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Small hollowing tools comparison

Dean Center

Dean Center

Joined
May 4, 2010
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Bozeman, MT
It's ornament season and I would like to find my latest 'one tool from greatness.' I'd like to be able to make undercut rims on boxes as well as ornaments, so I think it's time for a curved hollower. I am torn between two distinctly different tools, both of which have advocates.

I rarely make larger hollow forms, but have occasionally used a set of Ellsworth hollowers, which have replaceable steel tips similar to the Jordan tools. For boxes, which I often make, I use a straight mid-sized Hunter tool and really like how it performs on the bottoms.

If you have used both of these tools, would you please compare how they have worked for you, and what you like and dislike about each. Thanks for the help.
 
For hollowing ornament balls i use a small version of the Ellsworth tool
Straight 3/8” or 5/16 bar, square 3/16” cutter with a rounded end CA glues into the bar at a 45 degree angle. Easy to make.
This is the only tool I use hollowing ornament balls. Don Derry sells a nice one with an outrigger( my wife has one). I never got comfortable with the outrigger.

For boxes I have used the Hunter #4

I have used quite a few of the curved bar ornament tools owned by students in workshops showing them how to use them. On the 2.5 - 3” diameter ornament balls I greatly prefer the straight bar with cutter mounted at 45 degrees. Mine were all made by CA Savoy. I drill mostly. 3/4” depth hole, some times a 1/2” depending on the bottom finial design.
The 3” ball just isn’t big enough to need a curved bar and The curved bar has to be used further off the tool rest to get the straight part of the bar on the tool rest. Much harder to control than the Ellsworth styled tool because of the added overhang which is a lot.

Now hollowing a 5” - 8” sphere or spherical element I do most of the hollowing with a curved bar 3/4” Bosch tool then do the last 1/3 or 1/4 of the side wall toward the bottom with a straight tool. I have straight band curved Bosch bar with the hunter carbides (#1 ??? The small one) but prefer the HS cutters.

For under cutting a bowl rim the carbides will give a cleaner surface on an area that is a pain to sand.
 
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I have taken to anything I hollow I use either the Elbo Tool or the Monster Hollowing system. When doing globes for ornament I use one of the hollowing systems with either the Hunter 3 piece set, the smallest John Jordan Hollowers or the smallest Keltons. All 3 types work well with a nudge to the Hunters as to what I use the most.
 
I make my own using drill.rod. I have a straight one a d one with a curved tip. I grind them with a fingernail.grind appearance. My favorite tool.is home made using a Hunter #1 cutter. I will post a.photo when I get home tomorrow. It has the cutter mounted off to the left and tilted down. The shaft is flat and gets wider as you hang more over the tool rest. The cutter is aligned with the center of the shaft. It wants to twist just a little as you hollow the first 1/4. After that its very stable and will hollow all of the rest.
 
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