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Bedan Tool

Wyatt Holm

Wyatt Holm

Joined
Apr 30, 2008
Messages
271
Likes
27
Location
Southern Utah
Hello,
I don't want to hijack the easy rougher thread, so I will start a new one. I watched Allen Batty use a "french bedan" and the Utah symposium last year. He was using it on a box for the finish cut on the bottom. I don't know if he ground it different than they usually come but he would push in at the center, then go left cutting with a slight curve on the left side of the tool. It looked really impressive. Did anyone else see that, or have you used a bedan? If so how was it?
 
Escoulan

Francois Escoulan (sp) is one that i have seen use the bedan like you are talking, it is amazing what he can do using it more as a skew than a parting tool like most of us do. There is a poor quality video of him on youtube or if you do a search for stuintokyo (he made the video of escoulans demo) he has a video of him practicing the technique that he learned at the demo. pretty cool.
 
I use a bedan tool all the time especially on lidded boxes. Stu in Tokoyo who is a good friend put me onto it. It does take a bit of practice but I really like mine.
 
Straight chisel, with a side clearance angle ground in. Bedans are nice. Their larger cousins too. When I work with a straight chisel I often wonder what the commotion with skews is all about. When doing the bottoming, he's scraping with the side of the tool. Works fine on squarish bottoms, though I prefer a fingernail gouge or a hook/ring tool on mine, which aren't.

Since I have a 1/4 parting tool up to a 1" chisel in four sizes, I pick the one appropriate to the task, though if I owned a Bedan I might use it for the first couple widths.
 
Are you sure you are talking about a Bedan. A flat scraper with the left side ground down are what many people use to finish the bottom and side of boxes. It probably looks like a Bedan. A Bedan might be good for doing the bottom and the sides of some Bedan tools are angles so the side might do some cutting but I would think it would chatter.
I prefer to use a round nose scraper for my box bottoms because I don't like the transition from the sides to the bottom to be square. On the rare occasion where I do, I rough out the box interior with the round nose scraper and then clean up just the bottom transition area with the flat nosed scraper.
Of course these days I use the Hunter #5 for my boxes.
 
Tony K. in NC said:
Francois Escoulan (sp) is one that i have seen use the bedan like you are talking, it is amazing what he can do using it more as a skew than a parting tool like most of us do. There is a poor quality video of him on youtube or if you do a search for stuintokyo (he made the video of escoulans demo) he has a video of him practicing the technique that he learned at the demo. pretty cool.
Click to expand...

Links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMDPE8i4LiQ&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TEeHoZM9Vk&feature=channel_page

Stu also has a 5 parter on the CI Rougher (which I didn't know until this moment)

PS just yesterday I used my Bedan to do the friction chuck for thimble turning, roughed the diameter, then did a nice finish sweeping cut, all then the Bedan.

TTFN
Ralph
 
Last edited:
I am sure it was a bedan that he was using. He was using it on and end grain piece of ash, it cut beautifully. It looked like wet wood. but he said that it was bone dry.
 
One of our club members demonstrated a Bedan tool at a meeting. I couldn't wait to get one delivered - it has earned a special place on my "go to" tool list. I can't imagine not owning one and using it to its fullest potential.
 
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