The debate continues. I was turning well before the carbide tipped tools came out, and learned without them. There are two types. One is flat stock with different profiles, rounded or more square. These are scrapers, nothing more, nothing less. The others are discs that are more concave. These are used more as a shear cutting tool, at a 45 degree angle. I think they excel in getting a good finish on the insides of boxes and hollow forms. There are different grades of carbide, and the best and sharpest ones are the micro or nano grained carbides, which are a step or three above saw teeth grade. The saw teeth can be sharpened, the nano grained ones would not be worth sharpening because of the cost.

I do not own any of the scraper type, and will not buy any, and if some one gave me one, I would give it away. This would not be because they don't work, it is because I just can't see buying a cutting tool that I can not sharpen. They can not make any cut that I can't do with my other tools. Perhaps the reason a lot of more beginning turners like them is because, as scrapers, they have a smaller cutting tip than most of the standard scrapers, so there is less steel engaged with the wood at one time, and so don't tend to catch or get over loaded.

You will eventually need a grinder and a sharpening set up if you keep turning.

The edge durability of all steels depends on a lot of things, but for any finish cut, I want a tool fresh from the grinder. The 'lasts 5 times longer' steels will keep a good roughing edge much longer than standard HSS, but the finish cut edge stays only a little longer.

robo hippy