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Thompson Deep flute spindle gouge

Chris Rauber

Chris Rauber

Joined
Sep 30, 2021
Messages
44
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11
Location
Canisteo, NY
Has anyone tried these yet? I have a 3/8 shallow detail gouge and a standard 1/2 spindle gouge and was looking to add another Thompson gouge to the arsenal. What would you add? Also, has anyone tried any of what they have labeled as "deep flute" spindle gouges? They're hard to find info on.
Thanks,
Chris
 
I haven't heard of the 'deep flute' spindle gouge from Doug. In my experience, the 'shallow detail gouge' has such a shallow flute that it's hard to find an ideal use for it. Maybe for an emerging bowl, ala Rudy Lopez, or some of Cindy Drozda's work, where she would use a fluteless gouge. The 'detail gouge' is what I normally use in 3/8" as I do a fair amount of back hollowing, and I pair it with the standard one in !/2". A 3/8" regular spindle gouge is an excellent, versatile tool.
 
Dean Center said:
I haven't heard of the 'deep flute' spindle gouge from Doug. In my experience, the 'shallow detail gouge' has such a shallow flute that it's hard to find an ideal use for it. Maybe for an emerging bowl, ala Rudy Lopez, or some of Cindy Drozda's work, where she would use a fluteless gouge. The 'detail gouge' is what I normally use in 3/8" as I do a fair amount of back hollowing, and I pair it with the standard one in !/2". A 3/8" regular spindle gouge is an excellent, versatile tool.
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I hadn't heard of it when I saw him at shows in the past, but it seems to be linked here: https://thompsonlathetools.com/product/12-deep-flute-spindle-gouge/
 
Tom Gall said:
A deep flute spindle gouge is probably the same as a regular spindle gouge ... maybe! I just checked out the link above and all the photos are the same. No way to compare different types of flute shapes.
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I had the same impression that all the pictures were identical.
 
Yeah the photos are the same. In “description”, it states detail gouges have 33% flute depth, and plain spindle and deep flute spindle being 50% of bar dia. Perhaps the deep flute does not have the flutes machined down as far, but there is no info on the site detailing a difference from a std spindle gouge.
 
Left is Thompson 5/8 shallow, center is Thompson 1/2 deep, right is sorby 3/8 standard... the flutes are significantly different.
 

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I had an opportunity to talk to Doug Thompson at SWAT 2022 about this gouge.
What he told me is that unlike the detail gouge where the tool is thicker so the bevel is longer, the deep fluted gouge is thinner making the bevel shorter. The benefit of this is that it allows it to cut finer detail without needing to pick up a skew.
 
Noah Peters said:
I had an opportunity to talk to Doug Thompson at SWAT 2022 about this gouge.
What he told me is that unlike the detail gouge where the tool is thicker so the bevel is longer, the deep fluted gouge is thinner making the bevel shorter. The benefit of this is that it allows it to cut finer detail without needing to pick up a skew.
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Thank you for that explanation
The typical detail gouge and spindle gouge have similar or identical flutes
The difference in the two tools is the detail gouge has the flute ground in the top of the bar
The spindle gouge has the top1/3-1/2 of the bar ground away then the flute is ground.

Slides I use in a gouge demo for my club can be found at
http://aaw.hockenbery.net/tgouge intro.pdf http://aaw.hockenbery.net/tgouge intro.pdf

One slide shows the typical detail and spindle gouge.
IMG_0143.jpeg
 
I think that in a true spindle gouge it is pretty difficult to make it a deep flute spindle gouge, there is a reason why spindle gouges have a shallow flute, it's needed to use it in turning the deep and narrow cuts in spindles, that is basically not going to be possible with higher sides of a bowl gouge.

Spindle gouges.jpg
 
Dean Center said:
Would you say the Thompson is roughly the same depth as other spindle gouges, or is it deeper fluted than 'normal'?
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The Thompson detail gouge is much shallower. The deep flute Thompson is half way between a standard spindle gouge and a round bottom bowl gouge.
 
Leo Van Der Loo said:
I think that in a true spindle gouge it is pretty difficult to make it a deep flute spindle gouge, there is a reason why spindle gouges have a shallow flute, it's needed to use it in turning the deep and narrow cuts in spindles, that is basically not going to be possible with higher sides of a bowl gouge.

View attachment 52593
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I can generally agree with this as well, unless you sharpen your bowl gouge to the 40/40, at which point the wings are much less of a problem. Again agreed when speaking of very tight bead intersections on finials etc.
Even for that, the detail gouge outperforms the factory spindle gouge, although I could argue it's right on par with the adaptation of a used up gouge shaft turned into Cindy Drozda's vortex tool. Although, I hope I don't need to adapt too many used up gouges, as my sharpening skill will be apparent and undisguised at that point.
 
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