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Hats off to Sorby

K

Kenny

Joined
May 17, 2004
Messages
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Location
Tulare California
I just wanted to give a little praise report. I was using my 1 1/4 " sorby roughing gouge, that I had just purchased less than 6 months prior,on a hard piece of wood. the gouge got caught up in the wood causing the gouge to crack at the base into two pieces.(Metal cracked) I was aside of myself fumming! in a matter of a second I broke an $85.00 tool. UGH!!!
A person mentioned to me to get in touch with sorby and ask what they can do. I figured what could I lose. I sent an Email to Sorby - located in the United Kingom retelling my prediciment suggesting that the tool must of had an internal fracture to of done that. I didn't have a receipt or any other proof that I was telling the truth. Site unseen Sorby appologized and stated they are sending out a new roughing gouge in today's mail. One week later it arrived. No cost to me.

I was so impressed that this company took responsibility of a complaint that they could of just as easily disregarded.

It is my hope that this kindness is not taken advantage by making false claims to acquire free tools- not only would that not be ethical, it would ruin any legitamite claims for those of us that need that extra help.

Hats off Sorby
 
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I had the same type of service provided to me on a Screw for my Nova chuck from Teknatool. Sent an email actually wanting to buy the screw as I knew it was not their fault it got bent. Received one in the mail about a week later. We woodturners must have an excellent reputation for telling the truth and must be the luckiest people to have such wonderful suppliers.

Sorby will also send you an excellent 2 cd set with a new catalog if you ask. The cd's have demonstrations on the use of their newest tools along with a few project demos. Outstanding information and the price is right - FREE!

Wilford
 
Questions

Norm and Kenny,
What were you guys turning that caused your roughing gouges to break. Was it a very large diameter spindle? Did the corner of the gouge dig into the wood? Finally, what was the speed and motor horsepower -- I don't think my wimpy lathe could break anything before stalling (maybe that is a good feature).🙂

Bill
 
Hi Bill,
In my case it was stupedity. I has a big piece of burl on my powermatic and thought why not try roughing it down my my "roughing gouge" . Wrong choice. I was very fortunate that Sorby replaced it , no questions asked.
Norm
 
Yes - stupidity on my part too.

I was sharpening the gouge on the wolverline jig and forgot :mad: to lock down the arm that holds the gouge in place while sharpening. the grinder caught the tip of the gouge and flung it (double backflip 😱 )onto the ground. everything looked good- not even a chip (the grinding wheel suffered some repairable damage though) I turned around and started lathing 16" unround semidry piece- nothing too bad. 30 seconds later SNAP!!!!!.

My feeling is that though i added injury to the gouge- it should of not been enough to fracture the metal (bend it yes but not fracture it) So was there an internal fracture in the metal to begin with??? The world may never know.

Peace out 🙄
 
A roughing gouge should ONLY be used for spindle turning NEVER for bowl turning! One can always tell when the owner has tried to use the tool for bowl turning because the tool always has a kink in it on the tang or it is broken completely.

Joe
 
I broke my Sorby 1/2" Fingernail grind bowl gouge when I hit it into my chuck, maybe I should drop them a line. I'm pretty sure I've completely ruined it when I tried to grind it back to shape as it will not hold an edge for any more than 2 cuts or so with it. I'm glad you posted this as I've been really kicking myself for wrecking such an expensive tool.
 
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