How often should I expect to sharpen my tools?

[Ty Williams]

I'm new to turning and bought the Harbor Freight HSS tool set because I figured between learning to turn and leaning to sharpen I'd put some excessive wear on the tools. I was under the impression HSS was more abrasion resistant and would stay sharp longer but I'm questioning this in practice. I can get the tools quite sharp (I have enough other sharpening experience to judge whether an edge is truly sharp or not) but in a 45 minute practice session last night using softwood (no idea if it's pine, spruce, or fir), I managed to dull the two skews and the two smallest spindle gouges to the point the edges were slick on my finger. That seems... excessive.

Is that a typical rate of dulling for turning tools or are the HF HSS tools actually made out of High Speed Sherbet?

[Reed Gray]

Well, Harbor Freight isn't exactly the best tool source. Now, consider how much wood could you take off in 45 minutes with a hand plane, and compare that to how much you can take off on your lathe in the same time. The difference is huge. You do need a grinder for sharpening. I always use a freshly sharpened gouge for finish cuts. Learning how to tell when the tools are dull comes with experience, but there is a definite sound change with a sharp tool cutting, and a dull tool cutting. On a 10 inch diameter bowl, I would rough the outside, sharpen, finish cut the outside, then reverse, and rough out the inside, sharpen, and finish cut the inside. Some woods are much more abrasive than others.

HSS High Speed Sherbet, that's a good one, and maybe appropriate for the Harbor freight metal.

I have a bunch of video clips up on You Tube, including sharpening, and lots more on bowl turning. Type in robo hippy

robo hippy

[Aaron Craven]

I have the HF set as well... it's okay and good for beginners, but other brands are probably far better. In addition to the HF set, I have an off-brand 3/8" bowl gouge and a 1/2" Sorby gouge (which was given to me). The Sorby is certainly the better tool by far. That said, the other tools are certainly not bad, just not as good. Like most HF products, they're excellent for the price... but still you get what you pay for.

[Terry Vaughan]

Are you scraping? That will take the edge off a skew or spindle gouge quickly. Dirty timber will also blunt the edge. I sometimes turn very gritty stuff that wrecks the edge in seconds. If the edge is ground too thin it will be sharp but fragile so hitting a knot can fold the metal over.

[John Beaver]

A 10" bowl, at 1000 rpm is traveling 2,616 feet per minute. In 45 minutes the surface of that bowl would travel roughly 22 miles. Imagine running a plane down a board for 22 miles at almost 30 miles per hour.
Basically you have to sharpen a lot during turning. Even the hardest steels need constant sharpening, more or less depending on the wood, but you still have to sharpen all the time. Figure every 5-10 minutes is probably average.

[Ty Williams]

I am trying not to scrape but sometimes I suspect I might be presenting the gouges wrong and allowing it to happen.

The wood is bone dry. Several years on a wood rack after being bought already kiln-dried.

Sounds like I'm getting about average wear then.

[Chris Hachet]

I never trust steel from bargain sources. Not saying that the HF stuff is bad per se....but I once tried to tap a cylinder head on my old 55 Chevy with a tap I got from Auto Zone....that tap would not tap a birthday cake, much less a cylinder head...

[Joe Bradshaw]

Ty, you didn't give your location. Look for a turning club and find a mentor. As for your question, you will need to sharpen very often. In you 45 minute example, I would shrpen my gouge at least three times. Actually its just touching up the edge. Sometimes I just leave my grinder running.
Joe

[Wes Ramsey]

For what its worth, I used Benjamin's Best tools from PSI for more than a year before I got my first Thompson gouges. The BB tools got the job done, but the Thompson gouges are just a different class of tool. Enjoy learning on the HF tools. That's what they're for. When you're ready to step up you'll appreciate the quality of your tools all the more. And don't be afraid of the cost - there's a logical argument for quality tools actually being cheaper in the long run.

[ALAN HOLLAR]

Even if you stick to M2 HSS tools, there are huge variables; not only in the basic steel quality, the proper tempering of cutting tools is an involved and tricky process. I get chinese tools once in a while to test, and occasionally one is excellent, usually they are adequate, and frequently they are awful.