Gouges for carving maple

[tango]

Hello

 

I am carving a maple plate and ask to myself what is better:

 

A small gouge or a big one?

 

On  this forum I saw  to Roger Hargrave working on maple with a medium or small gouges and made me think.

With the small I make more cuts but with minor force and with a big bigger cuts but I get tired more quickly. 

 

What do you preffer?

 

Thanks

Tango

[~ Ben Conover]

Generally I prefer to use medium to smaller gouges for maple, especially if it's very hard maple. 

Whatever you use, keep it very sharp and you won't get tired. 

 

[tango]

Hi Ben

I have an english old beautiful rounded gouge of 22mm with a little handle.

I think with a bigger handle it would be more comfortable and I would make less force. Isn´t it?

 

Thanks

Tango

[~ Ben Conover]

Hiya,
I'd go for a long handle yes, enough to get two hands on. 
If you are right handed then the right hand pushes (with weight from body) while the left hand 'restrains' the tool.

Keeping an edge on the tool is really vital, the hard felt polishing wheels (which run backwards) are good for the final touch. 

Each to their own of course. 
 

[Violadamore]

I've found that the smaller the gouge used for a job, the easier it cuts, and there's less you wish you hadn't removed at the end of it 

[Doug Marples]

Tango,

If you're referring to your rough arching gouge, then I agree with other posters that a large, two-handed handle is essential.  The width of the cutting end of the blade, on the other hand, may be a bit less significant than it's sweep.  A flat gouge takes a wider curl than one with a tighter radius would do.  I think mine has a #5 sweep and is something like 25 mm wide.  Rotating the tool around it's axis as you advance the cut (a twisting motion) tends to improve control and makes the cut cleaner.  And there's no substitute for a sharp edge.

 

Doug

[chungviolins]

I made a electric powered plate gouge using a Craftsman Hammerhead power hammer.

 

I used 30mm ,sweep 8 gouge from Woodcraft.

 

It works great,even though ,naturally it's noisy.(My wife doesn't mind at all.)

 

I would  post a picture if I can(or know how.)

 

I'm a new member so I'm not sure if I can attach a photo.

 

Do I need a URL to post a picture?

Can I just attach one from my computer?

 

Koo Young Chung

[tango]

I made a electric powered plate gouge using a Craftsman Hammerhead power hammer.

 

I used 30mm ,sweep 8 gouge from Woodcraft.

 

It works great,even though ,naturally it's noisy.(My wife doesn't mind at all.)

 

I would  post a picture if I can(or know how.)

 

I'm a new member so I'm not sure if I can attach a photo.

 

Do I need a URL to post a picture?

Can I just attach one from my computer?

 

Koo Young Chung

Hi

You can attach photos making a click on "More Reply Optinos". See at right side in down side of the page.

Thanks

Tango

[chungviolins]

Tango

 

Thanks,

 

I'll post some pictures later.

 

I need one more post before I can do it.(new member.....)

(Maybe this post will do it.^^)

 

I know some people use routers for copying arches and now CNC also,

but I'm wondering anyone making their hand gouge converted to electric one just like I did.

 

Koo Young Chung

[David Beard]

Another thing to look at is the angle of sharpening, the bevel. Most chisels and gouges are sold with a bevel/sharpening angle that leaves a strong thickness of metal behind the cutting edge, enough metal to support using the tool with a hammer or mallet.

I leave a few tools this way, for those times I'll want to work with a mallet. But mostly I push and slice the blade through the wood with just hands, no pounding.

So with most of my edge tools, I've removed a large portion of the supporting metal behind the edge, and reground the bevels at much lower angles. This means I'm pushing less metal into the wood. The action becomes much softer and smoother. It's still important to keep blades very sharp.

The down side of these alterations is that the blades are no longer as strong, and they shouldn't be used this way with a mallet.

[nathan slobodkin]

A 30mm #5 gouge allows you to take a wider deeper cut if the wood is soft enough and you can just take smaller cuts if the wood is hard. I also agree  with David Beard that grinding  the angle of the bevel until it allows you to keep a fairly straight line between your elbow and the edge of the tool as you cut  allows you to push with your whole body rather  than just your arm and is much less fatiguing.

[tango]

Here are two gouges I use to carve maple.

A Taylor n°7 the smaller and the bigger is a 32mm with an acorn stamped 

 

[JohnCockburn]

Photos could be deceptive, but they both look in fairly dire need of grinding and honing......very narrow/high angle bevel on the wide one in particular......

[Roger Hargrave]

I've found that the smaller the gouge used for a job, the easier it cuts, and there's less you wish you hadn't removed at the end of it 

Absolutely right, this is not about amounts, it's about control.

