Termite Cutter better than a Bowl Gouge ???

[Clarence Martinn]

What is the deal with a Termite Cutter? First time I ever saw one, and I can't decide if they are better than a regular Bowl Gouge . How often does that little cutter need sharpening ?

[roger wiegand]

I think many beginners find them easier to use. If you watch pros they tend to have a few places where they prefer to use any of the carbide-tip scrapers (which some will vehemently argue aren't cutting by scraping), I don't want to get into that argument), but most all of them will use a gouge wherever they can. I suspect this is because it's faster and leaves a better surface in most cases. End grain hollowing is perhaps an exception. If they were generally better I suspect you'd see lots of people who do it for a living (and don't sell the tools) using them a lot more, after all the customer doesn't know how they removed the wood.

As far as I can tell they stay sort-of sharp for quite a long time. To me this is actually a downside, the difference between sort-of and really sharp can be night and day. They stay sharp enough that you don't bother doing anything about it when a quick hone or trip to the grinder could up your game.

OTOH, they get people turning and making stuff who might not have otherwise, and that' s a good thing.

[tom lucas]

When I started, I thought carbide was the way to go. I bought a nice set from woodpecker. I should have saved my money and just bought Thompson tools from the get go. The carbides mostly collect dust now and never did see that much use. The cut quality of gouges is far superior to me and easier to use because you can follow the bevel and get a shear cut rather than a scrape or shear scrape. For shear scraping I prefer a negative rake scraper. Others will have a different opinion, I know.

[Richard Coers]

Termite is designed to hollow end grain and not a replacement for a bowl gouge.

[John K Jordan]

What is the deal with a Termite Cutter? First time I ever saw one, and I can't decide if they are better than a regular Bowl Gouge . How often does that little cutter need sharpening ?

Long ago I had a Termite with two sizes of cutters. I used it for a while then put it in the drawer when I found better methods, eventually gave it away. It was fine on end grain but using it up the side inside a box could clog easily and perhaps catch.

I did sharpen it several times. It came with a jog and stone. Don’t remember how often.

[Reed Gray]

I looked at them once upon a time and passed on them, in part because at the time they recommended sharpening with a bit in a router. They are a variation of a hook tool, another tool I do need to try out but haven't used. Hook tools excel in end grain, and there are several available. One comment about the ring tools like the termite was that they tended to clog, which the hook tools do not. They are used differently than the covered hollow form ring tools which are used more vertical than on their side.

robo hippy