new bowl gouge video from Ernie Conover

[Ken S]

Last weekend, Ernie Conover presented a zoom class on bowl gouges. Off and on for almost thirty years, I have been fortunate enough to have studied with Ernie. Ernie is a master woodworker, turner, and an excellent teacher. He combines decades of experience with a scholar's interest.

This hour long video discusses both the how and the why of different bowl gouge shapes, including the 40-40 grind and the Irish grind and how the various grinds would fit both production bowl turners and the average home turner. The techniques shown are useful for both the Tormek user and the Tormek uses who also uses a BGM-100 with a dry grinder. Flat and hollow grinding are discussed.

His discussion of going directly from an 80 grit wheel to the lathe or honing finally made sense for me. We have two different mindsets, bowl turners and spindle turners. Bowl turners, which I believe are frequently the majority, usually advocate going directly from the grinder to the lathe. However, I remember seeing a spindle turner at a woodworking show at Hartville Hardware, making a glass smooth turning without needing to resharpen. His spindle gouge had been meticulously sharpened and honed by the Tormek demonstrator. I always had difficulty reconciling the the stories until Ernie explained that due to cutting in mostly end grain in bowl turning, like cutting bread, the slightly rougher edge cuts better. In spindle turning, like using a plane or chisel, the polished smooth edge carries the day.

I highly recommend studying this video. Here is a link:

https://youtu.be/DiZ37ocDlzo

Ken