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Carbide tips for one way easy core knife sets

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I have been coring a lot lately with my new one way coring system, love the system. What I would like to know is from those of you who have actually bought and used the carbide tips. Do the carbide tips make coring easier and cut down on the need to sharpen each time on a large bowl? In other words are they worth the investment) I have cored about 15 large heavy blanks over the last week or so and have more to go. Sold out recently. I am having to get my inventory back up again. (wonderful problem to have, my first time experiencing it)
 
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Not sure if I told you this story before or not, but I had Oneway send me a tip that had been hardened, but didn't have that spear point ground into it. This left the cutting edge out in front of the blade about 1/4 inch so you didn't have to take it off to sharpen it. A light touch on the grinder or a coarse/220 hone does the trick. I had to grind down/taper the sides a bit to make sure it would not bind in the kerf. It cut way better than their standard tips. The problem with their tips is that you sharpen by honing or grinding the top surface. All coring tools are scrapers, and in most situations, scrapers cut better with a burr, and you don't get a burr from honing the top. I don't know if they would send you one of those tips or not. They commented last year in KC at the Symposium that the spear point keeps it from drifting in the cut, which is common with the McNaughton. I did not notice any drifting at all with it. In experimenting a lot with different tip profiles on the McNaughton, the tip shape made no difference in drifting. The drifting is caused by the tips not being bent properly because they go straight for the last inch or so, and the blade will track more on the straight point and not on the arc of the rest of the blade. Other than that, I have no experience with the carbide tip. Personally, I would have gone with Stellite, a cast material that is actually made in Canada, and is very similar to tantung that I use on my Big Ugly tools. Almost as hard as carbide for edge durability, but sharpens on standard grinding wheels...

robo hippy
 
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I have been coring a lot lately with my new one way coring system, love the system. What I would like to know is from those of you who have actually bought and used the carbide tips. Do the carbide tips make coring easier and cut down on the need to sharpen each time on a large bowl? In other words are they worth the investment) I have cored about 15 large heavy blanks over the last week or so and have more to go. Sold out recently. I am having to get my inventory back up again. (wonderful problem to have, my first time experiencing it)

Breck, I have subscribed to this thread since it first showed up and hoped that you'd get an answer. But seeing as it's going slow-- I'd like to recommend that you buy a carbide cutter and let us know. I am not being snotty, just practical. Really, who here has as much recent experience with cutting a bunch of blanks with the steel cutter? You are the best person to judge it.
 
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I too was hoping to hear some more replies on the subject. Recently switched over to the easy core and bought 1 of the carbide bits. Have only used it once time on some soft wet sycamore and could not tell the different between the new carbide and a new HSS cutter. Both produced more of a mush than a chip or any type of ribbon. If it will ever stop snowing and not being 10 degrees around here, I'll be able to get to the wood pile for some cherry and maple logs that I want to core.
 
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I can't ever remember getting shavings with the Oneway, except when I used the custom tip. The point is made to break or cut the fiber, then the sides cut it away, or at least that is how it was explained to me. Pretty much always with wet wood when using the McNaughton or Woodcut.

robo hippy
 
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I have used the Oneway coring system for a lot of years and like it much better than the others. I've tried them all. The carbide tio at $ 50. is not of much interest. I have tried to sharpen the carbide bits I buy for my East Tool and never got the got them to cut as well as a new cutter. I pay $ 2.70 for new cutters so it's not worth it to sharpen them. The steel coring bits take me about 1 minute to sharpen as good as a new one and cost $ 33. Hey Robbo, I get nice corrugated shavings.
 

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coring1.jpg Had time yesterday to try the carbide bit on a cherry blank. Blank was wet but not soaking wet. Think I cut the log about 9 months ago. Mostly ribbons down through the end grain but mostly wet damp mush thru the transition to the bottom.
 
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I will admit that it has been quite a while since I used the Oneway, but I don't remember ever getting shavings like that... May have to try it again some time and see...

robo hippy
 
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I will admit that it has been quite a while since I used the Oneway, but I don't remember ever getting shavings like that... May have to try it again some time and see...

robo hippy

Robo,
Dave’s shavings are representative of my experiences with the regular, non-carbide cutters.
 
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Joined
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Breck, I have subscribed to this thread since it first showed up and hoped that you'd get an answer. But seeing as it's going slow-- I'd like to recommend that you buy a carbide cutter and let us know. I am not being snotty, just practical. Really, who here has as much recent experience with cutting a bunch of blanks with the steel cutter? You are the best person to judge it.
Tom you have a point, I have one large pecan block left I might just buy one carbide tip and try it on this one and it will easy to compare to all the others I have cored.
 
