(08-15-2021, 10:19 PM)TRW Wrote: Planned use is general purpose, i.e. spindles, legs, knobs, bowls, etc. Really have no lathe experience yet so not really sure which area/aspect of it I plan on taking a deep dive into......yet.
Anybody have any comments or recommendations at all? Especially about the Woodstock International Shop Fox sets. I have a credit balance with the BORG and need to use it. I noted that they stock WI/Shop Fox chisel sets on their Website.
Thanks in advance.
Wood Lathe Turning Tool Kit 8 Pc (harborfreight.com) Seem to be pretty much the same as those you mentioned.
HSS versus carbon? HSS resists heat and abrasion better.
If you're heating enough to take advantage of it when turning wood - you're a hacker, not a turner.
Abrasion? By some woods with high silicon content, or, if you're lazy about debarking, as I am, sand. However, with the RC 58 high carbon steel you will sharpen (refresh, as you hope) to high turning capability with any stone and slip. HSS needs diamond to refresh as quickly. Or, you can grind away your M2 steel quickly and possibly change your angles on a grinder. FWIW, I've got 40 years and thousands of pieces under my belt (waistline shows it) and still have, and use the "came with" carbon steel tools I got with Ol' Blue back then. They get a bit shorter in the tooth as they age, but since I keep the toolrest close, that's not much of a factor.
On not buying sets? Do you think that the tools in sets were dreamt up by someone other than a turner? Then why, you think, are they all pretty much the same, then? It's because the four basic moves of rough round, bead, cove and part apply to all spindle work. You can rough with the biggest, but smaller coves want appropriately-sized gouges for best work. Beading can be done, as can roughing, with your big skew, though tight beads want the smaller one.
If you don't care to practice, but would rather increase your time sanding, the sets usually include a spear point and a round nose. They work, but don't leave as nice a surface.
Last, parting. It's a scraping tool designed to be used on the narrow, rather than the broad aspect.
Which is not to say there aren't variations on all those tools, whose advantages you may later consider worth further investment later on.
Couple mentioned are the roughing gouge, which, as I see it, wants to be a minimum 1 1/2 inch, and "bowl" gouges, which have deeper flutes and generally longer steel.
Better to follow the leader than the pack. Less to step in.