In article ,
"Garth Wayne" wrote:

I'm looking to buy my first sert of turning chisels and came across a Penn
State Catalog the other day. Nice assortment of tools but I haven't seen
them mentioned here. Anybody have experience with their chisels good orr
bad. Any recommendations on which ones are of good quality and fairly
priced. Alternatives. Chisels are for use on a Delta LA 200 lathe.

I don't have any experience with anything Penn State (other than
spending 3 years at the U pretending to seek an engineering degree).

I've read positive comments about the Artisan tools from Craft Supplies
in Utah www.woodturnerscatalog.com as well as the house brand at
Packard Woodworks in N. Carolina www.packardwoodworks.com. Again, I
have no direct experience with either line of tools. You might wish to
do a google group search in our archives to see what might turn up.

I don't believe they list them in sets but if you repost what you'd like
to try your hand at I'm sure you'll have a lot of suggestions on ways to
spend your tool budget.

If I was putting together a minimum starter kit to try spindle work as
well as bowls, I believe I'd go with:

3/16" diamond parting tool plus:

for spindle work:
3/4" roughing gouge
1/2" spindle gouge

for bowl work:
3/8" bowl gouge
1" round nose scraper

--
"Sure we'll have fascism in America, but it'll come disguised
as 100% Americanism." -- Huey P. Long