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Oneway easy core

Among the videos I plan to do, I will cover the coring systems. As far as the Oneway system goes, on the plus side, it is rock solid, all the way to the full extension of the largest blade. On the minus side, in my opinion, worst ever cutting tip design ever. Many have switched to the cutter from Mike Hunter which is a bit spendy, but people prefer it. I did buy one of their tips years ago before they ground it down. I ground the end to about 65 degrees, and it was trapezoid in shape, so cutting edge and base were parallel, and sides tapered down to thinner, about the thickness of the support blade. Far better coring speeds, and cutting action, and you didn't have to remove the tip to sharpen it, just a quick touch up with the diamond hone. The "theory" with their cutter shape is that the spear tip breaks the fiber and the sides of the cutter cut the fibers away. To me, that doesn't even work in theory.... I prefer the McNaughton which has a "learning curve". I think the Woodcut system is better than the Oneway.

robo hippy
 
Well woodturners can agree to disagree. I have owned all three coring systems as I was going to do an article on them back when I was writing articles but someone beat m to it. My take is very different than Robo's above. First all three work, no doubt about that. The first system that I divorced myself from was the McNaughton, not only is the learning curve hard but in use the system is just harder to use. On the version I had one had to hold the blade up against the bottom of the trap and not doing that could make things real exciting really fast. Now it was just me but I never felt safe using it. Second that I sold was the Woodcut (this was the 2 blade version). Now there is nothing wrong with the Woodcut as it worked flawlessly and I used it a lot. What was the deal breaker for me was the fact that you are limited in what you can do size wise as it was connected to the tail stock and if I was super careful I could get 4 different sized bowls. If I had not already had the Oneway Easy Core System I would definitely still be using the Woodcut. And no there wasn't a lot of stuff out there about using the Oneway. I opted to spend some time with Chris Ramsey using the Easy Core and that was money well spent. Oneway should have had Chris do a demo on its use and they would have sold more than they have. Now I didn't have any trouble using the Oneway cutters a they worked and I even tried their carbide cutter which for me worked no better than the regular M4 cutter, yet with all that I was still was always on the defensive while using the system (just not to the extent of the McNaughton). Then Mike Hunter brought out Korpro cartridge (and yes it is expensive) and it is now a whole new ballgame in using the Oneway System. It cuts a 100% better than the Oneway cutters which takes off a lot of the stress when coring. And again I know it is expensive but it is worth every penny. Lastly it is said that the McNaughton is the most versatile but the Oneway is also more versatile than most think. Like the McNaughton the Oneway can deliver different bowl shapes in the same ways as the McNaughton. My take is the Oneway is the best of the three. If I were just starting out I would find turners with each system and I would ask them to let me try them out and then make my decision as after all, woodturners are woodturners and they can agree to disagree;)
 
If you get most of the way through the learning curve of the McNaughton, for me, I can remove the first core, I take the biggest one first, I can remove that first core in less time than it takes me to set up the other 2 systems. This does take a fair amount of practice, and as a production turner, it was essential for me. I did talk to Arizona Carbide about making custom carbide tips for the Oneway, and they said minimum 300 pieces. While they would sell, and they would work better than the standard tip that comes with the Oneway system, I just didn't want to take that on.... The thing about the Woodcut system, I almost never use the tailstock when turning bowls. Generally it is not needed, as long as you have done every thing correctly. If you watch Mike, Stuart, and Glenn turn, they never use the tailstock either, other than for turning the tenon off. Mostly it is another time saver thing. This is the advantage of the headstock design of the Vicmark lathes.

robo hippy
 
Arizona Carbide sells a carbide cutter for the Oneway system and like the carbide cutter from Oneway and for me it is the same as Oneway being it doesn't cut any better than the M42 one. Back when I went to see Chris this is how he sharpened
the Oneway cutter. Here is the burl that he cored 9 cores out of in a very short time even with me asking questions. Up until he got hurt he had started using the Hunter Korpro and he also was super pleased at how much easier it made the process. Once the initial setup is made it takes about 10 seconds to move to the next core until having to change the knives, that takes another minute. I have put the locking lever upgrade from Glen Lucas which makes the process even faster as for moving things around. I have posted here before a written outline from Chris as to his process so you may be able to hunt it down here on this site.
 

