Fiat....Lux!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

IIIIFFFFF IIIII CCCCAAAANNNN ssssttttooopppppp vvvviiiibbrrratttinngg.....IIIII'''''LLLLLLL tttteeelllll yyyooouuuu wwwwhhhaaattttt IIIIII lllleeeaaaarrrrnnnnneeeddd tttttoooonnniiiggghhhhtttttt!!!!!!!!!!!

I started turning the dry maple/purpleheart/maple bowl tonight. I know now why you try to turn a bowl green! Wow what a difference! But it is coming along nicely. No hurry....no deadline......

Now with a name like "Fitzgerald" you'd think getting an "Irish grind" on a bowl gouge wouldn't be a big deal.........Not so! Took a long time .....a real long time.....but it's done and it'll be easier the next time!

A good learning evening......When I get this bowl finished....it'll be my first completed one...though I have a cherry one swimming in DNA right now..I'll post pictures.

[David Fried]

Ken,

Let's see pictures of the Irish grind.
(For those of us who are sharpening challenged :rolleyes: )
Thanks for the heads up - I'll try to avoid dry wood! :D

Ggggoooddddd LLuuccckkk!!!

[John Hart]

Here's a quote from that Raffan guy....

"Remember that wood turning tools remove a great deal of wood very quickly and consequently need attention more often than a joiners chisel might. Don't worry if you seem to be going back to the grinder every few minutes. A fine edge can be lost very quickly regardless of the steel. With very hard woods it is not unusual to regrind after every three or four cuts, and I can recall keeping the grinder running when turning pieces of teak and elm with silica in the grain.
Too many of my students worry about their inability to achieve a so-called perfect bevel, when the shape of the edge (and the way it is presented to the wood) is usually much more important.
I would like to dispel the myths still hawked by some woodturning gurus that there are perfect tools, steels, bevels, and so on, and that little else works. I feel that I'm fairly typical of many professional turners who temper their quest for perfection in these matters with a need to earn a living. Watch any master woodworker producing magnificent shavings and you will find that work suddenly stops while the edge receives a quick hone or grind. The master knows when to resharpen from experience gained during thousands of hours of work....."

[Jeff Horton]

I finally broke down and ground my P&N bowl gouges Irish style last night. That was an experience! It took me a long time too. I was trying not to burn them on the belt sander and add that I didn't really know what I was doing.... They look pretty sad but they work.

I have no problem visualizing things. I headed to the grinder with an picture in my head of how they were supposed to look but they didn't cut worth a darn. I came upstairs and did some Googleing and found pictures to look at. Put my gouge up the screen and went OH! I see.

Went back to the studio :rolleyes: and in 2 minutes I had a working Iris Grind. BTW those sides are really grabby! If your going to do your own free hand you might want to print some pictured to look at while you grind. Sure helped to know what it was supposed to look like.

My 5/8 gouge looks like it was hacked on with a hatchet but it works now. I will eventually grind back past all that I messed up.

[Dennis Peacock]

IIIIFFFFF IIIII CCCCAAAANNNN ssssttttooopppppp vvvviiiibbrrratttinngg.....IIIII'''''LLLLLLL tttteeelllll yyyooouuuu wwwwhhhaaattttt IIIIII lllleeeaaaarrrrnnnnneeeddd tttttoooonnniiiggghhhhtttttt!!!!!!!!!!!

A good learning evening......When I get this bowl finished....it'll be my first completed one...though I have a cherry one swimming in DNA right now..I'll post pictures.

ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, Sorry.....
RRRRROOOOOOFFFFFLLLLLL!!!!!!:p :p :D

YYYYoooouuuu nnnneeeeeeeedddd ttttoooo sssshhhhaaaarrrrppppeeeennnn mmmmoooorrrreeee ooooofffftttteeeennnnn wwwwhhhheeeennnn ttttuuuurrrrnnnniiiinnnngggggg dddddrrrrrryyyyyy wwwwwoooooooddddddddd!!!!!!!!

Lighter cuts and decent RPM's also help.

PICS...WE NEED PICS!!!!!!! Some of us need to learn all we can. :rolleyes: :D

[Andy Hoyt]

Just wait til Shiverdecker see this one. Oy!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Dennis...........Irish grind/ Ellsworth grind..........same thing I believe........I used my Wolverine Vari-grind jig. I'm not sure why I had trouble with it.....It just wasn't finishing the top edge of the flute as it was supposed to.......I finally changed the angle on the Vari-grind and it came right in.....of course, I was taking my time trying not to hurt the HS steel....

Initially I had a conventional grind on the bowl gouge ......touched it up and it still wouldn't take a "bite" that I could follow down grain on the outer edge of the bowl. I decided to try an Ellsworth or Irish grind to see if it would make a difference. Once I got a fair Irish grind, I could start a bite near the bottom of the bown and it traversed down the side of the bowl with little difficulty even when passing from maple to purpleheart and back to maple.

The other thing I've learned the last couple of weeks making goblets and have carried over into turning my first bowls is using the side edges/ bevels as a scraper on both spindle gouges ground with a fingernail grind and now the bowl gouge with an Irish grind. (You'll pardon my use of Irish grind instead of Elsworth grind....nice to use "Irish" in a positive way instead of referring to drinking...fighting....etc.:D)
It was a learning experience!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Ken I have found just like the rest has said that when turning dry wood I have to resharpen after 3 to 5 cuts. Also you are going to get chips instead of curlies. I had the same problem as you did Ken with the conventional bowl grind. When Andy had me sharpen mine to a side/Irish/Ellsworth grind it all came together. Another thing I found is speed and taking lighter cuts as Dennis suggested. I was trying to cut at 500 rpm when I cut my first bowl. It was suggested by some SMC'ers that I kick it up to 1200 and give it a try. Yep big difference.