Hi All,
My name is Joshua and I am new to the creek. I just joined a few days ago and to be honest I just started turning. I have a cousin that bought a lathe on a whim, the wretch! , and now a few weeks later here I am with a new lathe, some tools a few beginner style attempts under my belt and I am thoroughly hooked. Just a few weeks in and I am having a blast.
But of course I have lots and lots of questions. First off, anyone else here on the Creek out in the SLC, Utah area?
And now for the questions that I have found a bit pressing. My first set of tools were not HSS. Being new I of course bought a set of tools for a whopping $9 and I got what I paid for. Having read here about better tools and the difference that they can make I went out and got some nicer HSS tools but still the beginner quality. Actually following a few posts here I found a local Harbor Freight and got there $38 set. Wow that is a lot of setup for this question... sorry. I was turning a dried Maple bowl blank I bought from McBeaths hardwoods here in SLC and it was very dry and very very hard to work. It did work but it was much more difficult than some green/waxed stuff I bought off of ebay. The tips of the tools I was using all have dark discolorations now. Appears to be blue for the most part. I read here about that in general and comments where made about heating things up too much and destroying the temper of the tools. I was wondering if that is what I did. Does having that discoloration mean I ruined them already? Or is it more normal? I would love any advice or information anyone would care to share because I am truly at a loss to know what it means and what to do.
Oh and this blue discoloring has happened to my parting tool, and several of the gouges. Well to be honest to all of the tools I was using to work on the bowl. Is this indicative of what I was doing? them being lower quality tools? both together?
I had a few more questions but this I think has gotten long enough for a first post so I think I will leave it here. Though if anyone wants to talk about sharpening especially as it relates to the above. I would love to have that conversation.
Thanks,
Joshua