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I'm picking up on an older thread after doing a search for discussion on the Oneway system. I am looking at purchasing the Korpro cartridge and was wondering how many who have multiple knife sets bought a Korpro cartridge for each of them, or do you swap them from knife to knife? My preference would be to have one dedicated to each knife but that is $$$.
 
Larry Steinmetz said:
I'm picking up on an older thread after doing a search for discussion on the Oneway system. I am looking at purchasing the Korpro cartridge and was wondering how many who have multiple knife sets bought a Korpro cartridge for each of them, or do you swap them from knife to knife? My preference would be to have one dedicated to each knife but that is $$$.
Click to expand...
I just move the korpro from one knee to another.Only takes a minute to remove it from one knife and install it on another knife.
 
I have one on for each blade but since I have the set in a stand I take them off until I need to use them (don't want to drop something on them). At each symposium I attended I made it a point to get 1 big ticket item, some I have kept and some I have passed on. But after acquiring my first KorPro cutter there was absolutely no doubt that I would get one for each cutter. There is nothing wrong with moving one cutter from one knife to another, I just went the other way with no regrets.
 
I'm with Guy. I just move it around. The hardest part is finding a "clean spot" in the shop to do it. Cause if you drop it, or the tiny screw, in a pile of shavings, that's time and potentail trouble.....LOL
 
I started out with the McNaughton and soon found that the learning curve was way too steep for me. Even though they are some days now and I wished I had it back. I now have the one way with all the blades and have converted all of them over to Az Carbide tips which work much better than the one way tops.
 
I did find my McNaughton skills to be rusty when I was turning for the one show I still do. It does take practice, and you have to stay in practice. Kind of like swimming, if you are good at it, you can lose the "feel" of the water if you take too much time off. I do a lot of swimming.... Not sure which one I would choose if I wasn't using the McNaughton. For sure, the Woodcut does make a good system. If the bends on the McNaughton were spot on, it would be a lot easier to use.

robo hippy
 
When Mike Mahoney was here at my place for 3 days of hands on one of the participants wanted some help with the McNaughton. For two days I saw him beating the crap out of my DVR trying to core with that system. On the 3rd day he started pulling out the McNaughton again and I said no! Turn something else today. I had all 3 systems at one time. I gave the McNaughton a good try and I new it was not for me and I eventually sold it. The Woodcut worked fine as did the Oneway. When it came to brass tacks the Oneway was more versatile for me than the original Woodcut with 2 knives so I gave it to a good friend. To be truthful the McNaughton scared the heck out of me and coring with any of the systems made me a little nervous. But since I got the Korpro it cuts so well that that nervousness has gone away.
 
I researched quite a bit several years ago and ended up going with the Oneway system because I only core about 10-15 times per year and the mcnaughton looked to complex. I really like it. I’ve switched to the AZ carbide tips and they work great for me, though I’ve never tried the Korpro due to expense. It only takes a couple minutes to core and I’m not a production turner so am happy with where I’m at.

One thing that has made a big difference is making a laser guide for positioning the blades. It is pretty easy/cheap to make. I got the idea from Peter Blair”s posts on the SMC website (https://sawmillcreek.org/threads/oneway-easy-core-laser.241663/). He gives details on how to build and use it and it makes getting the proper base location fast and accurate. I’ve been thrilled with how simple and quick coring is and how nice it is to save all the wood that used to just pile up as shavings.

Good luck!
 
Comparing AZ, to OneWay's carbide, to Hunter's carbide cannot be done. The KorPro is in a league of its own. The replacement carbide for the KorPro is only $32..... The rest of the $170 is for the tiny steel mounting block that indexes the carbide to OneWay's blade. Robust is working on their own coring system and they've showcased their design ideas at a few exhibits recently. The smart money says that they design their knives around a cutter like the KorPro and eliminate that $170 mounting block.

Storing the Oneway knives and support arms can be a big dilemma, too. Here's my solution below, after a pic of the KorPro:

PXL_20240721_022242227.MP.jpgPXL_20250907_135452321.jpg
 
I used the McNaughton system twice and put it in a drawer and several years later sold it.

I used the Oneway HHS bits but needed to sharpen them after each coring. Because I had seven bits it took a long time to wear them down. I tried a Oneway carbide bit and felt that it wasn't as good as the HSS. Didn't get dull, it just wasn't as sharp.

Bought one Hunter KorPro bit (have a friend who bought four) and used its' first side to do sixty cores. Turned the bit around and am at 40 right now. It is so much better than any of the Oneway cutters.
 
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