Hello all,
I have little experience carving, but on my current project I am using a #7 gouge that is around 2″ wide. It is a monster of a gouge meant for being driven with a mallet. I am using on a 100 year old piece of the hardest oak I have ever seen. I am using a leather strop, glued to a board, and fine polishing compond. The compound is green and from Formax.
My question is how much of the compound do I use? The bar is hard and difficult to rub onto the strop, so I heated it in the microwave (my shop was near freezing at the time). Then I was able to load the strop with the stuff. I tried putting a little, but that wasn’t working very well. So I liberally coated the leather. I guess you could say it is caked on, but not enough that you can scrape it off. I use it untill the green turns to darker green, after two sesions or so. Then I add more. I was told to use the side of the chisel to scrape off the excess, but none comes off. It seems to be working, but it is hard to tell.
So tell me, am I even close to doing this right?
Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don’t have. You won’t regret it.
Replies
I prefer sharpening gouges on a hard felt wheel running backwards.In other words the gouge would be placed at about the 11 o'clock position with the wheel running away from you.Lift on handle until compound JUST starts to form on top of cutting and then STOP" . If you lift handle higher you will roll over cutting .edge ,there by dulling it. worked for me!
Chris
mudman,
I use the green in lieu of using an 8000 grit stone, in other words, for final honing not sharpening. I thnk your asking too much of the green stuff and the leather is a bit too flexible(causing the edge to round over). You may get slightly better results putting the green stuff on MDO, but I think you need to jump back to W&D sandpaper at around 600 grit and work up from there.
Hey Mud, the green works fine, and yes you can over do it.
The best thing that I have found for this, is to mount a piece of MDF on a face-plate of the lathe, then shape the outer edge with a long tapered round-over, so you can get inside of your smallest gouge flute with the thinnest edge. MDF has enough fiber to hold the charge, yet is hard enough to prevent the rounding of the edge like with leather.
When I put new compound on, I like to ride the bevel of an old chisel or something with a bit more pressure than I would use just to generate more heat, and squeegee to compound in.
When you get too much compound on, it will build on your tool and interfere with the cutting action. To remove the excess, I hold some stiff coarse sandpaper against against it while it is running. This will pick up a lot of it, and burnish the rest in.
As stated above, you will work from behind the lathe, with the rotation away from the blade. It just takes a light touch. Always touch the heel of the bevel first, rock over onto the bevel, then up just a degree or two, then rock it around the arc.
For the flute side, just set it against the wheel back a little, then slowly creep up to the edge. the pitch will change just as the the edge becomes tangent, but you can go a little past that, and polish a micro-bezel at this point, which will help with chip forming.
That sounds like too much tool to be using on a wood as hard as oak regardless of how sharp it is.
Wow,
Thank you all very much. I never would have thought of MDF. I do not have a lathe or a slow grinder. I am thinking I will cut a piece of MDF to mount in the Drill Press. I assume that I need to keep the speed as slow as possible. It sucks that I bought the 30 dollar strop.
"That sounds like too much tool to be using on a wood as hard as oak regardless of how sharp it is."
I think you mean that I am trying to cut too deep into the work. I am only using a small amount of the tool. I am using it to texture the under side of a table. i am trying to create an Adze hewn effect. So the cuts can be made without a mallet, using only hand power.
Again thanks. If yall have any more advise let me know.
Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don't have. You won't regret it.
Mike,I don't have anything handy on using your gouge. My question is more about how it is shaped and to add that honing compounds are just that, for honing.A couple months ago on WoodNet someone asked about tool rests for grinders and I explained what I prefer. I also picked a big gouge to show how I establish the shape of the cutting edge and how it relates to the shape of the gouge. You might find it helpful but the post only went through the grinding process and didn't go as far as honing. That post is at: http://tinyurl.com/ybbfzw
Yall should like this.
I cut a piece os MDF into a 8" circle stuck a 1/2" bolt through it and chucked it in the drill press. I tried several methods of loading the compound onto the MDF wheel with little sucess. It would form clumps and uneven ridges, and honing was difficult at best. Them I started looking at the wheel and thought "hmmmm, I bet the edge of the wheel would work better". Yes, I was trying to use the surface of the wheel instead of the edge. Hah hah.
I know that the comound is for polishing, not sharpening. I like hone frequently to keep a good edge longer. I used the MDF wheel to hone my chisels and pocket knife as well, it works great. Thanks for the tips.Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don't have. You won't regret it.
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