I wasn’t aware of it before but found out this year I live next door to Santa Claus! Imagine my surprise when I receive a Doug Thompson ¾” V bowl gouge in the mail! Inside the package was a note that the gouge was a gift from my neighbor Bob!
WHAT???.........You Gotta be Kidding Me!!!.........WOW!!!
Thank you Bob!!!
One of the things with Thompson gouges is you have to turn or find a handle for them. As there would be a heck of a lot of stress on this gouge, I didn’t want to turn one for it. I have Randy Privett’s Monster handle on my Thompson 5/8” V and love it… so I emailed Randy about a ¾” handle cause in my mind that would be perfect. Randy informed me that while he had thought of making handles for ¾” gouges, he had not yet done so.
Oh…, OK, no problem, I’ll figure something out………
Next day I get an email from Randy, he had made me a handle and it was already in the mail!!! What???.....Wow!!! You can see Randy’s new line of MCH34 handles here: http://www.monster-wood-tool.com/wst_page7.html
Finally got to try out the new gouge today but first reground the profile on the gouge by sweeping back the wings, filled the handle with #6 lead shot for ballast and grabbed a big ole’ chunk of maple. The new gouge/handle works beautifully and my arms should look like Arnold after using the new gouge for a few months! The nice thing about the new handle is it is long enough to plant it along side my hip and use body movement to regulate the cut. Does that ever make roughing out easier!
New Gouge Comparison.JPG Maple Blank.JPG Roughing Out V1.JPG Roughing Out V2.JPG Roughed Out Blank.JPG This will be a HF tomorrow!
Thanks to Bob Hainstock for the new ¾” V bowl gouge, to Doug Thompson for making such a great tool and to Randy Privett for his newly designed handle! I truly love it! Thanks guys!