Chisel Advice.

[Carper]

Hi all.

Having got myself a Nutool 900 as a first lathe it has now got me thinking about chisels. Now, I have been advised not to purchase cheap ones and so will purchase one at a time due to cost. In you opinion then I would be most grateful for you advice on whats the first one I should get ?

Kind regards

Steve

 

[kevinlightfoot]

I would say your first tool should be a spindle roughing gouge .Buy a large one you can use it for small work as well as large,I would say look for a Robert Sorby 1 1/4 if you can get a Henry Taylor 1 1/2 even better,if you do manage to find one let me know I am looking for one myself.Good luck you are taking the right approach by not buying sets.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The standard five on club lathes are bowl gouge, 3/8" often but sometimes 1/4" or 1/2" - a parting tool - a spindle roughing gouge - a skew chisel and a spindle gouge, usually 3/8". Be aware that bowl gouges and spindle gouges are measured differently - a 3/8" bowl gouge has a 3/8" flute, and a 3/8" spindle gouge has a 3/8" outside diameter bar.

 

[CHJ]

There's a discussion thread on the subject in the New To Turning & Help Sticky at the top of the forum section.

 

[pickledegg]

I bought a set of reasonable HSS tools when I got my lathe but have quickly found that of the set I use two tools: The roughing gouge and the parting tool.

Aside from that I make heavy use of my 3/8 fingernail grind bowl gouge which I bought separately. While it may be called a bowl gouge it's a very useful gouge for all sorts of turning, probably not strictly the correct or best tool in all cases but you do see a lot of turners who use practically nothing else.

I'm reasonably sure if I was to only own two tools it'd be a good quality bowl gouge and a thin parting tool, if I could go back in time with this knowledge I'd save myself some money and just buy these two and then any more as needed.

 

[CHJ]

.......I'm reasonably sure if I was to only own two tools it'd be a good quality bowl gouge and a thin parting tool, ..

That's a very good start, add a detail spindle gouge to get in any smaller coves and there would not be much you could not tackle.

 

[stewart]

If you're going for one at a time, I'd avoid the spindle roughing gouge as it is limited to only working on spindles - and you can't do finer, detailed work with it.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

There's good reason for the five I listed. A roughing gouge, parting tool and a skew aren't any use for bowls, but a bowl gouge isn't much use on spindles. A spindle gouge alone isn't much good if you're turning square or very irregular stock.