Recommend mail-order sharpening service.
Disputantum
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I tried to sharpen my 1″ lathe gouge on the Tormek. FUBARed it. I took it to a local sharpening service. He FUBARed it. Can someone recommend a sharpening service that won’t FUBAR my $40 gouge?
Replies
Sounds like its already been FUBARed!
What you really need is to find a turner in your area that knows how to sharpen a gouge. That way you can get your gouge un-FUBARed and you can learn how to sharpen your own tools.
You might even consider stopping into your local woodworking store. I have at least one near me where the owner would be happy to show you how to sharpen your gouge. He's kind, but he also knows that he may win a repeat customer if he helps you out.
Good luck. Plan on dedicating a significant amount of time to learning to properly sharpen your woodworking tools. It won't be any fun unless you do.
Where are you located ? I can show you much easier than tell you how. Type of gouge? Roughing, spindle or bowl. But your tormek should be able to sharpen your gouge very nicely but slowly for the initial shaping. One inch is probably roughing or spindle. DO NOT go the mail order route ! This is something that you have to learn ! You may have to resharpen 3-4 times during a turning session.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Edited 8/29/2007 9:12 am ET by BruceS
I'm in Highland Falls, NY. Why the warning about the mail-order route? I don't have very good motor control, and I don't want to grind the gouge down to a nubbin trying to sharpen it. It's a roughing gouge. Right now, the primary bevel looks like it's faceted, the edge is wavy and not perpendicular to the long axis. I haven't tried it yet to see how well it cuts.
The skill required to freehand grind a turning gouge is the same as turning the wood itself. If you can turn, you can grind it is just that simple. As was stated, I might grind a gouge 2-5 time on the same turning depending on the wood and the design. So you must get good and fast at it if you are going to turn very much.
Mail order sharpening could get very expensive. Granted, roughing gouges don't have to be sharpened for every turning session. But spindle, bowl gouge and all of the other turning tools need to be very sharp to produce a good finish.
I would strongly suggest reading. The Fundamentals of Woodturning by Mike Darlow. He goes in depth about basic turning and has a very good section on sharpening. Properly sharpened tools make turning a joy, Dull tools, In my opinion, are not safe and make turning a chore. Aside from all of the sanding that will be required.Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
More than any other facet of wwing you really need to develop sharpening skills if you are going to work on the lathe.
Most of us are overly anal retentive about our hobby, and sharpening is absolutely one of our greatest sticking points. Just look at all the products and lititure out there on the subject. I know a few profesional turners, one of them turns huge collums on a 10' long/30" capacity lathe, and they all recomend that you get your tools "sharp enough". Not polished till you can read a newspaper in the reflection, just sharp enough to cut wood. I bet that your gouge is not nearly as messed up as you think it is. And you can definately fix it your self. Try (I know how hard this is) to not use any angle finding device or crazy math to set up jigs. Just eyeball it and apply even pressure without stopping in any one place. After the shape is good use the strop to polish the TIP. Again JUST THE TIP. There is no reason to spend an hour trying to polish the whole damn thing.
After regrinding (this should only be done once every few projects) the ange may change a little, so you might have to re-locate the sweet spot again.
To answer your question, there are very few places that will do it right. You have to find a place that specifically states that they offer this service, not one that says "Yea, we can do that" after you ask.
Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don't have. You won't regret it.
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