What are normal length bowl gouges?

[Randall J Cox]

Been using carbide for some years now, have to switch to gouges to stop end grain tearout on bowls. Just set up my Oneway Wolverine sharpening system. Have some old Shopsmith HHS gouges from 40 years ago when I started my woodworking hobby with a Shopsmith (that's about the last time I used gouges too). They are 16" long, and seem short to me. What is a normal length gouge (roughing and others)? Tx. Randy

[Bill Howatt]

A little bit like, "how big is a car?". A bowl gouge is typically longer than a spindle gouge. Overall length of a bowl gouge can be around 24+" overall with the blade length say around 9" or so when new. The idea is that bowl gouges do more demanding cuts and also may overhang the tool-rest and thus need more leverage from the longer handle to compensate. Spindle gouges are about 16+" overall when new but I caution you that these are all rough numbers since the actual sizes will vary with manufacturer, style and flute size. Often, the more expensive tools are longer overall than the cheaper ones but again, that isn't hard and fast.

[Richard Coers]

There is no normal. What's the normal length of the steel? Neither have a solid answer. Handles vary with the size of the steel too. There are companies with hollow handles that let you adjust length, handles with collets that allow the steel to be changed, etc.... You have been using carbide for a long time. High Speed Steel is HSS. Hunter Tools sells shearing cut carbides if you want to continue with your path.

[roger wiegand]

I think you need 4-5" of steel protruding in order to be able to sharpen the gouge on a jig, with freehand sharpening you can get by with less. I think you want at least 2" of steel in the handle, preferably a bit more. So that gets you to a minimum of ~6" for the tool. Better manufacturers give you quite a bit more than that. The handle can be whatever you're comfortable with-- given that you have a lathe you're completely unconstrained. I like to be able to put the end on my hip when taking heavy cuts, so like a pretty long handle on my big gouges, My little 3/8 gouge has only about a 10" handle.

You want to fit the length to your body and to the kind of work you're doing. If you start with a long handle it's easy to make it shorter, the other way around is more challenging.

[Reed Gray]

I like Bill's comment, "how big is a car?". It does vary a lot, and that can depend on how you turn. I have had sliding headstocks almost from the beginning almost 30 years ago, so I turn on a short bed lathe. I don't have long handles, maybe 14 inch long at the most. I generally use 5/8 inch gouges as my work horses. I do prefer to make my own handles, which are just a straight cylinder, no bumps or humps for me. If you turn on a long bed lathe, slightly different techniques are used. Mostly this is to compensate for not being able to stand in line with the bowl you are turning. This is the style Stuart Batty uses. He has longer handles on most of his tools. To easily reach all parts of the bowl as you turn on a long bed lathe, you either have to lean on the lathe, or you have to lean over the bed of the lathe, or you have to extend your arms out more away from your body, which is what Stuart does. I prefer to stand up straight up and keep my arms in close to my body. This, to me, makes it easier to control my tools than with the arms extended method. If you lean over, that makes for a sore back.... I prefer tools from D Way or Thompson. A bit more spendy, but they are a higher grade of metal. You may have to experiment to find out what works for you. I do have a bunch of bowl turning videos up on You Tube, mostly about bowl turning. I have found scrapers to be more efficient for heavy stock removal than gouges. I do get a cleaner finish with the gouges though, and a shear scrape.

robo hippy

[Randall J Cox]

All good answers, thanks. Have an old Delta 12x36 lathe with Reeves drive that i use, probably about 500 lbs. I rebuilt it a couple of years ago with new bearings in headstock, reeves drive and motor. I did raise the height 3" to keep from bending over so much to see inside deeper bowls. I'll keep watching utube videos, reading and learning. Thanks again. Randy