Advantages of fingernail gouge?

[arcos]

Firstly, I had a local metalworker make a jig for me based on the one that was advertised on fleabay a few weeks ago. It cost me 10 euros and is probably the best investment I have EVER made! It has taken all guesswork out of grinding and I have already, successfully, slightly changed the profile of the bowl gouge that is now leading to my thinking about moving completely to a fingernail profile.

Are there any advantages to using a fingernail profile over a 'standard' grind?

[arcos]

Would you prefer it if I wasn't George?

[Doug Barratt]

Hi Arcos.

I personally think both grinds have their place & whilst I don`t have many shop bought turning tools I do have one each of these bowl gauges.

The standard grind has a shorter bevel, whilst the fingernail grind does away with the sharp points at the top of the standard grind.
The fingernail grind can also be used for shear scraping, you can also grind a second bevel to shorten the primary bevel, I believe someone has spoken about this before to you, so the fingernail is a more universal tool but as I say I think there is still a place for the standard.

I imagine a lot of us on here learnt with the standard grind as the fingernail grind is fairly new especially when compared to the standard  



Cheers.

Doug.

 

[woodndesign]

Arcos,

A very sensible answer from Doug there is a place for both and as expressed in another thread it's important to invest in a fingernail gouge, as your current gouge may not have a suitable flute to take such a grind and you can't regrind each time you may need the other profile.

Cheers  David

[Bryan Milham]

Arcos,

I also remind you of something I posted when you put up the pic of the set.

The record gouges I have do not like really swept back wings, the flutes are too narrow and the shavings kept jamming in them. However they are now quite old, so maybe Record have changed the Flute profile.

I suggest you reshape them bit by bit, and if and when they start to jam revert back one grind.

[karyudo]

You may find this guide from the AAW useful:

http://www.woodturner.org/community/fundamentals/tools/GuideToGouges.pdf