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Bi-metal Bowl Gouge Needed

Marvin Jones

Marvin Jones

Joined
Dec 15, 2021
Messages
300
Likes
158
Location
West Memphis, AR
Six nails and two bullets later, I decided this piece either needs a bi-metal bowl gouge or the log splitter...hope it doesn't dull the splitter. All of the dark spots contained some kind of metal except the punky area that I followed that turned out to be a bullet path. Really wanted to finish this, would make a great conversation piece. My arms and hands are getting tired of digging out metal, the piece is getting smaller and smaller, and my chisels are getting shorter and shorter...
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Ah, the dreaded "Tink". Hate that. Bullets, at least, are lead and shouldn't do much harm to your tool. Old, rusty, rotted nails seem to put a nick in the edge that can be sharpened out. While there may not be 'bi-metal' tools, there are carbide ones.

The upside is that when you finally get the piece finished, the stain and tracks give it a wonderful backstory that people seem to like. I turned some wood from a tree the neighbor had taken down and came across 2 different ages of nails from 2 generations of kids who had nailed on steps up to their treehouse. The current owners were enthralled.
 
Richard Coers said:
I'm surprised you didn't see black staining before you started turning. Or did you just ignore it?
Click to expand...
This is a section of the tree at the ground, is pecan, has inclusions all over it, not all of the dark areas have nails or bullets, just ignored the colorations...it will burn well next year, just start the woodpile earlier than normal. Some very industrious short person had to drive all those nails down there, not high enough off of the ground for even the first step of a tree house ladder.
 
I had 3 nails in a piece of pecan I was making offering plates from couple years ago. Cut them first with chainsaw and then used drill to dig them out. Oh yes there were bullets too. When I was young we had a pecan that had stopped producing and drove rusty nails in it as we heard that will make it produce. So that may be what you are looking at.
 
Stay away from barn yard trees! Ruined a chain that way.... As for bimetal gouges, on the bimetal bandsaw blades, the ones made for cutting up pallets, the teeth are M42HSS. Different set than the wood cutting blades.

robo hippy
 
I was just being silly about a bi-metal gouge... the only blade I'm going to put in the rest of that wood is carbon steel and that is on my log splitter. I agree with the barnyard wood, especially a fence line.

'
 
Well, I said I would not do it, but I gave the bowl one more shot...found one more big lead slug and one more nail that reduced the diameter another inch but it looks like there is no more. I fully expect this thing to crack. Seven nails and three bullets, have to keep this one if it stays together. Another note is this one came down because of a tornado...that tornado came across Tennessee and was one of the most deadly they've had in awhile. It was very narrow when it went through Trumann, AR but was huge in Tn. I think it stayed on the ground in TN over 200 miles someone said.
This is the only piece close to the roots that did not have huge inclusions all through them, I was afraid to even try to turn them, all of that is now a nice stack of firewood curing for next year. I do have about 40 or so pieces from huge upper limbs that are wrapped in plastic, waiting to be roughed in...

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