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Captive rings

W

William Almy Jr

Joined
Mar 23, 2025
Messages
10
Likes
3
Location
Summerville, SC
Howdy
Im kinda interested in making captive rings. actually like the best a tool a friends Father made. he only showed it to me as he had sharpened it so much over the years it was unusable and he wanted help fixit or makin a new one. I did not get more than a few minutes with it to fully reverse engineer it.

So any recommendations on a good, read that as easy to use/learn, captive ring tool?

Thank you for any help
 
Robert Sorby makes a Captive Ring Tool, Woodcraft and others will sell it. But, you are stuck to rings that match the cutter sizes.

A skew chisel and some practice will make you a master at turning captive ring of any dimension. Search youtube for "woodturning captive ring" and you'll get several examples.
 
Steve Tiedman said:
Robert Sorby makes a Captive Ring Tool, Woodcraft and others will sell it. But, you are stuck to rings that match the cutter sizes.

A skew chisel and some practice will make you a master at turning captive ring of any dimension. Search youtube for "woodturning captive ring" and you'll get several examples.
Click to expand...
Thank you Steve

I spend so much time in front of a screen at work, I shy away when in my time. Is why woodworkin is such a great pastime
 
William Almy Jr said:
Thank you Steve

I spend so much time in front of a screen at work, I shy away when in my time. Is why woodworkin is such a great pastime
Click to expand...
You're welcome, and good luck with your projects.
 
William, though I have the Sorby captive ring scrapers, I don't use them. Once I tried the type of tool that Mike Peace shows in his video--with its gradually curved claw shape--I never went back. It is easier to use (more forgiving), has more "reach" and can make rings of any size. I found that I do not need the pre-set ring size that is built-in to the Sorby captive ring scrapers: it is easy to get rings of the same size with the claw-shaped tool.

I suggest that you get an old 1/2" scraper or skew, or get a piece of tool steel (~10mm wide and 4mm thick) from Amazon or wherever, and grind yourself the claw tool.
 
I wrote a really complete article for American Woodturner. It covers making the tools, using the tools and making interlocking rings. Can't remember what issue but if you are an AAW member you have access to all back issues abd can search for it. I found it. Vol37 # 6
 
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