Jimmy clewes tool

[Sam Beagle]

Anyone have any experience with the clewes mate tools. Look kinda interesting to me. I have the Bosch system. But for small stuff. The clewes looks nice.

[John Grace]

While I don't have any experience with that tool it does look quite familiar to the Hunter line of carbides.

[lynn cranmer]

I got the mate 2 when I was at SWAT this year. Jimmy was there doing some demos and I got to give it a try. I really like it a lot. It can hog out a lot of wood and no catches. Very user friendly.

[Peter Blair]

I bought the Mate tools about a year ago thinking that they would make the hollowing of small boxes a piece of cake. Guess what? They do! IN his video Jimmy demonstrates the 'no catch' using one hand to push the tool into some wood. I guess it is just me but I CAN make it catch unintentionally, I think I may not have been holding it level but sure gave me a start!! I put handles on both of them and now wonder if they might work really well in a hollowing system? The blades aren't that long but if they were extended and don't catch they could work really well deeper, maybe?

[John Keeton]

Mike Hunter was manufacturing tools for Clewes, but I understand they have parted company. I don’t know who is making his tools now. Mike has a Viceroy tool that appears to be a very similar design.

[Peter Blair]

Hey John, just took a look and you are right as usual, the difference it appears is the with of the shaft. It is quite possible the the Viceroy may be easier to roll on it's side to shear cut if one chooses to do that.

[John K Jordan]

Mike Hunter was manufacturing tools for Clewes, but I understand they have parted company. I don’t know who is making his tools now. Mike has a Viceroy tool that appears to be a very similar design.

Clewes is evidently going to make and market his own version of the Mate.

Sam, I have the Clewes and the Viceroy. The Viceroy is narrower but works about the same. Both are best at scraping cuts instead of bevel-rubbing cuts. Any human with hands and eyes can turn spindles, bowls, and boxes with either of these with very little instruction or skill. Just put one flat on the rest and push it along the wood.

I far prefer the Hunter Osprey and especially the Hercules tools to the Mate and Viceroy. Besides scraping cuts the Hercules and Osprey can also be used in a bevel-rubbing mode just like a gouge for incredibly clean cuts. I do much or most of my bowl and platter turning with the two Hercules tools. I do grind and polish the heel of the tool so it doesn't leave a burnished mark on the wood, as show on this large Hercules.

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I don't have any photos of the Viceroy but here are the large Hercules, the small Hercules, the small Osprey, and the Clewse mate. (I've since softened the heel on all of these.) The Osprey is the only one of these with a round shaft - the others are square with rounded corners. The Mate is rectangular (as is the Viceroy).

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Peter, All four of the tools I showed have the cutter angled downward a bit. Used straight into the wood a catch is difficult to get in the scraping mode if the cutter held horizontally and at center. If used on an inside surface I rotate the cutter to the left a bit so the side is angled downward a bit and pull the cut on the insides of end grain turning such as for boxes. You can get a very nice cut with these tools if you don't angle the tool a bit and push firmly down the inside of a box.

The Hunter tools are great at hollowing but I don't use those shown. I have some large Hunter tools with very sturdy straight and swan necked tools which are easier to use for larger hollowing. The shafts on these are tapered for strength and reduced vibration. The large swan necked tool has the left tilt built into the tool. I also have a set of miniature Hunter hollowing tools with straight and swan neck shafts. Mark StLeger promotes using these on small hollow forms and I agree - they are perfect. I don't have a picture of all of them but I took this photo to show some of my smaller textured handles and it accidentally has two of the small hollowing tools, a straight one at the top and one of the small swan necks (along with the small Osprey and an unnamed tool).

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JKJ

[Peter Blair]

Thanks John! Good information for sure. Oh, by the way are there any tools you don't have?LOL

[John K Jordan]

Thanks John! Good information for sure. Oh, by the way are there any tools you don't have?LOL

Oh yes! :) I have no flat-topped carbide tools. I bought some Easy Wood tools once to try but I gave them away.

My favorite tools are the Thompson and Hunter. I like to keep a variety of tools, especially so I can let students try different types and different grinds.

JKJ

[Sam Beagle]

I have the hunter cutters on my Bosch rig actually. Can be very aggressive

[John K Jordan]

I have the hunter cutters on my Bosch rig actually. Can be very aggressive

Are you saying they are sometimes too aggressive, such that one might grab suddenly?

I don't know what a Bosch rig is but if Hunter cutters are too aggressive they might not be presented at the best angle when used in the scraping mode. Also, the larger cutters can be even more aggressive than the small cutters if angled incorrectly because of the geometry.

[Sam Beagle]

The Bosch rig is the Trent Bosch stabilizer w optional hunter boring bars. They work phenomenal, but I can get a nasty catch occasionally

[John K Jordan]

The Bosch rig is the Trent Bosch stabilizer w optional hunter boring bars. They work phenomenal, but I can get a nasty catch occasionally

Ok, I looked it up. The Bosch site says the hollowing tools use the Hunter #2 cutter. I haven't tried the Bosch but they don't look much different from the Hunter hollowing tools. They are not prone to catches. When turning end grain pieces with these I cut by pulling the tools up the sides from the bottom, cutting only with the tip along the axis of the tool to cut "downhill", with the tool twisted a bit to tilt the cutter on those tools where if the cutter is not tilted with the design of the tool itself. I can't tell from the Bosch photos whether the cutter is tilted down at the tip. Perhaps the stabilizing rig is allowing too much pressure or pressure in the wrong direction.

JKJ

[Peter Blair]

You too eh? I don't have to work hard to get a catch!!

[John K Jordan]

You too eh? I don't have to work hard to get a catch!!

I'll ask Mike Hunter about this.

[Sam Beagle]

Peter. Are you saying you get these catches as well using the Bosch setup

[Peter Blair]

Sam, no I don't have the Bosch sent up, just use the Mate(s) by hand and when I am careful they cut really well and don't catch. But early on I did get a few catches, probably because after watching the video I thought I didn't have to pay attention but found out that I should.

[JohnC Lucas]

I'm late to this but will try to answer. I have both the Mate tools and the Viceroy. I like the Viceroy better. The angles on the cutter work better for me. It handles like a scraper (even though it cuts and leaves a better surface) For that reason you can get what seems like a catch fairly easily if you feet it straight into end grain like on the edge of a platter. Going across the grain is effortless but going straight in can be a problem if you don't do it gently. The area below the cutter does limit the cut but it can still try to take to much of a bite and dig in. You can control this by lowering the handle so more of the "bevel" is touching the wood. This limits how much it will cut. I find it very handy for final cuts where you just want to clean up all the tool marks.

[John K Jordan]

A friend came over yesterday and tried out some Hunter tools for the first time. (He used to turn a lot, mostly incredible large bowls, but he was so busy with work and his pottery studio that until his recent retirement he hadn't touched a lathe since the '70s!)

We didn't have time to try with a face turning like a bowl or platter but we did play with a 2" cherry spindle using the Viceroy, Mate, Osprey, and both Hercules tools. The off-the-tool finish on the cherry was incredible even in the straight-in scraping mode. The cutter is so sharp. Coves are far easier for the inexperienced than using a gouge. Now I feel bad for him and his bank account - he just HAS to have some and knowing him he won't stop with just one. And then the new lathe. Then a set of chucks. Then...

JKJ