Bowl Gouge Questions

[Neil Strong]

Hey Neil, sorry this took an extra day. I was buried in the shop yesterday and I'm moving kind of slow since I injured myself. Regardless, here's the pic I promised.

https://sawmillcreek.org/attachment....0&d=1673410162

Thanks John.

That photo of yours clearly shows that the Oneway Mastercut has a parabolic flute.

I'm about to start a thread specifically on flute profiles and I'll include the Oneway with the parabolics.

Sorry to hear about your injury.

[Dick Strauss]

I've owned some of the original early production Thompson tools for over a decade and never had the need to touch up any of the flutes. I think I own 8 Thompson tools ranging from large bowl gouges to small spindle gouges with a wide variety of flutes. I've been very satisfied with them.

A friend used to own a big roughing gouge (P&N I think) that had a large ridge in the bottom of the flute. Sadly enough, neither he manufacturer nor the retailer ever addressed the issue (he wanted it replaced).

[Neil Strong]

I've owned some of the original early production Thompson tools for over a decade and never had the need to touch up any of the flutes. I think I own 8 Thompson tools ranging from large bowl gouges to small spindle gouges with a wide variety of flutes. I've been very satisfied with them.

A friend used to own a big roughing gouge (P&N I think) that had a large ridge in the bottom of the flute. Sadly enough, neither he manufacturer nor the retailer ever addressed the issue (he wanted it replaced).

I have half a dozen of Doug's bowl gouges that go back 15yrs now and I spent some time back then grinding and honing the last inch or so of the flutes to my satisfaction. His flutes may come with a finer grind/polish on them since then. My preference is to have a finish on the flutes just a bit finer than the abrasion pattern left on the bevel as it comes off the grinder. Nowadays that is #360 CBN for me. IME, serrations left in the flute that are not as fine or finer than the bevel grind abrasion pattern result in premature edge failure. It can take some time to hone out a flute but at the slow rate we grind away steel freshening up an edge on the CBNs I'm unlikely to have to do that again any time soon, if at all.

I ran some test years ago to see if polishing the top edge on a scraper would improve the durability of the edge, which it did sufficiently to warrant the addition effort to do that. Again, once polished that doesn't need to be done again.

As for the old P&Ns, the flutes on them as received looking like a ploughed paddock and needed considerable work on them before they could be used, but they were so competitive price wise for us down here where they were made that we were more than happy with them. Besides being a well made M2 HSS they were available in an unhanded option at a lower price point, which I can't remember any of the other offerings doing at the time. I'm still using my heavy duty 1-1/4" P&N spindle roughing gouge 30yrs later, which I wouldn't let go for anything!

I recently purchased an old unused P&N 1" SRG that must have been made in a later production run as it had a very acceptable flute on it, so the P&Ns weren't made to the same standard of flute finish across their entire history. Their SRGs had solid milled tangs and as I recall they were the first to do that, which makes them far more substantial than the flimsy forged tangs that are prone to bending. Doug Thompson now makes a similar one with a milled tang.

[Kevin Jenness]

I've owned some of the original early production Thompson tools for over a decade and never had the need to touch up any of the flutes. I think I own 8 Thompson tools ranging from large bowl gouges to small spindle gouges with a wide variety of flutes. I've been very satisfied with them.

A friend used to own a big roughing gouge (P&N I think) that had a large ridge in the bottom of the flute. Sadly enough, neither he manufacturer nor the retailer ever addressed the issue (he wanted it replaced).

My several year old Thompson bowl gouge came with a pretty rough finish off the mill. I cleaned it up with a blue grinding point in a Dremel followed with a 600# hone. Not a big deal, though I would have been willing to pay a bit more for a polished flute from the "factory".

[Neil Strong]

From D-Way
"The flutes are a parabolic U shaped with tapered sides not a deep V. U shaped gouges are great for either finger nail or bottom feeder grinds. "

https://d-waytools.com/gouges/bowl-gouges/

Parabolic has become too loosely applied as a descriptor for some flute profiles, IMO, and this is leading to confusion. I have started a separate thread on this as follows... Bowl Gouge Flute Descriptors

[Reed Gray]

If the Thompson and D Way gouges were placed side by side, and there was no color difference, I would have a hard time telling them apart. In use, same thing. If there is a slight arc in the wing, rather than straight, if you view it head on, the arc gives the appearance of a parabolic flute. Both are an 'open' V shape, which to me, means the bottom of the flute, rather than being a sharp V like the old Glaser gouges, which were more closed. The Glaser gouge was notorious for clogging up. I would be tempted to try the Carter and Son gouges, which do come unhandled, but for a few things. One, on their web site, they say the M42 will take a finer edge than the V10. In my years of using both tools, that is not true, at all.

robo hippy