Looks to be a carving gouge, based on the tang configuration. You could do a
lot better on end grain hollowing with a pointy or fingernail grind gouge.
If you want to abuse this one as a turning tool, use it as a roughing gouge
for the outsides of things, where it should remove wood at any rate you
care. keep your speed and feed pressure low to avoid excessive heating of
the edge, and you'll be happy.

Long handles on gouges can get in the way if you're obliged to turn over the
bed, and are unnecessary if you keep your toolrest close.

"Jim Gott" wrote in message
...

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