Large Bowl Gouge

[Mark54]

Hello All, I’m Mark from South Wales.

I’ve only been turning for around a year and slowly building up my set of tools and am looking to get a larger bowl gouge. I’ve currently only got a 3/8″ Robert Sorby bowl gouge with a fingernail grind and am often turning larger pieces of timber which seems to take ages with the 3/8″ gouge and so I’m looking to get a 5/8″ or 3/4″ bowl gouge to make things a little faster and less vibration as well.

I’m looking at either a Robert Sorby or Hamlet bowl gouges – the 3/4″ R.S. is £70 and the 3/4″ Hamlet is £92 –

Firstly am I doing the right thing getting a larger bowl gouge to deal with larger timbers and if so, which gouge of the two above would be the better choice, bearing in mind the Hamlet is £22 more expensive – is it worth the extra cost?

Thanks,

Mark

[ed (the amateur) turner]

Hi Mark

What size is larger piece’s of wood?

A larger gouge will not cut the wood any quicker.

All the best

 

Ed

[Mark54]

Hi Ed, thanks for the reply. The last bowl I turned was 13″ beech and was quite out of balance to start with – lot of movement and vibration. My lathe can turn up to 21″ bowls and using a 3/8″ bowl gouge seems a bit undersized for this kind of work. I’ve sourced a lot of large timbers and blanks, so this is why I’m looking to get a larger bowl gouge.

Thanks,

Mark

[Author]

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