Henry Taylor gouges?

About to dabble in some carving and I want to grab a couple bent gouges. The Henry Taylor products sold by Lee Valley seem like a good value if the steel is decent. Any Creekers with an opinion?

I've used the Henry Taylor carving gouges. I was faked out by them at first. When I'd use a gouge, I'd get chips in the edge. I didn't realize the edge was over hardened and once I sharpened the gouges a few times, that went away and the gouges worked out fine.

There are two systems for marking gouges, the Swiss system and the Sheffield system. I'd recommend you choose one system and stay with it. I use the Swiss system because most of my carving tools are Pfeil. I estimated what the Henry Taylor gouges would be in the Swiss system and marked them to that system. I put my carving tools in order - so all #3 gouges are together and they're ordered by width, with the smallest on the left. Makes it easy to find the tool you need.

Good luck. Carving can be a relaxing and rewarding process.

Mike

[In the Sheffield system, the tools are marked in fractions of inches. In the Swiss system, they're marked in mm.]

Taylors are good steel. Really any English, Swiss, German, Austrian tools are quality steel. Consider which brand has what you are likely to need. Taylor makes many more styles than Pfeil which is a plus for them, but you will have to special order from Lee Valley or other HT stockist to get them.

Pfeil are widely available at Woodcraft and a step ahead of the Taylors in fit and finish. I own Taylor, Stubai, Dastra, Pfeil mainly with a few other strays.

Simply by chance most of my carving tools have ended up being Taylor. They are fine tools. Work really well and are quality steel.

About to pull the trigger (busy summer) but doing a little more research prior to heading down the rabbit hole. I’ll be making spoons and small bowls. Would the experienced carvers here suggest full size bent gouges or the spoon style? I’ll be supplementing them with a couple of hook knives.