round stock). All you need
to do is turn a new handle (that one looks way too short) about 18" long (use a
piece of copper tubing for the ferrule on the handle) and regrind the tip to a
shape such as is shown in the Craft Supplies USA catalog (similar to the
Ellsworth grind). It's probably not High Speed Steel, so be careful of blueing
the edge and losing the temper.
-Jim Gott-
San Jose, CA