[Janito]

So with most of my edge tools, I've removed a large portion of the supporting metal behind the edge, and reground the bevels at much lower angles.

 

A visual endorsement of this statement.

 

The gouge in the photo has a short handle, but works well when 1 hand is close to the blade and the other 'pushes' from the end of the handle.

 

[The bevel appears narrower in this photo than in reality]

[edi malinaric]

Hiya,

I'd go for a long handle yes, enough to get two hands on. 

If you are right handed then the right hand pushes (with weight from body) while the left hand 'restrains' the tool.

Keeping an edge on the tool is really vital, the hard felt polishing wheels (which run backwards) are good for the final touch. 

Each to their own of course. 

 

 

Hi All - Ben sums it up perfectly.

 

Brian Lisus started us all with a Pfeil 7/25 gouge. After getting blisters in the palm of my hand from that too-short-octagonal Pfeil handle, I thunked!

 

Surely I wasn't the first to encounter that problem?

 

Michael Darnton's web site showed a picture of his long handled gouge - looked to be what was needed - so I copied it.

 

Thank you Michael.

 

Works like a charm - so of course everyone in the class wanted one too. To date I've made about 9 of them.

 

Here is the one I made for Brian.

 

 

I now have a collection of almost as-new Pfeil chisel handles in my "chisel handle" drawer

 

cheers edi 

[saintjohnbarleycorn]

edi what did you use for the ferrule? 

[edi malinaric]

Hi SAintj

 

edi what did you use for the ferrule? 

 

Hi Saintjohn - the ferrule is made from a short piece of brass tubing - 19mm dia. x 1.2mm wall thickness.

 

I have a sketch, some pics and a short description of how I went about making them if you are interested in turning one up.

 

cheers edi

[chungviolins]

This is my power gouge converted from Craftsman Hammerhead.

 

I made an adapter (sleeve) hammer,the head strikes the gouge directly inside the sleeve.

 

Left wood handle guides, controls the the cut.

 

 

My two advices for the gouge.

 

1. Grind the edge to be a concave curve shape  (corners longer than the middle)

    This will grip the wood better, less slipping.

 

2. After you grind and sharpen,this sounds strange but dull it evenly intentionally.

    (Just a quick pass or two on a fine stone will do.)

    This will prolong the edge life many times of regular sharpening

   I only sharpen this gouge after 5 -6 sets of violin/viola rough gouging.

 

If you make it super sharp,the edge will tear and damage quickly,because rough gouging is not a fine cut.

[Bill Yacey]

That's the premise of a secondary micro bevel that is less acute. It creates an edge that stands up to some abuse better and makes it easier to touch up the edge while sharpening, as less material has to be removed to re-create the sharp edge.

[saintjohnbarleycorn]

Hi SAintj

 

 

Hi Saintjohn - the ferrule is made from a short piece of brass tubing - 19mm dia. x 1.2mm wall thickness.

 

I have a sketch, some pics and a short description of how I went about making them if you are interested in turning one up.

 

cheers edi

yes I would ! thanks.. 

[Jim Bress]

I had a local pen maker turned these handle for me some time ago based on Edi's plans.  I like them both, but I like the longer one better.

 

-Jim

[edi malinaric]

I had a local pen maker turned these handle for me some time ago based on Edi's plans.  I like them both, but I like the longer one better.

 

-Jim

 

Hi Jim - I'm thrilled to see that the plans/notes worked.

 

I'm working through them right now and fine tuning them for Saintjohn.

 

What happened to that squat handle?

 

cheers edi

[Jim Bress]

Hi Jim - I'm thrilled to see that the plans/notes worked.

 

I'm working through them right now and fine tuning them for Saintjohn.

 

What happened to that squat handle?

 

cheers edi

Hi Edi,  Your plans were great, thanks!  As I've said, a friend that's a really good pen maker (http://www.bornfriendwoodworks.com/) turned the handles for me.  The first handle (the "squat" one) was  suppose to be a practice peace. He measured the lengths and did the diameters by eye.  The "squat" handle has all the lengths dead on according to your plans, 255 mm in length.  However the diameters are all about 3 mm proud.  Also the end of the handle isn't as round as I would like, but I don't really notice it when it's being used.  For the second handle, I had him stretch the the length (mostly between the ridges) to 280 mm and reduce the diameters according to your plans.  He still eye balled the diameters, but he got it right on and the end of the handle fits my palm perfectly. The squat one is less elegant looking, but I have big paws so it still works great for me.  I'll send you a copy of the plans you sent me with the longer handle's measurements for you to compare with whatever measurements you're preparing for Saintbarleycorn.  

 

Cheers,

Jim

[saintjohnbarleycorn]

thanks for taking the time to get this together!