Hi Bean,
Wot Graham said.
You really need just five tools for starters and any of the standard high speed steel well known branded tools are fine, e.g. Henry Taylor, Crown, Ashley Isles, Robert Sorby, Hamlet, etc.
I would suggest:
3/4" or 1" roughing gouge
1/4" beading/parting tool
1" oval skew chisel
3/8" bowl gouge (H/Taylor 'long & strong' is good)
1/4" spindle gouge
If you intend to turn bowls you could add a 1" square scraper and a 3/4" round scraper.
You can do most turning with these tools, thereby avoiding, as Graham says, damage to your wealth. My advice then would be to add to this basic set only when you find you actually really need any additional tool/s. Yep, do avoid the shiny tool syndrome - it would be very easy to end up with racks of lovely looking turning tools which never get used (much the same as a lot of planes and chisels, I suspect :twisted: ). IMO, can't see any point in spending loadsa money on tools just to look at :roll: . Oh, and, as with most things, cheap, unbranded turning tools will invariably be a waste of money. You can sometimes pick up decent tools at car boot sale/market/auction and the like, but you do need to know what to look for.
Worth getting hold of a copy of Woodturning Mag. with an advert by Benmail of Weston-super Mare. They carry a good stock of turning tools, particularly Henry Taylor, and had the best (lowest) prices I could find when I bought my first ones. I can give you their 'phone no. but you really need to look at their advert. so you can compare prices with others. An old-fashioned firm with no website/credit card facility (to keep costs down they say) - discovered this when I 'phoned them to check they had what I wanted. Send a cheque, sez they. "We normally wait for the cheque to clear, but you sound honest enough, so we'll put them in the post as soon as your cheque arrives." And they did - I like being treated like that!
Getting to the shows to see the demos. and talk to the pros. really can be time well spent - I gained much good advice from doing that when I started turning and they're a very friendly lot.
Oh, and by the way, do you have a decent grinder?
Please ask away, or PM me, if I can help further.
Cheers,
Trev.