Roughing gouge

[Mark Woodmark]

What brand and size roughing gouge would you recommend for turning medium size peices?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mark,

I hope you are referring to a spindle roughing gouge?

The only roughing gouge I use is a 3/4" Robert Sorby.

For roughing out bowls and HFs I use a Crown 1/2" Pro-PM Ellsworth.

[Thom Sturgill]

for SRGs, generally, the larger the better. I have a PSI (Benjamin's Best) 2" gouge that I bought after I found that the 1" did not have the flexability of the larger gouge. With the larger gouge you can use the wings as a skew to make very clean cuts.

[Mark Woodmark]

Mark,

I hope you are referring to a spindle roughing gouge?

The only roughing gouge I use is a 3/4" Robert Sorby.

For roughing out bowls and HFs I use a Crown 1/2" Pro-PM Ellsworth.

I was....Thank you

[Michael James]

Mark,
I still use the 1" spindle gouge that came with the same set you have. I have a mini lather, and hope to move to a "midi" in late fall so nothing too big so far. I have not had any problems on blanks or barked timber doing end grain work. There are 100 items whispering softly for my pesos, some jumping out of the catalogs, some off the puter screen. A bona fide roughing gouge is not one of them, at this time.
Good luck on your adventure. You have landed in the right rabbit hole!:cool:
mj

[Sean Hughto]

I think it is hard to generalize. The larger the gouge, the bigger the bite. Sometimes, with very hard woods, it's more comfortable, and surprisingly, nearly as fast, to use a smaller gouge for roughing. My go to's are a large P&N and a small Iles:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2569/4126033795_d05b6d0bc5_z.jpg
http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/prodimg/it/big/IT-RRGXX_big.gif

[John Shuk]

I have a few but I tend to like my Benjamin's Best 2 inch for most things. A 3/4 roughing gouge in HSS is a very nice tool to use as well.

[David E Keller]

I've got a cheap Woodriver(WC store brand) roughing gouge that's either 3/4 or 1". It works fine. While I rarely recommend against buying nice tools, this in one area where I think it's probably OK to save a few bucks. You can use a SRG, bowl gouge, skew, or several carbide tools for roughing, and I think they all work pretty well.