I inherited a great collection of tools from Dad, including skew chisels, gouges, spindle gouges, a wheen of scrapers and some exotic things like ring tools (for making wooden rings) and a ring tool (for end grain hollowing). I'm trying to get a bit more comfortable with the skew chisel, but most of my work has been bowls to date, so the bowl gouge has been getting the heaviest use.
When I was buying the Sealey grinder I spotted a box of Draper medium sized tools at a nice price, and figured at least I could learn to sharpen on them. The chisel and scraper have actually been very useful. I'm still stuggling with sharpening spindle gouges though.
I also inherited a Robert Sorby 3/8" bowl gouge (flute width 10mm approx) which was fairly worn down, so I thought I would buy another, but the Axminster 611186 (calls itself a 1/2" but this is the "American" measure of shaft diameter so I think of it as a 3/8") but it has a very different profile, much shallower and more V shaped, where Robert Sorby is a deeper U shape. In three years of fairly steady turning I have shortened the Robert Sorby a couple of inches, so it's probably got a year left, but it's time I gor another.Dad was using a fairly traditional grind, similar to the one the Axminster arrived with, 45° and straight across. I have found I prefer 55° with more swept back wings which allows for some heavy rouging cuts. Time to save up my pennies!I finally figured out how to use the grinding jig to sharpen spindle gouges. I set up for approx 45° and scribed a line on the post so I can easily reset it. These turned out nicely, and I used them to make wands, bells and candlesticks for Xmas 2025.