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Not sure if I told you this story before or not, but I had Oneway send me a tip that had been hardened, but didn't have that spear point ground into it. This left the cutting edge out in front of the blade about 1/4 inch so you didn't have to take it off to sharpen it. A light touch on the grinder or a coarse/220 hone does the trick. I had to grind down/taper the sides a bit to make sure it would not bind in the kerf. It cut way better than their standard tips. The problem with their tips is that you sharpen by honing or grinding the top surface. All coring tools are scrapers, and in most situations, scrapers cut better with a burr, and you don't get a burr from honing the top. I don't know if they would send you one of those tips or not. They commented last year in KC at the Symposium that the spear point keeps it from drifting in the cut, which is common with the McNaughton. I did not notice any drifting at all with it. In experimenting a lot with different tip profiles on the McNaughton, the tip shape made no difference in drifting. The drifting is caused by the tips not being bent properly because they go straight for the last inch or so, and the blade will track more on the straight point and not on the arc of the rest of the blade. Other than that, I have no experience with the carbide tip. Personally, I would have gone with Stellite, a cast material that is actually made in Canada, and is very similar to tantung that I use on my Big Ugly tools. Almost as hard as carbide for edge durability, but sharpens on standard grinding wheels...

robo hippy

Robo I wish the tips were straight like you mentioned because I am used to the wood cut blades that have that type of cutting tip and I used a diamond board to touch up the tips before each coring. The main difference as you know is the depth this oneway coring knives can create. Even though the oneway pointed tips require grinding every time on say knife set 3 it is still worth the time to get a 14" x 5" money bowl as a core. or a 13" x 6" core. I have ordered one carbide tip and as I mentioned in my last post I have one large partially dried pecan slab left. I will use the carbide tip on it and let everyone know if there is a marked improvement or not.
I was coring two types of wood that was some what wet but not water slinging wet like I prefer. One type was the heaviest oak I have ever cored (water oak) partially dried and from everyone I cored the shavings were like wet dust. I had to clean or dump every few seconds say 30 in order to core this hard wood. The pecan had a little more moisture but not much. I got shavings and not dust on the face grain but dust on the end gain. woodturners catalog takes quite a while to ship anything to my area but I will post again when I have cored with it. Thanks for all the responses! For the record most of these blanks came from 18" x 7" primary money bowls
 

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I have been coring a lot lately with my new one way coring system, love the system. What I would like to know is from those of you who have actually bought and used the carbide tips. Do the carbide tips make coring easier and cut down on the need to sharpen each time on a large bowl? In other words are they worth the investment) I have cored about 15 large heavy blanks over the last week or so and have more to go. Sold out recently. I am having to get my inventory back up again. (wonderful problem to have, my first time experiencing it)

I ordered two of them on Monday, they arrived late today... I went to a meeting this evening and I have a doctor's appointment mid day tomorrow, so I'll have a report some time Friday.
 
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Well after coring #15 - 16" to 18" bowls with the regular tips I ordered a carbide tip and had one slab of partially dried pecan left to green turn and core. I did that today. Having been a High school science teacher for over 30+ years, I must make these qualifications because they no doubt effected the outcome somewhat. This slab of pecan was somewhat spalted and a little smaller because of the pith I had to turn out before coring. Before I was getting a 2nd money bowl core of 14" x 5" Main bowl on this last one was 15" x 7" This core was only 13" x 4-3/4" OK that said The carbide tip cut easier and faster than the regular tips but not by a great deal. I got deeper cuts before needing to move the curved support blade. I needed less clean outs before reengaging the knife blade. So my conclusion is this: The regular tips work fine but not as efficiently as the carbide tip I tried. If I have the money and enough cores to do in my opinion the carbide tips are worth the money. It was still extremely sharp after coring. Of course the regular tips felt sharp also but needed to be sharpened to cut at their best.(in my experience). If I can sharpen the carbide tips on my CBN wheels then they are for sure a future item for me to invest in. (please let me know about the sharpening on a cbn wheel) Thanks for all the input.
 
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I belive you need diamond to sharpen Tungsten carbide. Diamond wheels were available before CBN appeared on the scene. I have not seen them yet. Before I got the sharpening jig for the HSS version I used to hone with a 400 diamond card.
 
