Never had this happen before

[Steve Plunkett]

I've been turning a long time and never had a tool snap in two before. I was hollowing a spalted maple NE bowl and had only gotten a couple of inches into it when my gouge snapped. As you can see from the pictures it was a Oneway Mastercut 1/2" bowl gouge. There was no catch. I was making light cuts. Metal fatigue? Thankfully it wasn't forcefully ejected and just dropped out.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Wow. I have that gouge too. It is one of my favorites. Looks like brittle fracture, but since you are in Arkansas, it probably wasn't cold. Is there a defect in the metal? An end pic of the gouge would be extremely helpful. I have a MC 5/8 too. Were you hanging a lot of the tool off the rest?

[Brian Kent]

Very surprising. You may want to sent the tool back to the manufacturer, not even in hope of replacement, but so they can inspect for defects.

[Peter Lamb]

Send a picture to Oneway and ask for a new one. The metal may have unwanted inclusions and possibly bad heat treat.
Good luck.

[Steve Plunkett]

Wow. I have that gouge too. It is one of my favorites. Looks like brittle fracture, but since you are in Arkansas, it probably wasn't cold. Is there a defect in the metal? An end pic of the gouge would be extremely helpful. I have a MC 5/8 too. Were you hanging a lot of the tool off the rest?

I'll add pix of both ends tonight. Maybe an inch or inch and a half over the rest. I wasn't very deep into it. Hadn't even made the first finishing cut on the edge yet.

[Doug Herzberg]

It happened to me once with a no-name parting tool way too far over the tool rest. It broke at the tang, though, not in the middle like yours. And it was a catch.

[charlie knighton]

glad you are ok, thanks for sharing

[Thom Sturgill]

I've seen one PM tool break like that. Nearly new and the company replaced it. I would contact OneWay. They may want it back for diagnostic reasons to prevent repeats, and should stand behind their tool.

[Jon Nuckles]

My first Thompson 5/8" gouge broke in a similar way. I reached Doug, who was on the road, who said there are sometimes defects in the PM blanks. He sent me a replacement as soon as he reached home. Great customer service and have not had any further problems.

[tom martin]

Steve, I had the same thing happen with the same gouge about two years ago. I ended up sending it to the vendor I bought it from and getting a new one. The Vendor sent it back to oneway. I learned to turn with this gouge many years ago and it is still my favorite.
Good luck,
Tom

[Don Orr]

Excellent advice already given about contacting Oneway, etc. My 2 cents is an observation from the upper section in the photo. There appears to be a discoloration on the fracture face on the right side of the flute, just at the very edge, which could be a defect and where the fracture began. Don't touch the fracture face so they can get a complete picture of what happened. I have several PM tools and have never seen this before. I worked in a powder metal QA lab many years ago and inclusions or defects would fail the billet everytime. I imagine Oneway will treat you well.