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Quality chisel set?

G

gritskringle

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Oct 29, 2005
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I am a begginer at turning and starting with pens. I would like to purchase a
basic chisel set, and willing to invest in quality tools. Being a carpenter as my trade, I know quality tools are very important. Any suggestions?
 
Until you learn to sharpen them, you do not want a high quality set. An average grade of high speed steel is what you want. Don't bother with carbon steel unless you want to sharpen more frequently. WoodCraft sells Pinnacle HSS tools. They are relatively good quality without being expensive. So if you mess one up on the grinding wheel....Oh well. The 8 piece set is on sale through tomorrow for $160, about what you would expect to pay for 2 Sorby or Crown tools. They usually have one of the Pinnacle set on sale, but I don't know about November.

Good luck.

JimQ
 
If you're a carpenter, you know the value of a good edge, so pretty much anything is going to do well for you. Sets of tools, conspiracy theories aside, are normally made out of the most commonly used patterns, so I'd start there. Never learned to use a tool I didn't have.

Carbon steel would be fine, except that what's out there now is mostly Chinese, and just a touch suspect in its forging. If you don't heat it excessively in your turning or sharpening, it'll take and hold a fine edge. The HSS tools will take a bit more heat, of course.

For pens, you'll want a "spindle" set. There are a lot of them out there. You'll want one which includes a roughing gouge, a couple of smaller gouges, preferably forged rather than cylindrical, a parting tool, a skew, and one of those useless scrapers to be reground to a straight chisel.

Something like this, maybe. http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FULLPRES.exe?PARTNUM=230-002
 
I've got one of these cheap Hi-Carbon sets...

I'm going to be buying some HSS soon. I can't stand cutting one half of a small handle and then having to sharpen the skew to do the other half... :D

I have learned a couple of things about sharpening though...


The Pinnacle 5 piece set is on sale for $99 at Wood Craft.... I'm going to look into it when I pick up the mini on Thursday....
 
-e- said:
i don't buy tool-sets because most of the time the set contains 1-2 tools i'll use, and the rest i'll never use.
Click to expand...
I am definately with -e- on this. I would buy the one or two at a time I need, and then maybe the one you would use occasionally. Buy middle of the road costs tools.

If you talk a bit about what type of turning you want to focus on to start with, we are ahppy to make sggestions.
 
I'm with Steve and "e" on this one. When I started teaching woodworking in the public schools, all you could buy were sets of carbon steel turning tools. So, I bought the sets. When I retired 30 years later, I still had some of those tools from the original sets; we just didn't use them all.

And Steve is also correct in saying that different turning jobs use different tools. Focus on the type of turning you wish to do and ask for recommendations on what tools to purchase.

Keep in mind, however, that tools do not make the turner. All of have those tools hidden away that, when bought, held the promise of making us a better turner--they lied!! I keep mine arougnd just to keep me humble.

Joe
 
Tool Sets

I too would not buy a "set of tools" but rather look at quality tools one or 2 at a time. I would also advise you to look at a sharpening system such as the Oneway wolverine or Keltons. I believe a jig base system will give you the same predictable results every time and also allow you to more easily go and redo do the edge as needed without doing a major regrind ( ie take 1 or 2 swipes on the grinding wheel to freshen the edge vs regrinding/reshaping the edge). A jig based system will also preserve your tools life.
 
Tools for pens.

When I turn a pen the only tools I use are a 1 "roughing gouge and a parting tool. The only other tool I think you could use would be a 3/8" spindle gouge. I know there are more tools you could use but truly you can accomplish everything with these 3 tools. Keep it simple.
 
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So I've only got some carbon steel stuff... but I'm looking to by some HSS stuff.

I'm getting the Jet mini and would like to turn small spindles, turned boxes, small bowls, and pens.

I'm fairly comfortable using a skew now. I can sharpen fairly well by hand, although I'll probably either make a jig system for my grinder or invest in one eventually.