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I have put carbide on my CBN wheels, and it will take them down a bit, but very slowly. Honing is probably the better option with some lapping fluid. Kel McNaughton told me years ago that when touching up the tips of the coring blades, a coarse diamond hone was best as it made a better burr than a fine one. No idea though, I just took them to the CBN wheel...

robo hippy
 
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Today I cored a piece of mostly dry Dalbergia Sisso - East Indian Rosewood with the new carbide cutter from OneWay.
I used it first to cut the outside curve. Then I moved the base to the right and back and started to core the largest bowl.
Part way down I stopped, leaving the base in place and switched to the smallest cutter set. I put a new standard cutter on it and managed to cut in less than an inch before it started to smoke. I changed out to the carbide cutter and it worked nicely till the center core popped out.
I went back to the larger set and finished the coring without issue.
I added a couple of pictures of the shavings that I got from the carbide. All in all, an EXCELLENT investment
The finish was smoother than any coring I've done with the high speed steel. I'll probably finish the set over the weekend.

Image 1) The bottom side of the raw blank.
2ndcoringblank.jpg
Image 2) Shows the trimmed off top of the blank with the cutter set to make the outside curve of the bowl. I've only done this a couple of times before, but I wanted to give the carbide cutter a real workout.
2ndcoringblankready.jpg
Image 3) just shows the same image with a closeup of the cutter to the right.2ndcoringblankoutsidecore.jpg
Image 4) shows the core to the left where I went 1/2 way to the finished cut and the cut I started with a new high speed steel cutter that didn't cut very easily and, in fact started to smoke while making dust.
2ndcoringblanknoncarbide.jpg
Image 5) Shows the completed cored set stacked together
1stcoringblankcored.jpg
Image 6) Shows the bottoms of the cored set. I left the largest one on the chuck so that it would remain true. I'll use a "jumbo jaws" to hold the cores while I turn a tenon on them.
1stcoringblankcored2.jpg
Image 7) Is just some shavings that piled up on the coring base
1stcoringblankcarbideshavings.jpg
Image 8) Shows the shavings still balanced on the cutter as the cutter is removed from the blank. You need to clear those shavings fairly often to make sure you don't jam up the process.
1stcoringblankcarbideshavin.jpg
 
Last edited:
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For those of us who don't have the Oneway coring system, could you add some text to go with each of the pictures so that we know what we are looking at?
I hope that helps.
Here's a video that shows a lot more about the coring system itself:
<iframe width="1039" height="480" src="
View: https://www.youtube.com/embed/I_uq3qCej0M
" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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George, if you core the largest bowl first and make a recessed tenon in the center of the blank, you can easily grip with chuck and turn a tenon on the now reduced in size blank. Barring that jumbo jaws are not necessary. Just jam chuck against the chuck jaws like when second turning and create the tenon.
 
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I don't do recess tenons.
I try and use VERY stable wood, but I've seen more than one recess tenon cause a catastrophic failure.
NO, a regular tenon doesn't guarantee there won't be a failure, I'm just hedging my bet on the safety side.
 
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I call it a recess tenon, but it is really just a dado and I use a compression grip on the resulting tenon. Does not behave any differently than the standard tenon on the back of a bowl, except it is on the face.
 
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I call it a recess tenon, but it is really just a dado and I use a compression grip on the resulting tenon. Does not behave any differently than the standard tenon on the back of a bowl, except it is on the face.
Got it!
Yeah, I do that all the time. I forgot early on and didn't want to undo the coring rig so I'll just deal with the fact that I neglected to do that step.
 
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I thought I would come back and mention that I am now coring some very large wet slabs of sweetgum and white oak and man my one way coring system cuts like a knife going through butter. I now realize all those 18" bowls I was coring before were probably half dried, which explains why the carbide tip cut so much better than the regular tips. After coring 4 large wet bowls with both type of tips again the carbide tip cuts longer without sharpening than the regular. I hate I bought the number 1 & 2 knife sets because I will probably never use them because tiny bowls are not worth me fooling with to be honest. but live and learn. These three bowls were all done with the 3 & 4 knife sets. Largest bowl is 17-1/2" x 7" 2nd one is 14" x 5" and the 3rd one is 10-1/2" x 3 The shelves are a few of the first ones I cored.
 

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Breck I had to look a your shop photo a bit to see why the blue tape was on the bowls on the floor. I guess it is holding some kind of paper on the bowls. Sure is a nice looking pile of wood.
Fred the brown packing paper is only for the first month when a bowl will lose the majority of its water, after a month I take the paper off then stack the bowls and allow them to air dry for as long as necessary.
 
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Fred the brown packing paper is only for the first month when a bowl will lose the majority of its water, after a month I take the paper off then stack the bowls and allow them to air dry for as long as necessary.

Thanks Breck. That is a great idea. I use brown bags on mine and sometimes I can't find a bag large enough. I have cattle and use the bags their feed comes in.
 
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