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What is this tool?

Charles Cadenhead

Charles Cadenhead

Joined
Dec 28, 2019
Messages
644
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Location
Tallahassee, FL
My FiL recently gifted me with all of his gouges and woodturning tools.

PXL_20250105_195808881.PORTRAIT.jpg
And as I was going through them this week I noticed these two.

PXL_20250118_224512726.PORTRAIT.jpg PXL_20250118_224309436.PORTRAIT.ORIGINAL.jpg
They're stamped "Ashley Iles LTD Made in England", so I went to the Ashley Iles website but couldn't find them listed there. Does anybody know what their purpose is (besides making me wonder)? Thanks!
 
The one on the left 1st pic & top 2nd pic is a fluted parting tool and if it is the same as the one I have the fluted edge is wider than the opposite edge to provide relief in the cut . The idea was to get a cleaner cut on the sides of the parting cut.
 
Don Wattenhofer said:
The one on the left 1st pic & top 2nd pic is a fluted parting tool and if it is the same as the one I have the fluted edge is wider than the opposite edge to provide relief in the cut . The idea was to get a cleaner cut on the sides of the parting cut.
Click to expand...

Ashley Iles sells them as bead forming tools.

12mm 1/2 Bead Forming Tool [H86C] : Ashley Iles Tool Store

Ashley Iles Tool Store 12mm 1/2 Bead Forming Tool [H86C] - 12mm 1/2 Bead Forming Tool
www.ashleyilestoolstore.co.uk
 
For those interested, D-way also sells excellent beading tool. If you search this forum for basket illusion you will find a lot of information.

The amazing Harvey Meyer sells (or used to sell) the tools too and has a lot of information about beading. Extremely nice, kind, and helpful person too.
His interactive remote demo may be great for a club to consider.
 
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Charles Cadenhead said:
How do you sharpen yours, with a wheel or a diamond hone?
Click to expand...
Pretty much as you'd do with a scraper (which they are) or parting tool - I just match the bevel on the tool with flute facing up and sharpen it on my grinder - you can of course hone for a few times before needing to go to grinder and refresh the bevel...
 
Yes definitely a beading tool and a fluted parting tool that can also be used to form beads. I have quite a few Ashley Ailes turning tools, a family run business, excellent quality (better than Sorby) and reasonably priced. I'm not too sure that they make that particular parting tool anymore. Careful not to blue the points when sharpening, just a very light touch. Flute down when using and just a little side waggle on the initial few cuts. 😉
 
Here's some similar discussion from a machinest's forum. It seems to take a lot more heat, time, and specific quenching to anneal (soften) high speed steel.

High speed steel losing it's temper, grinder burn

OK here is one for the experts in metallurgey, when a typical HSS cutter is sharpened, does surface discoleration indicate that the tool has been damaged ?? When I was in vocational school we for one reason or another decided we needed to anneal some HSS, we heated it cherry red and packed it...
www.practicalmachinist.com

Tech info from a steel supplier, including the specific heat ranges of processing M2 HSS into usable product.

High Speed Steel | M2 High Speed Steel | M2 Steel

Hudson Tool Steel shares technical data associated with M2 High Speed Steel including applications
www.hudsontoolsteel.com www.hudsontoolsteel.com

And if we back up a page at this site, you'll find similar pages for a long list of various tool steels, including several power metals.

Tool Steel | High Speed Steel | Knife Steel | Technical Data

Hudson Tool Steel shares technical data associated with the various types of tool steels and high speed steels
www.hudsontoolsteel.com www.hudsontoolsteel.com

Here's a pretty good layman's perspective video of color changes of steel at heating temperatures.
View: https://youtu.be/1mawrloWWAs?

Blue colors start in the mid-500 degree F range, and that's not going to bother the temper hardness of M2 HSS. Per the site above, M2 has an annealing temp of over 1500 degrees F, and it has to be held there for a long time. If we blue an edge at the grinder, it means nothing to the HSS. Plain carbon steel on the other hand, we might compromise temper right at that blue color area. No biggie- grind it away.

If I'm grinding something enough to make it uncomfortable to hold, I'll grab my shop vac hose and draw air around the hot metal to cool it. Less thermal shock and less messy than a water bucket.
 
Steve Tiedman said:
Blue colors start in the mid-500 degree F range...If we blue an edge at the grinder, it means nothing to the HSS.
Click to expand...

That's been the consensus and advice in the woodturning community for a long time. I just wondered if there was something different and perhaps less robust about the Ashley Iles HSS we should know about. I have a couple of Iles tools and to me they seem to be very high quality.
If they've been around for a long time perhaps some of their older tools were not HSS and would need to be sharpened with more care.
 
John K Jordan said:
That's been the consensus and advice in the woodturning community for a long time. I just wondered if there was something different and perhaps less robust about the Ashley Iles HSS we should know about. I have a couple of Iles tools and to me they seem to be very high quality.
If they've been around for a long time perhaps some of their older tools were not HSS and would need to be sharpened with more care.
Click to expand...
I don't own any tools from the Iles family members, but I believe their reputation for quality preceeds them. That said, if the tools are made from, due to age, carbon steel rather than a form of HSS, precaution should be taken at the grinder. When in doubt, grind like its carbon steel.
 
One thing you can do to HSS is cool it down in water if it gets a bit warm. What you mustn’t do it get it very hot and then plunge it into water, as apparently this causes micro fractures.
 
In comparison to other wood turning tools, beading tools don’t remove a lot of material. As a result they don’t really need to be made from HSS.
This is handy for those that make their own tools. I made a 3mm beading tool from O1 tool steel and hardened and tempered it myself.
 
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