I'm thinking about a couple of skews, a bowl gouge or two, a spindle gouge or two, and diamond section parting tool. I'll probably make my thin section parting tool out of some fairly good spring steel I've got.


So given the above criteria, what should I buy? Your advice?
 
Gotta say, I checked out the 5 and 8 piece Pinnacle sets at Woodcraft. They're actually well put together, although the 8 piece is much more functional than the 5 as it includes larger bowl and spindle gouges. The 8 includes a deep roughing gouge, a couple of wide and thick scrapers, an oval skew, a spindle gouge, and a bowl gouge. Can't remember what the other two tools are. All the tools are on the medium to large size but would be quite functional for turning pens. I have a mini set and actually find full sized tools more usefull until you get down to the micro size.

Also, as for quality, Pinnacle makes quite decent and functional tools. They may not be Sorby or Crown but they're far from HF or Sears also. Well into the good tool range. I'd say the set is an excellent investment for the price and a good starter set. Save the Sorby and Crown for replacements and specialty tools.

Dietrich
 
Joe Herrmann said:
Keep in mind, however, that tools do not make the turner. All of have those tools hidden away that, when bought, held the promise of making us a better turner--they lied!! I keep mine arougnd just to keep me humble.
Click to expand...

So you can buy tools at full price, one at a time, based on hope and still have them end up as hangar queens? Sure enough. Own a few of those one-trick ponies myself. I use every one of the tools in my original eight-piece set, though. Scrapers are modified to cutting tools.

You don't know what you need until you use what you have, so start with variety.
 
Tols for pen turning

The tools I use for making pens are all high speed steel. The order of use they are 3/4" roughing gouge, 1/2" skew. When I need a parting tool I use a Chris Stott 1/16" kerf parting tool. That's it the whole enchalada

Angelo
 
Buying quality tools one or two at a time is the approach I took and I have very few tools that I don't use. Instead of fighting cheap tools to learn sharpening, acquire a few scrap pieces of flat and round stock from a local machine shop and learn to sharpen by grinding on them.
 
The best advice I can give is to stay away from gimmic tools. They work once you know how to use them but a lot of beginners look to them as a substitute for learning how to use the more conventional tools and they really aren't.

Also you mentioned "a couple of skews" and "a gouge or two". Most turners I know have multiples of tools but I'd recommend getting one skew or one gouge and use that tool until it will no longer do the job-too big, too small, needs a different grind- before buying a second one.

As far as you projected projects:

pens- can be turned with any tool that will cut wood. My daughter uses a skew start to finish.

spindles- spindle gouge, skew and a parting tool. Although some people never use the skew.

boxes- spindle tools plus I like a round nose scraper to clean up the inside of endgrain boxes

Bowls- bowl gouge and parting tool

This list is what I would consider the minimum tools needed I have and use many more.

Mike
 
Thanks all

I thank you all for your input. I will take all your info and do some more research. You have all been a great help. Thanks again, Frank
 
A wealth of good advice here. As with some of my other hobbies, guitars, for instance, it's not necessarily the tool that makes the music, it's the musician. Course a good musician can make music out of anything, he will eventually get himself a really fine instrument.

Anyone have any experience with the Benjamin's Best chisels sold by Penn State? I was planning on getting a couple of "specialty chisels" like a box scraper to see how they felt before I invested big bucks in a higher-quality tool like Crown or Sorby.
 
Any of you have experience with Hamlet Craft Spindle gouges and their rolled skew? Any problems sharpening with waterstones? Do they buff out better with tripoli or rouge? Do they seem to dress up better with ceramics instead of waterstones? How's the balance and feel? Light or heavy (mass)? It their claim of 3-4 times the sharpening life of HSS real? If you've had a severe catch - and will admit it :) did it snap or bend the tool?

I'm happy with my current HSS but I'm thinking of getting another skew and a 1/4" S. gouge.
 
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