What's with the Sorby Multi-tip?

[Jamie Straw]

I bought one of these years ago, never used it. Have been on the fence about keeping it, and I see they're frequently on sale and don't sell particularly well on eBay, even when new. What gives? Is it a dud?😛

 

[Bill Boehme]

I have both the straight shank and curved Sorby hollowing tools. The half-round shank is nice for maintaining correct orientation of the cutter. However, I think that the handles are a bit short for a hollowing tool.

I also have a multitude of other hollowing tools. It seems like every pro turner has their own special design hollowing tools. Hollowing tools are simple -- no exotic steel so they shouldn't be very expensive. Also, hollowing tools have evolved considerably in the last few years, but Sorby hasn't updated their design

 

[Gretch Flo]

I bought one of these years ago, never used it. Have been on the fence about keeping it, and I see they're frequently on sale and don't sell particularly well on eBay, even when new. What gives? Is it a dud?😛

Jamie I have the larger handled one and the mini. I use the mini tear drop scraper handle all the time on bowls. I seldom make hollow forms. Most of my bowls are 12" and smaller. Occasionally i make larger bowls when I have the right wood and use the larger handled one and. When the tear drop scraper itself gets smaller and hard to sharpen, it is a hand me down to the mini. Gretch

 

[Jamie Straw]

I have both the straight shank and curved Sorby hollowing tools. The half-round shank is nice for maintaining correct orientation of the cutter. However, I think that the handles are a bit short for a hollowing tool.

I also have a multitude of other hollowing tools. It seems like every pro turner has their own special design hollowing tools. Hollowing tools are simple -- no exotic steel so they shouldn't be very expensive. Also, hollowing tools have evolved considerably in the last few years, but Sorby hasn't updated their design

My hollowing will be limited to pretty shallow stuff for quite awhile I suspect (smallish boxes for instance), so the short handle probably won't bother me. Wondering if the Sorby is really any better or significantly easier than using a gouge. Though I probably won't do boxes soon, if the Sorby will come in handy down the road I'll keep it. Otherwise, a good selling time is coming up soon.

 

[Jamie Straw]

Jamie I have the larger handled one and the mini. I use the mini tear drop scraper handle all the time on bowls. I seldom make hollow forms. Most of my bowls are 12" and smaller. Occasionally i make larger bowls when I have the right wood and use the larger handled one and. When the tear drop scraper itself gets smaller and hard to sharpen, it is a hand me down to the mini. Gretch

What advantage does the Sorby tear-drop scraper offer you over a regular scraper? Love the idea of hand-me-down on the tear-drop.😎 Interesting that you use a mini on up to 12" bowls. For a beginner such as I, that seems like a good-sized bowl!

I tried the scraper a couple times, seemed difficult to get the tool-rest adjust so that I could get into the bowl, but not have the assembly interfere.

 

[Bill Boehme]

What advantage does the Sorby tear-drop scraper offer you over a regular scraper? Love the idea of hand-me-down on the tear-drop.😎 Interesting that you use a mini on up to 12" bowls. For a beginner such as I, that seems like a good-sized bowl!

I tried the scraper a couple times, seemed difficult to get the tool-rest adjust so that I could get into the bowl, but not have the assembly interfere.

The small scraper tip is for hollowing and the teardrop scraper is for cleaning up the rough surface left by the small scraper tip. This type of tool is used on hollowforms that have an opening that is somewhat smaller than the largest diameter. You would not be able to use a gouge in such a situation -- or I would not ... maybe there is somebody who would. I see that you mentioned using it on a bowl -- this is not really the best tool for a bowl although it can be used on the top side of a bowl (and bottom side). The down side of using a scraper on a bowl is tearout on the end grain. It isn't noticeable on the interior of a hollowform except to woodturners.

 

[Jamie Straw]

The small scraper tip is for hollowing and the teardrop scraper is for cleaning up the rough surface left by the small scraper tip. This type of tool is used on hollowforms that have an opening that is somewhat smaller than the largest diameter. You would not be able to use a gouge in such a situation -- or I would not ... maybe there is somebody who would. I see that you mentioned using it on a bowl -- this is not really the best tool for a bowl although it can be used on the top side of a bowl (and bottom side). The down side of using a scraper on a bowl is tearout on the end grain. It isn't noticeable on the interior of a hollowform except to woodturners.

I was asking Gretch about her use of it for bowls, that's where that came from. The only near-term use I could envision in my case is boxes, but it might be too big for the size I was thinking about. I tried it out twice, and did not get any joy from it (joy=success), but there's no pressure to learn to use it right now. Just lining up some stuff to convert to cash, need to decide about this tool.

 

[Michael Nathal]

not bad

I find the tool to be pretty good. I used to use it for smaller hollow forms. The small ~3/16 scraper bit is good steel but the profile is a pain. It has a rounded bottom. This makes it fit perfectly into their swivel holder but it forces you to buy the Sorby bits rather than the standard square cross section bits that everyone else in the world uses. Also I find it more difficult to sharpen than the square bits.

 

[Hal Taylor]

I use the small swan neck quite a lot for getting at the hard to reach spots on hollow forms at the top. I use a captured bar for the main hollowing, but one can't get to the upper part of a hollow form through a small hole with ease with the captured bar. I then use the small scrapper by hand.

 

[Max Monts]

Sorby tear-drop scraper

Good day! I use the tear-drop scraper on the insides of bowls or boxes that seem to not respond to other scrapers. I have a variety of commercial regular grind, negative rake, and homemade scrapers. I'll use each till I find the one that particular piece of wood needs to work. I don't have a mint invested in scrapers, but the several I do own I use, cause they work for me.
I have ground a bit of bevel on mine, however. The sharpening info provided w/ the tool states to just hone the top of the tear-drop. I did so, but got not-so-nice shavings (I got dust, really.) I then never used the tool. After getting aggravated at myself for having a perfectly good tool that was just sitting on a shelf, I thought I'd experiment and put a small bevel (10-15 deg. like on my other scrapers) on it, and MAN!! it now gives wonderful little curliques when used in shear-scraping mode. As I said before, it seems to work for me when others don't.YMMV, tho. It's my last line of defense before bringing-out the dreaded 80 grit gouge...
BTW - I've not used the hollowing tips.

 

[Gretch Flo]

What advantage does the Sorby tear-drop scraper offer you over a regular scraper? Love the idea of hand-me-down on the tear-drop.😎 Interesting that you use a mini on up to 12" bowls. For a beginner such as I, that seems like a good-sized bowl!

I bought them a long time ago, and had had no formal laths training. I just began using it for eliminating tool marks, and for eliminating a "hump" (rather than risk a "funnel") or to get the pleasing angle above my base on the outside. I rotate the blade depending on where I am in the outside or inside. I try to avoid scraping, but sometimes it's my only pragmatic choice. There are some woods that seem to love being scraped. I hand hone every 3-4 swipes. Gretch