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Sharpening help

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Harry Miller

Member
Messages
5
Location
Toronto
I dabble at making Windsor Chairs.
All I've made so far have simple bamboo style legs.
Now I'd like to make some baluster legs and to that end I bought a Henry Taylor spindle gouge and in 2 weeks I've ground away about 3 inches of metal with still very little success. I have a wolverine jig with a homemade varigrind and also a 1 by 30 inch belt sander. I've watched many turning and sharpening videos but still need help.
I live in the east end of Toronto.
Hopeful Harry
 
Welcome to the forum, Harry.

Whoa! 3 inches of metal in two weeks. That is a lot even if you were changing the profile of the gouge. You are probably too aggresive whil;e sharpening and if you haven't had success after watching a lot of videos then my suggestion is to find a local woodturning club and get some help. We do have a few members from the Toronto area. They might be able to help.
 
Welcome aboard Harry!

Yep that's a lot of metal! :eek:

Some pics of what you have on the gouge _might_ help. Also some idea of what sort of problems you're having with the turning itself. I agree with Mohammad if you can get someone local to poke at it you'll likely save days of frustration and banging your head on the wall (don't ask how i know :eek:)
 
Add a third welcome :wave: and a third suggestion to find a local turner to walk you through a few things. We may have a member here in your area who could help, but I'd also suggest looking to see when and where the folks at the Toronto Woodturners Guild meet up, and catching one of their meetings. You will very likely find one or more people close to you who'd be very glad to help you out. In general, woodturners are a very open bunch, willing to share their knowledge with new turners.

I'll also echo Mohammad's suggestion that you are likely being too aggressive with the grinding. It should only take a baby-soft touch to the grinding wheel, especially on a smaller gouge. I've not taken 3 inches of metal off any of my gouges, including the ones that are 8 or 9 years old.
 
Welcome to the Family, Harry!

I have a Wolverine jig with Vari-grind and found the Wolverine instructional videos quite helpful. There are also a lot of other videos on Youtube that deal with Wolverine products.
 
And a fifth...of scotch and welcome!! I have some Taylor stuff. I do find them a little lite on the handle weight. When sharpening...maybe a lighter touch. I just did mine 3 weeks ago on a Wolverine Jig and the are very nice. Grinding stone width plays a part, but with the steel used in the current market, high temps aren't a factor. Honing may work for you after the sharpening session.
 
Hi Harry welcome to the family.
Pm me with where exactly u are in the east end. Perhaps if Ed Thomas is close you could meet up with him or if you near me, (King City) we could get together and i can see what you doing wrong. My bet is grinding wheel is your big issue.
As Jay has said the ones that come with most grinders are way to course.
Check out using something like this
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=32981&cat=1,43072,45938

Also what grinder do you have? A picture, speed, wheel size would help.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
Thank you all for the suggestions and also for the welcome. I'm sure I'm going to like this place.
I'll pm Rob and try to post some pictures.
 
First welcome aboard! Great people here and the friendliest atmosphere on the web! They have helped me tremendously and I have had a great deal of pleasure talking to them while they did it.

I can't see some of the video links and I'm late to this thread so I may be duplicating things. Apologies if I am. Doug Thompson makes some of the best lathe tools out there, many say simply the best. He has a great video on youtube, I think just released. It explains sharpening quite well including that you are beating your head against a brick wall if you are trying to sharpen a tool to a profile that isn't compatible with the flute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOc6giDP39A

Also Wolverine has a very good sharpening video that comes with their basic set-up. I think it is also online at their site. Well worth watching.

I built homemade myself and had issues with movement in my set-up. Don't know if you have that issue but it can eat a lot of steel fast. Also your angles can wander so the sixty degrees or whatever you started with becomes far more or less over time.

One thing I learned, swept back wings are far easier to work with. I have taken that to an extreme now with a Michelsen style grind and I'm struggling a bit compared to turning with a Jamieson style grind. However I haven't turned in months until a couple pieces recently and am still very much learning so definitely take any comments I make about one grind or another with a huge grain of salt. Doesn't really matter anyway, over time you will find the grind you like and the way you like to cut wood. I am finding that I overcomplicated things at first and it is really pretty simple, at least in theory!

Hu
 
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Welcome to the forum! And thanks to those that posted the Thompson video, helped me more than any other I have watched. I have one of his tools I bought a few years ago and have not had success sharpening it correctly. Now I'm ready for another try at it. I just have to figure out exactly which one of his tools I bought!:rolleyes: I keep going back to my cheap HF tools I originally purchased because I am most comfortable with them and feel I can't really hurt them when I sharpen them.
 
Well Ed spent nearly 4 hours with me helping me to sharpen and turn.
Now I need to spend a lot of practice time. But because of Ed I'm fairly confident that I won't be ingraining bad habits.
Unfortunately for Ed I live pretty close by so I don't think he's seen the last of me.
Thanks again Ed. And thanks again to all those who have helped and welcomed me here.
 
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