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Thread: Retro Lathe Tools

  1. #1

    Retro Lathe Tools



    I don’t consider myself any great shakes as a turner, but I’ve used lathes occasionally.

    Back in the late ‘50’s - early ‘60’s when I was the principle sweeper, plank holder, sharpener and gofer in my uncle’s boat yard, he had a graceful old Victorian wood lathe among his line shaft machines converted to electricity. I don’t remember the make, only that it didn’t get much use except for making a few tool handles and the occasional fancy thwart or folding table post…. and I was drawn to it, probably because it was the quietest machine inside the shed. I eventually succeeded in him showing me how to use it one rainy day, and I remember him having me hand hone his ancient lathe tools as the first step. Those tools were all dark-patina’d carbon steel, and I remember how smooth they cut when freshly honed.

    During the following 30 years, I worked off and on in several large commercial shops with larger modern lathes and modern HSS tools…mostly Sorby. Most of the work was spindle turning paper-split half and quarter-round moldings for Colonial and Victorian furniture reproductions, and what I remember mostly was sanding. I don’t like sanding, or grinding tools for that matter, and I didn’t remember doing a lot of either with Uncle Paul’s old lathe.

    So fast forward another decade, and I have my own newly-acquired lathe and the HSS tools that came with it….and I was back to sanding and grinding again. So why not try a few shop-made carbon tools, says I? The old chisels of Uncle Paul’s childhood are plentiful at the tool auctions and are dirt cheap to boot. So I convert a few using the traditional methods I was taught 40 years ago at the link below and try them:

    http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthr...5741#post105741





    The big inch-and-a-half roughing gouge ground to a 45-degree bevel easily fills its cannel with long, thick shavings.



    The parting tool makes clean shavings in long noodles.



    The flat scraper cuts so fast it buries itself in shavings….



    …as do the fingernail gouges…



    …and the skews take such fine whispers of wood decorating the tool rest that the starting point for finishing is now 100 or even 120 grit paper, cutting my sanding in half…



    …and best of all, I’ll never have to grind these tools again, only touch them up on the fine novaculite stone occasionally as in the link above.

    So seriously, why am I the only guy I know using old-fashioned carbon tools in preference to high-speed steel?
    “Perhaps then, you will say, ‘But where can one have a boat like that built today?’ And I will tell you that there are still some honest men who can sharpen a saw, plane, or adze...men (who) live and work in out of the way places, but that is lucky, for they can acquire materials for one third of city prices. Best, some of these gentlemen’s boatshops are in places where nothing but the occasional honk of a wild goose will distract them from their work.” -- L Francis Herreshoff

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    Quote:
    <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Originally Posted by Bob Smalser
    So seriously, why am I the only guy I know using old-fashioned carbon tools in preference to high-speed steel?
    </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
    The type of turning you do can have an impact on how well the tools work for you. For the spindle work you do, I suspect that the carbon steel is somewhat forgiving and don't forget you're also an "expert" sharpener/honer compared to most of us. I have a few carbon steel scrapers from a Delta set I bought long ago and they work well. The skews (when I can manage to make them work) also work well and hold a reasonable edge. But for the bowl and vessel turning I do in largely "angry" wood, the edge on the softer steel would only last a few revolutions, especially in spalted material where there is lots of calcite. Even HHS and powdered metal will dull real fast cutting that stuff...I sharpen about every two minutes when turning in that situation! With a grinder which is quick and efficent with a light touch. But I also hone my hollowing tools wiht a diamond stick 9 out of 10 sharpenings rather than go to the grinder...and they really take a beating on the burl and nasty chunks of wood I like to turn.

    The bottom line is most folks don't really know how to hand sharpen and hone well (myself included) and that's something that is absolutely necessary with carbon steel due to the low heat tolerance it has to retain temper.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

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