What do i do with this?

[Jody Stefl]

I started turning about 18 years ago, turned off and on for 7 or 8 years, then had to stop due to health issues. I recently have been able to start turning again! I bought a batch of turning tools from Craigslist. Most were new and easily identifiable. However, this one is not new but not very old looking either. I have no idea what it is. Can anyone help me? I don't even know if it's for turning. The wood handle looks like a typical woodturning tool handle. I did a reverse image Google search and came up with nothing.
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[John K Jordan]

From the shadows it looks like the blade might be welded so the short dimension is about perpendicular to the axis of the handle. If so, it may be a saw made to core out the inside of a bowl blank. It’s been a long time but IIRC the guy who developed it called it something like “bowl saw”.

The idea was to turn a deep and fairly wide groove in the bowl blank with something like a parting tool, insert the saw in the groove, then twist it slowly to saw out the center. I have one I got for evaluation.

From my perspective it had a potential problem - it always seemed on the edge of jamming in the kerf, perhaps OK if the lathe was stopped often to clear the sawdust but it felt scary to me - a jam might have jerked the handle out of my had and caused a big problem. I may have felt different if it had a strong mechanical mount instead of being hand held. It also appeared limited in the size of the bowl blank.

I tried it than put it back in the box. Mine looks almost new having only been used once. If I can remember where I put it I can prob retrieve the instructions that came with it.

JKJ


I started turning about 18 years ago, turned off and on for 7 or 8 years, then had to stop due to health issues. I recently have been able to start turning again! I bought a batch of turning tools from Craigslist. Most were new and easily identifiable. However, this one is not new but not very old looking either. I have no idea what it is. Can anyone help me? I don't even know if it's for turning. The wood handle looks like a typical woodturning tool handle. I did a reverse image Google search and came up with nothing.
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[Peter Blair]

I believe John is correct, I bought one very similar to this about 20 years ago and returned it because I couldn't make it work as was described.

[Prashun Patel]

Is it a coring tool or a shop made parting tool?

[Jody Stefl]

Thanks for all the information, John. I think you're right and I know I'm not confident enough to try using it. Here are additional pics that are a bit clearer. 489848489849

[Jody Stefl]

Thanks, Peter. I'm not confident enough to even try using it!

[John K Jordan]

Thanks for all the information, John. I think you're right and I know I'm not confident enough to try using it. Here are additional pics that are a bit clearer. 489848489849

Yes, that’s looks exactly like mine.

If used one way you can end up with a “dog bowl” shape finished turned with little effort. But I only turn those when I want a dog or cat bowl. But I think it was intended to simply remove a fairly large core from the middle of a larger blank to save a bit of time when turning to the desired shape, sort of like hogging out some waste wood first with a huge forstner bit.

However I have no interest in turning fast and I don’t have any problem hollowing out even a large dry bowl blank from scratch. It takes a little longer but sure allows a lot of practice! Like some others I know I like to experiment with different cuts and tools and grinds while inching towards the final shape. When close to the final shape I switch to making every cut a finish cut. After these practice finish cuts the final finish cut is easy!