Shallow and Deep Bowl Gouges

[Don Stephan]

Perhaps I've become more attentive, but I'Ve been coming across more references to "deep" bowl gouges. My understanding is that all bowl gouges are deep. Can anyone explain this terminology?

[Reed Gray]

My guess is that there are specialized gouges for bowl turning. The swept back designs generally have a 60 or so degree bevel. You can take them from rim to center on just about any bowl. I use the specialized ones. I prefer the 40/40 grind for the outside of bowls, and also for the walls on the inside of the bowl, down to the transition. If I am turning a platter, I can go through the transition and across the bottom, no problem. With deeper bowls, I switch to a BOB (bottom of bowl) gouge at the transition since I can't get a bevel rubbing cut there with the 40/40 grind. Some call them bottom feeders, and there are many variations. Generally they have a 60 to 70 degree nose bevel and very little sweep to the nose profile, kind of like ). The swept back type gouges are good 'does everything' type tool, but to me, the specialized tools out perform them.

robo hippy