Michael Anderson, thank you for your valuable insight. You are correct, my letter was written in answer to Terry Martin’s letter on page 8 of the June 2025 American Woodturner.
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Are there optimum techniques
- Thread starter Mike Darlow
- Start date
Most of my turning is kiln dried black walnut. What angle would you use?
Webb, 30 for roughing gouges and parting tools used to cut, and 25 for skews and detail gouges will be fine. The edges should however be honed. Please let us know how these angles compare with those you use now.
There is one definite optimum in cutters that do very well for bowls and spindles. That's the same exact cutter for both types of turnings. Also turns against the grain almost as cleanly as with the grain. And doesn't need any sharpening jigs, etc. Widely used in production and automated turning.
The cutter is a diamond shaped carbide insert with a small nose radius as shown below. These are high positive rake, razor sharp, mirror polished inserts with molded chip breaker originally designed for aluminum cutting. Given the small nose radius they sever wood fibers rather than pushing them away causing rough patches and/or catches.
having the high positive rake these cutters can tend to self feed sometimes so some means of dampening the tendency to self feed might be needed. Significant mass in the cutter holding mechanism is the best way.
The cutter is a diamond shaped carbide insert with a small nose radius as shown below. These are high positive rake, razor sharp, mirror polished inserts with molded chip breaker originally designed for aluminum cutting. Given the small nose radius they sever wood fibers rather than pushing them away causing rough patches and/or catches.
having the high positive rake these cutters can tend to self feed sometimes so some means of dampening the tendency to self feed might be needed. Significant mass in the cutter holding mechanism is the best way.
I appreciate the subject and the point of Darlow's intent. I think he is correct when he says we should all be taught the optimal techniques. Just as we were all, most likely, taught a language and it's usage in writing and speaking using optimal techniques. Do we all get understood by writing and speaking while using the optimal techniques we were taught? Sure, we can be clearly understood, but throughout the United States alone there are countless regional accents and dialects that do not follow the optimal methods we were taught.
I am in my mid seventies and my early learning was all from books; Ernie Conover, David Ellsworh, Dale Nish, & Richard Raffan. Just as with the english language, I have taken bits and pieces from those authors, and others, to arrive at whatever I have settled into that works well for me.
I am in my mid seventies and my early learning was all from books; Ernie Conover, David Ellsworh, Dale Nish, & Richard Raffan. Just as with the english language, I have taken bits and pieces from those authors, and others, to arrive at whatever I have settled into that works well for me.
Are you turning spindles or bowls? For spindles, 25 to 30 with a skew, for the SRG, mine is at 40. I would use a 40/40 grind on a bowl gouge for a platter, and a 40/40 and a BOB (bottom of bowl) gouge for the transition and across the bottom. I am making some boxes now, and roughed out 2 blanks, 2 or so inch square and 3 inches or so long. I roughed and finished with the skew. I don't turn walnut much any more because it makes me sneeze and itch. I have found peeling cuts to be far faster and more efficient when roughing down spindle blanks.
For what ever reasons, walnut seems to dull all tools faster than most other woods, from chainsaw to scrapers.
robo hippy
That would drive me bonkers. I use the same gouges and grinds on green vs. dry woods.